Hana Vu Shares New Song + Video For "Outside"

Los Angeles artist and producer Hana Vu just wrapped tour dates with the likes of Phantogram and Nilufer Yanya, and is gearing up to release her new self-produced double EP Nicole Kidman / Anne Hathaway later this month. The first two singles off of these complementary releases "At The Party" and "Actress" have already received praise from the likes of Vulture, Dazed, Billboard, NYLON, BBC Radio 1, Brooklyn Vegan and more, and today she shares a third song. Accompanied by a Peter Ferris Rosati-directed video, "Outside" is out today. "Outside is about the disparity between the perceived and inner self," explains Vu. "I've come to find out that the identity of an 'outsider' has become a performed personality that everyone subscribes to." Check out the incredible video and read an interview with Vu HERE via Refinery29's The Drop.

The Nicole Kidman / Anne Hathaway EPs follow Vu's debut EP How Many Times Have You Driven By, which was released last year. These two new absurdly named but masterfully crafted releases showcase incredible sonic maturity for a nineteen year-old (and former Willow Smith-collaborator) who only just moved out of the house she grew up in, graduated high school, and turned down a college acceptance to make music full time. Nicole Kidman / Anne Hathaway will be released on October 25th, 2019 via Luminelle - pre-order it HERE.

Hana Vu will be performing at The Great Escape's First Fifty show in London this Winter - catch her at Sebright Arms on November 14th and stay tuned for more North American dates coming soon.

Nicole Kidman / Anne Hathaway Tracklist:

Nicole Kidman:
1. Actress
2. Outside
3. Passenger
4. Everyone In The Room
5. Worm

Anne Hathaway:
1. At The Party
2. Reflection
3. Insider
4. Order
5. Fighter

There are two Hana Vus.

First there's the cynical Hana. Now 19 years old, she lives in Echo Park. This Hana is worried those months in 2018 she spent on a whirlwind record cycle off her striking first EP How Many Times Have You Driven By might have been bullshit. This Hana is almost too smart for her own good. Her Los Angeles upbringing means she knows - more so than most - that fame and fortune are a faustian albatross.

Then there's the optimist Hana, who has spent the past five years chasing that dream anyway. This is the Hana that began songwriting at 13 and kept at it until she made that dream a reality with a record deal last year. Despite coming up as a DIY songwriter, the optimist Hana still loves the idea of the old-school manufactured pop sensation. She spends much of her free time binging A-list actress roundtables and mainlining pop culture content, with that fascination ultimately breeding inspiration in the form of her forthcoming double EP, aptly titled Nicole Kidman / Anne Hathaway.

"Absorbing the way these women dissect their craft and how they see themselves as artists influenced these songs," Vu says. "I'm super interested in the big-break mentality: we idolize these celebrities, but I've always been trying to understand what they were like before they were famous. All of a sudden they get their big break - and now they're fine, and great forever, and they're legends. I had that idealization about the entertainment industry. These actresses were like, inspiration, slash aspiration, slash delusion."

Nicole Kidman / Anne Hathaway - still as self-produced as the first songs she crafted as a teenager, but now with an engineer to help with mixing - are the sophisticated next level in Vu's evolution as an artist. They're the sound of a jaded dreamer who has turned down admission to a prestigious east-coast college to, at long last, make music full-time. They're the sound of Vu deftly threading together the two sides of herself to become one rising powerhouse artist. "I think these songs just reaffirm what I already know and feel about myself - they're exaggerations and idealizations of how I see myself," she says. "I don't want to be a part of the lump sum of preconceived ideas about what 'young people music' sounds like."

With these EPs, she accepts that both Hana Vus - the one who doesn't see the point of trying, and the one who can't help writing a song about that feeling, and in doing so tries anyway - can be true at the same time. They're the sound of a jaded dreamer who has turned down admission to college to make music full-time. They're the sound of Vu deftly threading together the two sides of herself to become one rising powerhouse artist.

"I've come to realize that the reason I make music is because it is inherent to me - I need to write in order to process my existence - but the reason I release music is completely separate: I just want attention," she jokes. "I know from living here that I'm never going to stop wanting more."