Hana Pestle

"I really just want to reach out to new people and inspire them to create their own art." – Hana Pestle, 2009 And this 19 year old, Billings, Montana native is doing just that. Through her seasoned, bold vocals, and outstanding guitar skills, Hana Pestle tours the United States and wins over crowds with her music nightly. In Summer/Fall of 2009, the world will see the release of her beautifully crafted debut album via FNR Records. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised partly in Salt Lake Cit...

"I really just want to reach out to new people and inspire them to create their own art." – Hana Pestle, 2009 And this 19 year old, Billings, Montana native is doing just that. Through her seasoned, bold vocals, and outstanding guitar skills, Hana Pestle tours the United States and wins over crowds with her music nightly. In Summer/Fall of 2009, the world will see the release of her beautifully crafted debut album via FNR Records. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised partly in Salt Lake City before moving to Montana, Hana Pestle started out singing at a very young age. "I used to come home from school and sing along with my favorite CDs over and over and over again for hours. I don't think I remember a time when I wasn't singing," says Hana, recalling her childhood. After receiving an electric guitar for Christmas when she was 11, Hana began taking lessons a year later, and hasn't been able to put it down since. "In the beginning, practicing was something that I had to force myself to do," she says of her early days as a guitarist. "But once you start understanding your instrument and really start getting addicted to it, it's just instinct to walk in the door and pick it up for a few hours. Now I start to feel like I'll get sick if I don't play my guitar for a couple days." Hana began to perform live in her home state of Montana at the young age of 14. In August 2005, she played a show in her hometown of Billings, Montana and through a friend of a friend of a friend, a tape of her performance that night reached writer and producer Michael "Fish" Herring (Prince, Christina Aguilera, Tupac) and Evanescence co-founder, Ben Moody (Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, Celine Dion). After watching the tape, the pair decided to work with her. "It only took Hana singing one song and I was sold. I have never in my life been more in awe of such a breathtaking natural talent," says Moody of discovering Pestle. She and her family traveled to Los Angeles, California to meet with the producers in December of 2005, and started working on her album in April 2006. Throughout 2006 and 2007, Hana shuttled between Billings and Los Angeles to work closely with Herring and Moody to craft her debut album. During that time, she recorded backup vocals for Celine Dion's 2007 album "Taking Chances", as well undertaking the necessary task of finishing high school. May 2008 saw the release of her first recording effort, the four track self-titled Hana Pestle EP; a disc which features three original songs, "These Two Hands", "Just a Phase", "Together Forever"; and a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". Shortly thereafter, in June of 2008, Hana landed a slot as the opening act for Collective Soul, Live and Blues Traveler and later, that fall, Hana debuted her video for "These Two Hands", directed by Travis Schneider, through her MySpace and YouTube page. Notably, Hana also lends her vocals to all four tracks on Ben Moody's solo EP, "The Mutiny Bootleg EP", which was released at a show that the pair played together on December 16, 2008 in Little Rock, Arkansas. With a raw live show that engages and impresses, Hana most often takes the stage with a microphone and her acoustic guitar as her only tools. Although a lot of her studio tracks are produced with guitars, drums, and strings, Hana proves to crowds on a nightly basis that she needs nothing other than what her own two hands and voice can provide in a live setting. Frequently switching out covers in addition to performing a solid set of originals, Hana says one in particular stands out as her favorite to play. "I love to perform "The Red Death Ball" because it's so much fun to tell stories. I love to explain the song beforehand and watch people's expressions when they listen to the lyrics." The song, inspired heavily by Edgar Allen Poe's short story, "The Masque of Red Death", tells the tale of a homicidal hostess massacring all of the guests that attend her ball, illustrating that the themes of Pestle's songs know no boundaries. Hana also cites relationships, traveling, and nature as pools of inspiration that she draws from in creating her own music. Hana's untitled album, which is slated for release later this year, will feature tracks co-written and produced by Moody and Herring, with strings arranged and conducted by David Campbell. After shopping for labels in early 2007, Hana ultimately decided to release her full-length album via Ben Moody's label, FNR Records. "With the music business the way it is right now, Ben, my management, my whole team and I decided that we should take this all the way. After doing the entire album independently, why hand it over to 'The Man' in the end?" Similarly, Moody cites Hana as the reason he created the label. "After going to such great lengths to protect the integrity of a project during the creative process, it seemed almost sinful to let the major label monster destroy it." As an avid Twilight enthusiast, in December of 2008, Hana launched a large internet campaign to get her piano driven ballad, "Need" into Summit Entertainment's movie "New Moon", the sequel to the popular book and movie, "Twilight". The websites MySpace page has garnered over 19,000 fans in support of the movement, with "Need" cumulating over a million plays in the span of only a few short months. In the past few years on the road, Hana has toured with national acts Sister Hazel, Blues Traveler, Live, Collective Soul, Joshua Radin, Graham Colton, Jon McLaughlin, Pat McGee, and Ingram Hill. In 2009, Pestle plans to continue touring with Ari Hest and has also been confirmed as part of the lineup for the annual Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival, scheduled for June 6, 2009. "I just want to be able to make music and support myself out on the road for as long as possible. I really want to reach out to new people and inspire them to create their own art. Truly, just getting to a point where my music could really support my lifestyle would be amazing. I want to continue to release music for as long as I make it."