A young Holly Hansen tunes a clock radio to its previous station to hide the fact that she was listening to hard rock from her parents. Today the musician is spending her time producing music ranging from avant-garde to grunge rock. Hansen is currently working on four different musical endeavors—each with distinct purpose and outlooks.

The Wake: Would you give a short description of your current projects?

HH: Zoo Animal (ZA) is about making commercially viable art that still challenges those listening and partnering with Tim Abramson (bass) to make really interesting compositions. This is the only project where someone else has creative force—Tim and whoever happens to be drumming at the time are very much a part of what makes up the sound of Zoo Animal.

Pas Moi is a project I use to explore more obscure places musically and lyrically using only my voice and electric guitar.

Pilgrim is simply my adventures in recording and composition.

My solo material is for folk-like compositions, with more explicit expressions of my faith.

The Wake: Your formal studies in music—including business, engineering and composition aspects—seem to be preparing you to be an auteur of sorts with your music. How do you feel about the idea of signing any one of your projects with a record label?

HH: The only project right now that I would be interested in signing would be with Zoo Animal because one of the goals with that project is to be commercially appealing. I am currently wading through some options with that. Part of the appeal to signing to a label is simply to know what other artists go through when they do sign.

The Wake: How did you originally get into music?

HH: I have no idea. I do have memories of sneaking into my parents room when they were out, turning on the hard rock station on their clock radio and jumping on the bed, and then turning it back to the station I found it on when I was finished, so they wouldn’t worry why their little girl was listening to heavy metal.

As far as guitar, when I told my parents that I wanted to get a guitar and they didn’t believe me that I would play it for very long, telling me I would get over it. I kept bugging them—I lived in Texas at the time and we came up to visit my cousin and he was selling his guitar and I convinced [my parents] to buy it for me. I feel like if [my parents] wouldn’t have said that—because I like a challenge so much—just because they said that “you won’t keep playing”—I had to. So I’m glad they said that because it made me want to play that much more.

The Wake: Majority of your shows have taken place in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and around Minnesota—do you plan on touring anytime in the near future?

HH: Yes, definitely. Nothing concrete yet.

The Wake: What can listeners expect from your current projects—any upcoming releases?

HH: A lot of decisions are to be made. No releases set in stone, but ZA is ready to record, and I have a bunch of unreleased solo material I am interested in compiling. Just waiting to see how some things play out.

The Wake: What are you listening to these days?

HH: The MPLS Ltd Travel Companion by DJ Christian Fritz and Stabat Mater by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, performed by Fabio Bondi: Europa Galante.