EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
In the heat of Brat summer, it might be hard to believe that distorted bass, pitched vocals, and glitchy whirring—all defining characteristics of hyperpop, the sibylline subgenre of electropop formed in niche corners of the internet in the early 2010s—were once anything other than ubiquitous in the contemporary pop landscape. But before it had reached the mainstream, hyperpop had Hannah Diamond as one of its earliest champions.
With the first strike of synths from her breakout 2013 single “Pink and Blue”, Hannah cemented herself as an artist at the forefront of pop music’s most significant evolution of the digital age. Locating herself at the intersection of cuteness, hyperreal imagery, and synthesized sound, Hannah’s work continues to resonate with her growing audience, many of whom have followed her since the release of her debut album Reflections (2019) through to her latest project, Perfect Picture (2023).
Produced by David Gamson and serving as one of the final releases on the iconic PC Music label, Perfect Picture sees Hannah reckon with the trappings of her digital persona while crystalizing a sound that’s been over a decade in development.
In between rehearsals for her performance at Primavera Sound Barcelona earlier this summer, Hannah sat down with me for a candid discussion on Perfect Picture, her changing relationship with femininity, and how she found her voice through music.
Lensky: Hannah, thanks for taking the time to meet with me! I was just reflecting on your busy year and had to ask you about your time curating the CUTE exhibit for Somerset House. What was that like?
Hannah Diamond: It was amazing to have the opportunity to be a part of something like that and present my work in a different context! I actually spent a lot of time in my curated space, and it was fun to hear what people thought about the music that my friends at PC and I made and that I included as part of the exhibit. I even overheard these two women saying, “Isn’t it crazy that all of this music is probably made by AI?”.
L: That’s so funny!
HD: Right? It was just really fun to see people who wouldn’t have previously had access to this small corner of the internet respond to it.
L: Well, PC Music was very niche and then sort of became this cultural force that spilled over everywhere.
HD: It’s become embedded in a lot of mainstream pop music, and now it’s almost like “if you know, you know”.
L: Absolutely. I was at A.G. Cook’s [co-founder of the PC Music label with Danny L Harle] set last night, and I felt there was still a very palpable “if you know” vibe to the audience.
HD: I think if you were into early PC music stuff you really had to be a very online person at a very specific time. Then you’d have the lore, the backstory behind all of us.
A lot of people will have heard that sound and found it familiar and fun, but I’m always conscious that we are still pretty small and pretty underground. It’s quite a niche thing, even if our sound can be heard through the music that people like A.G. or Danny [L Harle] have done with bigger artists like Charli or Dua.
L: To me, PC Music feels like one of the most significant developments in pop music in the last 20 years. How does it feel to be such an integral part of that movement?
HD: I feel really proud. I’m always in complete awe of my friends and the things we’ve made together. For me, it’s really a testament to the connections we’ve all had together over the last ten years and this supportive feeling of everyone fighting for each other and wanting everyone to succeed. On a nostalgic level, I feel proud of all the things we’ve made and had so much fun making.
L: Well, that supportive environment you’re talking about, I think that’s felt in the music. It’s part of the appeal. I think this “we all succeed” mentality results in a lot of musical overlap and dialogue between PC artists and their music. It’s really special.
HD: I’m so glad you enjoyed it.
L: The first time I ever saw you perform was two years ago at the Primavera Sound PC Music Showcase at Razzmatazz, which is when you premiered “Perfect Picture.”
HD: Oh, I think you’re right! I did play “Perfect Picture”!
L: Yeah! It’s clear you have a relationship with this festival, so I’m wondering: how does it feel to be back?
HD: It’s really fun. I mean, I just got in last night, so I’m still acclimating. That performance in 2022 was my first time at the festival. I think it was the 20th anniversary of Primavera.
L: It was! And the first edition after COVID, so it went for two weekends.
HD: That was crazy. I had a big show the first weekend and then played the PC showcase the second weekend. I had a really amazing time. It was also the biggest show I’d ever played that first weekend.
I was surprised at how many people came through, especially because the stage I was playing was a bit of a mission to get to. So that was really cool, and I’m so excited to be back.
L: And you’ve been touring, right? So, you’re probably feeling comfortable with the material?
HD: I feel so warmed up and ready for this show. Since I’ve been on tour for a few months now, I also feel really confident in my performance.
L: What is your relationship to performance?
HD: Some people might think it doesn’t come naturally to me because I’m introverted, and all my music is about being alone in my bedroom… But I’ve always performed, ever since I was a kid.
I did a lot of dance—ballets, theatres, big dance shows. So, I feel very comfy on stage. But it took me a while to get comfortable being on stage and using my voice. As a dancer, it’s a different connection to the crowd. When it’s your voice, it’s a lot more vulnerable.
Using my voice was actually a big obstacle I had to overcome. When I first met A.G. and started making music, I wasn’t very confident, and my self-esteem was quite low; I found it hard to speak up or introduce myself to people in daily conversations. Part of this musical journey for me has been about becoming a musician and finding the confidence to speak up for myself.
L: It’s so interesting to hear you say that. It’s challenging with the voice. I have a background in classical singing, and through that, I noticed how much easier it is to notice uncertainty in the voice compared to dance. It’s a big skill to learn to calm those nerves.
HD: Oh, cool! Yeah, I feel like singing has helped me to have a bit more of a “fuck it” attitude about life, you know? Like, nothing’s that deep—I can do this.
Whereas, when I was younger, even when ordering a coffee, I would have to practice my order ten times in my head so I wouldn’t mess it up. Going from that to writing, performing, and singing music on stage in front of a load of people feels like a big achievement for me on a personal level.
L: It’s definitely an incredible progression. It must be really fortifying to feel that comfort going on stage now.
