- Artist
- Date: May 25, 2025
- Stage: Union
Some music just sounds lived-in. You can feel that the voice behind it has faced life’s ups and downs,
gone through the ringer, and come out on the other side stronger and with a story to tell. Alana Hil
makes music that reaches right for the soul. The Kentucky-born and Los Angeles-based singer and
songwriter wields a voice that could melt butter or cut through steel depending on the moment. She’s
already captivated a growing audience, amassing millions of streams independently and building buzz.
On her 2025 EP produced by GRAMMY® Award-winning collaborator Printz Board [Black Eyed Peas, John
Legend, BTS], she explores emotions, mental health, and relationships from a place of raw experience.
“This project showcases every side of me,” she notes. “I looked at all of my experiences, and I blended
them into this. I’m digging into mental health and opening up. Musically, it’s like coming home again.
This is the real me.”
During her formative years in Kentucky, she honed her talents by taking vocal lessons and participating
in theater. In the middle of eighth grade, her mother married a preacher. Attending an African
Methodist Episcopal Church gave her an opportunity to regularly sing in front of a crowd as part of the
choir. Post-college in Nashville, she chased music around the world. She lived on multiple continents,
spending time in Maui, Aspen, Australia, Thailand, Bali, and Mexico. Along the way, she also cut her
teeth by recording with a myriad of musicians around the world and maximized any opportunity to
perform.
After studying music at the Northern Indian School of Classical Music, she began to release her own
material. However, 2023 saw Alana officially introduce her solo artistry with the Those Days EP followed
by 2024’s Grow EP and the full-length Me. Crossing paths with Printz in Los Angeles, she found the
perfect collaborator to kickstart her next chapter.
A 2024 trip home to Kentucky put everything in perspective. While filming visuals for covers of “Time
After Time” by Cyndi Lauper, “Midnight Rider” by Allman Brothers, and “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen,
the direction of her next body of work crystallized.
“For the first time, I was able to acknowledge the hardships of growing up where I did, process them,
and tell the truth,” she admits. “I was finally in a place where I’m proud to say, ‘I’m a country girl, and
this is where I come from’. That really defines the music.”
Working closely with Printz, she retreated to Bear Creek Studios in order to record with producer Ryan
Hadlock [Zach Bryan, The Lumineers]. Plus, she recorded in Los Angeles with producer Om’Mas Keith.
For the first time, Alana notably shepherded the entire process as co-producer in addition to creating
the visuals and handling her own hair, makeup, and styling to shore up the vision’s cohesion.
“I got to be hands-on, and it felt empowering for me to step up,” she notes. “It’s really what I wanted.
The music has elements of soul, country, and dream pop with a little bit of R&B.”
Among many highlights, “Heartbleed Over Coffee” illuminates the nuances of her sound. Strains of softly
strummed acoustic guitar wash over a backbone of strong percussion. Holding nothing back, she pleads,
“Would you remind me that you’re beside me?” It culminates with a question on the chorus, “Here we
go, why do I feel so exposed?”
“It’s my ode to music,” she reveals. “For me, music is something to always hold onto. It keeps me going.
I’m saying, ‘You saved me many times, and I know you’ll always be there for me’.”
On the ballad “Say It,” she flexes her range, overflowing with feeling on the lows and highs. “It’s about
relationships in my life where there needs to be forgiveness,” she elaborates. “I wrote it about taking
ownership and healing wounds. It’s almost like needing an unspoken apology to be said out loud to
move past traumas.”
Loose bluesy guitar snakes around claps and fluttering synth transmissions on “In Between.” She sets
the scene, “Leaves have started falling, and there’s a cold chill in the air.” A choir of background voices
only heightens the emotion as she croons, “Cuz I’m somewhere in between.”
“I felt neither here nor there,” she continues. “I was stuck in a state of purgatory where I felt numb.”
“Love and Mental Breakdowns” gives her space to make sense of romantic turbulence with another
cathartic chorus.
“It explores the hardships I've had in intimate relationships,” she states. “It’s like, ‘We deal with this shit
because we're in love, but I’m also having a mental breakdown.’ I find it funny how the end of the song
says, ‘I’m in love with mental breakdowns.’ When you struggle with a mental illness, there's something
going on in your brain that makes you unable to break those habits. It’s almost like you're somewhat
addicted to them.”
It’s this kind of candor that gives Alana’s music so much weight and truth.
“I want people to feel touched," she leaves off. “Hopefully, my music can help them heal some things
inside. If you struggle, know you're not alone.”
