Daily Inspiration: Meet Hannah Rowen (Stray Local)

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Rowen (Stray Local).

Hi Hannah, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Jamie and I begin writing music together as Stray Local in 2013, a year after we graduated from the School of Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. We met and became instant friends our freshman year but did not begin playing music together until late in our sophomore year. We would meet in the practice rooms and Jamie would teach me how to play guitar and I would give him tips for singing harmonies. I was always a singer and hadn’t thought much about songwriting. It felt so personal and scary and I didn’t feel brave enough for that. But Jamie has a way of bringing the best out of me and so we started writing songs together. We are quite opposite and this comes in handy with songwriting. While I am tuned into everything melodic, he’s primarily focused on the rhythm. It’s started to feel like we really were a great match. So it’s no big surprise that after years of singing love songs together and being roommates and friends, we realized we should probably make this match official. We got married in 2019.

We started the band in Wilmington, primarily playing in town but as our set and instrumentation expanded so did our show and travel schedule. In 2017, with the help of our fiddle player who had lived in France, we booked our first international tour performing at FIMU Festival in Belfort, France. That travel bug stuck with us and we have gone back to play two more U.K Tours and one national tour from the Carolinas out to California. This was our “Run Wild” tour where we combined our passion for running and music, booking typical venue shows and listening rooms but also playing for run clubs and races where we would run first and then step on stage. On our free days, we would explore national parks or go on long runs along scenic trails, often stopping to sing a song and make a video with a gorgeous backdrop.

We moved to Raleigh in the March of 2020 to be closer to the thriving music scene and so that we could tour more easily. Obviously, we know 2020 had different plans, so we spent the last year setting up our home studio, writing, recording, and releasing new music. We have currently released three new singles in 2021, “Featherweight” being the most recent, and intend to release at least three more by the year’s end.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’m not sure it’s ever a smooth road for someone who decides to make music their career. With the joy of making your passion, your life there is a great reward but also risk and sacrifice. We try to focus more on the positives but obviously the biggest struggle that we have faced as a band is this global pandemic and the complete shutdown of our industry for a year. We left our jobs as music teachers in 2019, right before our wedding, in order to pursue music and the band full time. We had two amazing tours in the summer and fall of 2019 and had a quiet winter so that we could plan our move to Raleigh, our 2020 tours, and work on songwriting. I felt like things finally were beginning to click. Getting more responses from venues, setting up tours with more ease than ever before. Finally, it felt like we had made the right decision and we had the ball rolling for a breakout 2020. But in March, we just shut the calendar and never looked at it in 2020, turning to songwriting, as well as learning to record and produce ourselves.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We are the Raleigh-based indie pop band Stray Local.

Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/44Y39YjeOfRWqnbaskq3Qh?si=weaG6AsRT2C67ULBrzxqxA&dl_branch=1

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.straylocal.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/straylocal/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/straylocal/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/straylocalband/
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/stray-local
• Other: https://straylocal.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits
Justin Hall