Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hannah Cullen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hannah, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Being raw and honest in my lyrics has been a staple throughout the music I’ve made. In my first EP, Letters to a Non-Lover, the rawness felt very necessary for the story I wanted to tell. And it felt almost easy to share. On my most recent project, Allelopathy, I felt vulnerable. There was a rawness that felt gratuitous and exposing. There were songs that I didn’t want to include because they were too honest and open, but I decided to share them anyway. The risk was damaging relationships, damaging the way people saw me, or seeming over dramatic. I’m glad I took that risk because I think people can relate to those feelings, even though they might not paint the prettiest picture. I was really scared to release a couple of those tracks. Some friends tell me their favorites are the ones I was most afraid of. I had to decide that I’d rather encourage others to feel seen, or remember a time that they felt that way and that deeply, than worry so much about what people might think of me after listening.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Hannah, and I go under the pseudonym Abysmal Plains for my music. I started playing music after buying a $40 guitar to learn Mistki’s songs in an open D tuning. Writing took off from there, and I completed my first single Virginia’s for Lovers in my college dorm room. I tend to make indie rock/folk music for the yearning women who love to spend their time in nature. I like to incorporate natural sounds and make songs that mimic how weather or landscapes feel. I also love working with friends to create cover art and music videos to complement the music. I’m proud of staying true to how I want to sound and doing a lot of this by myself, particularly on my most recent project. And I feel most proud when a friend tells me that they listen all the time, or that a song is meaningful for them. I’m excited to continually try new things and push myself.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I think the mission driving my creativity in music is the need for expression and to get feelings or stories out of my body and into something else. Singing has always been a therapeutic practice for me and it feels very right to be able to get feelings out of my head through sound and voice. It’s pretty self-serving on my end of things. But I do love when people point to certain lyrics that they resonate with or express which songs let them feel less alone. The point I think is to share the rawness of being a human with big, dramatic feelings and to share the stories I have.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of the creative process for me is finally sharing the art and having people hear it after spending so much time on it alone in my room. Being able to create a final product to share is an incredible feat. Having a piece of you that is outside of yourself and living on its own is a scary and wonderful feeling. And I love when friends listen and say that it’s had an impact — that they understand the sound I was going for, or felt the emotion I was trying to describe. There are a lot of rewarding moments, but finally sharing is the best part.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: abysmalplains
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@abysmalplainsmusic
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/abysmalplainsmusic

Image Credits

Personal photo: Sarah Cullen, @ sarahfeathers
Water image: Sarah Devoti, @altelement
Pink light image: Brendan Hoekstra