Public storage units can be described as small micro communities that take the shape of an elaborate maze as each unit houses a different moment frozen in time. They hold the memories of objects temporarily removed and put on pause from the outside world. For indie pop singer Hana Vu, they are a reminder of her childhood and sparked the inspiration for the title of her debut album _Public Storage_, out now on Ghostly International
The 21-year-old LA native grew up moving around the city and returning to old storage units with her family, “Every time we would go, we would look through all of these things and be reminded of being young. And that is how I have always felt about music, when I go back and listen to things. And I think the public aspect is releasing it,” Vu recalls.
Growing up, Vu was a part of the underground scene in LA, making music the DIY way and gigging around, playing wherever she could—on buses, under bridges, or in all-age clubs. She would write a collection of songs throughout the year and release them as a small album on Bandcamp at the end of the year, as if her own yearbook. This album is no different.
As Vu sat in her bedroom writing this album, she was inspired by the storage unit close to her house. Its towering presence does not go unnoticed on _Public Storage._ The album acts as her own public storage building, each track its own unit filled with its own specific set of experiences.
As she tells me her music heroes, it is clear that she is influenced by her sad girl predecessors like Taylor, Lana, and early Grimes, but whereas Swift wrote songs about love and loss with an auto-biographical lens, Vu reflects on her adolescents with her own personal flair with a more abstract approach, “I think with a lot of my songs and a lot of my writing, I like to play a little bit of a character, taking aspects of myself that I want to write about and sort of emphasize them and make them more dramatic or in touch,” Vu explains. “I think it is easier for me to lean into that than to be hyper-specific or hyper-personal. I am more interested in creating narratives versus retelling them.”
The album was co-produced by Jackson Phillips (Day Wave) and captures the anxieties that come with growing up. “Maker”, the catalyst for this album, is just one of the more existential songs, dealing with themes of powerlessness and fear, visualized in the music video. “The themes of the song were of being quite powerless and not in control and being afraid. I think my impetus is that I maybe feel perpetually like a child in the world, not in the sense of charity but in the sense of fear and no control and I wanted the video to reflect that.”
Not only has Hana entered her twenties with her new album, she has also found a knack for making clothes after growing tired of pieces not fitting properly. “I’ve always had an interest in fashion and when lockdown began, I just got so bored, I picked up a few things, and textiles and pattern making were one of them.” She continues saying, “I always end up altering my clothes anyway, so during lockdown I decided, ‘why not make my own?’”
As our conversation comes to an end, Hana and I bond over our shared love of Taco Bell, she replies to my final question, “If I had a storage unit today, I would fill it with all of the specialty items at Taco Bell that they’ve stopped making. The rolled chicken tacos, the Chalupa, and the Baja Colada, which they only have in the summertime and then it’s gone.”
While I think we can all agree that a storage unit filled with discontinued Taco Bell items would be a great use of the space, on Vu’s newest album you will find something even better—insight into another universe filled with carefully crafted melodies and thought provoking lyrics.
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