HD: I feel like it’s really transformed my entire life. It’s helped me come out of my shell, make friends, find community…
L: That’s beautiful. You’re using your voice in every sense.
HD: Exactly.
L: Your new album, Perfect Picture, really explores digital imagery and, specifically, some of the drawbacks of being formed—artistically or otherwise—in the digital sphere. How has your relationship with technology and digital imagery evolved since you started making music and images?
HD: Weirdly, my relationship with making digital imagery hasn’t really changed. But in general, the way that I feel about it has changed, mostly because of the way that we all live with it.
I mean, I hate the word social media, like, what the fuck does that mean? But just the fact that we all have cameras on our phones and we’re documenting everything that we do now… With TikTok, everything has become more real.
With moving images, it’s harder to hide things—in images, you can make something perfect because it’s this split second, this microsecond of time where everything stands still and is unchangeable. I think a lot about all of that stuff: how we interact with images, how they make us feel about ourselves and our bodies.
L: We’re in dialogue with them in a way.
HD: Yeah, exactly. Images have become a big part of language and how we communicate now, which is quite different from when I first started making and putting out images related to my music. This was pre-Instagram, so the images I made felt kind of extreme and hardcore. And now we’ve gone through the really shit weird NFT art, and now we’re in AI art, so people are more used to seeing extreme fantasy images.
My approach to how I make things hasn’t changed, but the way that I view it or the way that I think about it is changing because the context has shifted.
L: In some ways, you presaged this new way of consuming digital art. Especially the way we’ve all gotten so comfortable with fantasy and the hyperreal.
HD: Sure, or even, like, self-branding! When I first started making images, I was thinking a lot about branding because I’d written this big thesis on online micro-celebrities. That was kind of a driving force behind me becoming a photographer or making images with people.
L: I didn’t know you’d written that. That’s so cool.
HD: Yeah! I guess one of the other things I’ve learned is that sometimes, the things you put your energy into actually start to manifest in your life. That’s kind of how the song “Affirmations” came around.
L: Tell me more about that.
HD: Well, I’ve realized you do have to be careful about what songs you write sometimes. If you write a lot of sad songs, you can get held in that sad space. I felt that a lot with Reflections. I wrote a lot of songs talking about how disempowered I felt at the time, so with this album, it was important for me to write more empowering songs that could carry me forward into a new energy and vibe.
It’s sort of like going to therapy, you know? Like, every week, you have a catch-up with your therapist, and they’re like, “Okay, what have you learned?”. Music is another way for me to reflect on things or learn about myself.
L: I noticed on this album that you’re sort of reckoning with your femininity and, more specifically, how culture has critiqued or maybe misunderstood your femininity.
HD: With this one, I was definitely dealing with the aftermath of feeling really disempowered by the way that I was perceived as, like, hyperfeminine, and cutesy.
That was another reason the CUTE exhibit felt important for me to do. I’d developed this very distinct ick, I think, towards feeling too cute. Especially with the trajectory of “Pink & Blue” and “Every Night”—I don’t know, people kept throwing the word “bubblegum” around. It’s funny how some of these girly terms have some misogyny attached to them where it almost feels like “not deep” or “not intelligent.”
L: Absolutely. That’s so frustrating.
HD: Yeah! At the start, a lot of people said my music was surface level as if there was no meaning to it. But, for me, there were so many layers to it. I did tons of research and read tons of books about what I was interested in and that was just how I presented it.
L: You said once that “good pop music distills the artist’s identity”. And there’s something to be said about music that may, at the surface, carry easy appeal but which contains a lot more depth if you look closer.
HD: I am a really hyper-feminine type of person but in a very specific way. I feel like a lot of pop stars are really sexually empowered and body confident, but I always feel a lot more blob-like and a bit more genderless… But then, at the same time, really hyper-feminine in an extreme way. I want to communicate that girlyness in a way that doesn’t undermine what else is there.
L: It’s multi-layered.
HD: Yeah, and even on a personal level, where it’s kind of about me figuring out how I relate to being a woman or a girl.
L: At what point did the images come to you with Perfect Picture? Where do they fit into your creative process?
HD: It varies. With Perfect Picture, I worked on it in a more traditional album campaign structure, starting with the music and then asking myself, “How do I want to communicate this body of work?”. Whereas with Reflections, it was way more collage-y, a bit more chaotic and less structured. But that was also at a time when the label was figuring out its structure.
L: We heard some of these songs—“Staring at the Ceiling”, “Perfect Picture”—as early as 2022. What was it that made you feel like you were ready to release your second album?
HD: It just felt ready. I had a few demos from the last album that didn’t fit in—almost like that wasn’t their “family.”—and they kind of became the starting point or building blocks for the next part of the story. I had really hit it off with David Gamson [Perfect Picture’s producer]. There was a really easy dialogue between us creatively. During the pandemic, we started doing Zoom sessions and writing every week. When the pandemic ended, I went out to LA and recorded it in three weeks, and it felt really ready to put out, so then it became about bringing it to PC and figuring out how to release it.
L: Last fall, PC Music’s announcement that it would end after a decade of activity rocked the music world. Your album’s closing line is “Sometimes good things come to an ending,” so I have to ask: What good things are coming out of this new, post-PC Music period?
HD: I think for all of us, this has come at a good time. At the start, when you’re doing something new, it can be helpful to have some context to help everyone make sense of it. There’s so much scope now for us to be seen and appreciated as individual artists.
We are like a family, like weird sibling energy, but I’m really excited to see what everyone does and how everyone establishes themselves outside of that context.
L: You guys really fleshed out a musical language, and now you can move forward with it on your own terms.
HD: Exactly! And that’s exciting. I feel really positive about it. About my next steps, and everyone else’s too.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
