“You try, you fail, you get up, you try again, and you keep going. That’s how you grow, evolve, and ultimately achieve all your dreams.”
Genevieve Hannelius
Whether you know Genevieve Hannelius from “Dog With A Blog,” her YouTube nail tutorials, or the internet-breaking striped dress she wore better than Beyoncé, one thing’s for sure: her debut EP “Girlhood” will have you seeing her in a whole new light. The actress and singer hopped on the phone to speak about the importance of trying, how her song “Reckless” helped shape the EP’s direction, and her entrepreneurial endeavors.
You’ve had a passion for performing since a young age. What was your environment like growing up? Were you raised in a creative household?
I grew up in Maine before I moved to LA to pursue acting when I was 8. My parents aren’t in the industry at all, but my mom grew up really interested in theater. And my dad, he’s big into music. Whenever he drove me to school, he would always play different bands for me. There was definitely a big focus on movies, music, and theater, and art in general, because those are my parents’ interests.
Many people likely know you from your time on Disney Channel. How did you go about redefining your identity as an actor and musician in your young adult years?
One of the big things for me was figuring out who I was as a person, aside from acting, because that had really been my whole childhood. As soon as the Disney show I was on, Dog With A Blog, was over, I went to my last two years of high school in person because I had been homeschooled up to that point. Then I went to college and moved to New York City. That was a huge evolution point for me as an individual, figuring out what I wanted to say, what kind of artist I wanted to be, and just growing up on my own outside the Hollywood bubble.
You released a few original songs between 2012 and 2014. What needed to fall into place for you to revisit making music and feel ready to release Girlhood?
I’ve really had a chance to have some personal experiences in my life that were inspirational for writing music. I never stopped writing music, but being in my twenties has been such a pivotal time period. I’ve done a lot of growing up. It’s a very complicated time, and there’s a lot of mixed emotions, contradicting feelings, and I wanted to write about that, especially with the song “Girlhood.” It felt like the right time because I knew who I was and what I wanted to say. And when I had released music when I was younger, it was just coming from a different place.
Your songwriting feels diaristic. How do you decide what makes it into a song and what stays private?
It’s kind of difficult to draw that line. If you’re an artist, your personal life does blend into whatever you’re doing. For me, it’s a really important way to express and also process my own emotions. So, even though music that you release publicly ends up being for other people, for me it’s always been something I do for myself to either get through an experience or process a difficult emotion. In order to do that, it has to be personal.
Who were some of your musical inspirations for Girlhood? Any songs or albums you had on repeat during the creation process?
My producer and I made a Spotify playlist of inspiration. Things we were listening to at that time that were inspiring us, or had a similar sound we wanted the EP to have. Once we wrote the song “Reckless,” it became our North Star for most of the EP because it had this pop, almost throwback Y2K feeling. So, then we were drawing a lot of inspiration from the music I grew up with, like Aly & AJ, Hilary Duff, Michelle Branch, and those sorts of artists. A big album that I was listening to was the most recent beabadoobee album, This Is How Tomorrow Moves, which was majorly on the playlist. A lot of nineties rock sounds, a lot of drums and electric guitar, and these really sweet, personal songs. She has such a delicate voice, and I love that it has this punk-rock, powerful feeling behind it. So I know that was heavily, heavily on repeat.
Since EPs are smaller bodies of work, it can be hard to narrow down which songs to include. How did you decide which songs made the cut, and also, what would open and close the EP?
I came to my producer, Matt, and we were probably working on 14 songs. So we went through each one and created rough demos around them to see where they were at. What ultimately helped us decide was that, after we picked “Reckless” as our North Star, we tried to form something around that that felt cohesive. So, being intentional in choosing songs that made sense, and I really wanted it to have this roller coaster feeling, which is how a lot of your twenties feel. These brighter songs are mixed in with these slower, folksy ballads. Ending the EP with the song “The Woods” felt really right because it feels like a culmination of what I’m trying to say, and it balanced it out really nicely. But “Girlhood” was also that song, which I wrote toward the end of us working on the EP and recording it. That helped a lot in terms of figuring out the direction and theme of the EP.
“Wave” is a favorite of mine on the EP and a song that seems likely to resonate with many listeners, perhaps dealing with relationships you can get caught up in or with caring more than the other person. What do you hope listeners take away from that particular song or learn from listening to “Wave”?
Listening back to that song, it could be about a relationship, but it could also be about a friendship. It could be about any experience in life that comes in, consumes you, and leaves you hanging a little bit. So the lesson behind that one is to know your worth, first of all. Not letting people take advantage of you and setting boundaries ‘cause that’s a really relatable feeling: feeling consumed by somebody or over somebody, and then having them pull back, almost like a breadcrumbing situation, which I think a lot of people can relate to. It’s not a fun experience.
No songs on the EP are exactly alike, which makes for a fun listen. Did you set out to be experimental and not be boxed into a particular sound?
Matt and I really looked at each song individually, letting it develop into what it wanted to be and following the song wherever it led us. With “Wave” specifically, we were listening to some fifties music, and so there’s a little bit of that feeling in that one. Each song took on a life of its own. I wanted them to make sense together, but to your point, I love when songs don’t sound exactly the same and have an individual personality.
Outside of acting and making music, you’re also an entrepreneur and have a nail polish brand. I was curious what led you to explore this area, and if you see yourself exploring other parts of the beauty space?
I started the company while working on Disney Channel because I had always been interested in the beauty space, specifically nails. It happened pretty organically. I had been making nail art tutorials on YouTube that my fans from Disney really liked. It made sense, and it’s been such a great learning experience. I definitely like being in control of my own business. And I’m hoping that in the future, the brand evolves and expands more into [other areas in] the beauty space.
What advice do you have for aspiring musicians?
My advice, honestly, for anything, not just music, even if people come up and ask me about acting, I always say, ‘Try and never, ever give up.’ Because I truly think that the people who don’t make it in this space are the people who stop doing it. There are so many talented people out there, and if you never quit, you’re going to be ahead of most people because most people stop. Now we have things like TikTok, where you can record videos of yourself singing your music. Taking advantage of those things and not feeling embarrassed to be perceived as trying is a huge thing. Also, starting, even if you’re not ready, because I don’t feel like ready is a thing that ever happens. It’s just a decision that you make, and you try, you fail, you get up, you try again, and you keep going. That’s how you grow, evolve, and ultimately achieve all your dreams.
