Hannah Wicklund’s New Album: War on Women: Calling All Good Men
Hannah Wicklund is not afraid to take her time writing a song. For her, the War on Women is a culmination of personal betrayal, heartbreak, and social changes.
“I am not afraid to work on a song for a very long time. I mean, it kind of… the first half of it came in one fell swoop, and I knew that, um, it would reveal itself one day,”
The album is self-funded and released under her self-owned music label, Strawberry Moon Records, for which she has released all of her music.
For Wicklund, the title track is a half-outro, half-introspective look at what Wicklund sees as a way to make sense of the world and her own battles from the cultural effects of the second Trump administration, the conviction of former US women’s gymnastics coach Larry Nassue, to Wicklund’s own world as a woman in the music industry.
“For me, it involved, in the span of 10 days, leaving the man I loved and who I thought I was gonna spend the rest of my life with. And…leaving my entire career behind pretty much in the same breath,” Said Wicklund.
She describes this part of her life as a Tower Moment, an upheaval of everything she thought she knew. Her relationship, her music, and the state of world
So what did Wicklund do? She started a magazine.
The Strawberry Moon Tribune, which includes art, poetry, and essays from submissions and by Wicklund herself.
“My hope,” She said, “is that as people absorb the full record, maybe they’ll then go back and be like, Oh, I love this song. Let me go get the tribute that’s associated with this song.”
The publication, which as of now has two issues available, coincides with the release of Wicklund’s forthcoming album. A dedication to women, art, and rock’n’roll.
Along with the album, it explores themes such as love, betrayal, and “making space for feminine rage”, which Wicklund amends as the pendulum effect of wanting to call in those feminist themes alongside that second part of the song’s purpose.
“On the calling all good men note, it would kind of dispel the the myth or the I’m sure it’s very tempting for men to read about my record and to hear the war on women part and to hear some of the lyrics that are in this record and and want to say, well, she hates men or she’s a man hater or something like that.” she clarifies, “I’m not. I love you guys. I just want you to do better.”
What she wants people to take away is the creation of a conversation.
Hannah Wicklund’s fourth studio album will be fully available on August 28th.