For singer-songwriter Hannah Bahng, her latest release The Misunderstood EP, has been the ultimate avenue of self-discovery.
“I’ve felt misunderstood, not just by my surroundings and by people. I’ve felt misunderstood within myself, and I tend to misunderstand myself,” the 21-year-old Australian native tells The Hollywood Reporter, curled up on a sofa on the deck of PMC’s L.A. office. It’s a sunny September afternoon, just days before the release of her second EP, and the singer is pensive about the meaning behind the album.
“I’m still learning and trying to figure out and understand who I am as a person and what I want and how I can grow,” she adds. “I think this EP kind of encompasses that theme of trying to understand yourself and realizing that you can’t find that through your surroundings, whether it be by your environment or by people.”
For Bahng, the seven-track album, featuring previously released songs “Sweet Satin Boy,” “Orchid / Flame” and “What Never Lived,” is meant to be an experience for her listeners, something she hopes they can relate to and connect with. “Music has always been very therapeutic for me, and it’s a way for me to selfishly get everything that I need to get out,” she explains.
“It really helps being able to see that on paper and being able to hear it sonically. I start to understand myself a lot better. I can see it and hear it,” she adds. On the new EP, the final track “I’m Me Again” was a perfect example of working through emotions for the singer.
“As I was writing it, I cried. I was crying. I’m a baby. I’m honestly a baby,” she says. “I was literally crying yesterday while I was editing my childhood videos. I was like, she’s so small and she’s so cute and tiny, and I’m so mean to her.”
The process of writing music can be cathartic, but she admits, like most would, that it can still be hard to take a second to reflect on her own journey. “Sometimes I find myself forgetting,” she says, adding that weeks ago she found herself feeling overwhelmed with album preparation.
“I just had to call my mom and – first of all, I don’t know how – she immediately knew something was up,” Bahng says. The singer says her mother immediately offered to come to America but then offered some advice when Bahng assured her everything was OK. “Just take it slow,” she recalls her mother telling her.
“Be grateful for the smallest things and remember that you’re doing this because you love it and enjoy the process and enjoy where you are right now,” she continues, noting that her desire to show the best side of herself can make her lose sight at times. “I think it’s easy to lose myself in that almost. Sometimes I need to take a step back and just remind myself why I’m doing this.”
Even after she’s poured out her emotions through writing and singing her songs, there’s plenty of work to be done and the singer tackles much of that on her own terms. Bahng has largely taken control of her career and has since the beginning with her first single in 2023, creating her own label, Bahng Entertainment, as a way to stay truly independent as an artist.
“It was very daunting to me to at first. I didn’t realize this was a path I could take,” Bahng admits when asked why being in creative control of her career is so important to her. She jokes that when her now-manager reached out to her four years ago about this approach to her career, she thought it seemed too good to be true.
“[My manager was] basically just saying everything that I wanted to do, almost to the point where I was like, is this a scam?” she jokes. “There’s just no way that someone would want to do that. I’d see no benefit to them for them. I see only benefit for me.”
But thankfully for Bahng, it became her reality. It’s something she’s clearly grateful for and a challenge she seems to tackle head on. Her tour, and its production, are just one of those challenges she’s thankful for. “Stage production wise, I’ve been kind of at the forefront of trying to think of ways and creative things we can do to make the stage look good in itself,” she says.
“There’s little details and things that you don’t really think about [that] goes into [putting on a] tour. There’s so much, and I’m there in every single step,” she continues. Bahng almost hypes herself up with the mantra of just doing it.
“It’s stressful, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Yes, I crash out sometimes, but who doesn’t?” she jokes. “I care so much about my work and about how it’s going to look at the end. The process is grueling and hard, but at the end of the day, it should be hard.”
With a large social media following even before she started music, the singer has seamlessly integrated music into every part of her online presence. Touring, where she appears to be most home, has allowed Bahng to finally put “a face to the comment” for followers who have stuck with her.
She recalls meeting one fan account, Instagram user Hannah Bahng USA, during her last tour. “You are not meeting me right now. I’m meeting you. You’ve done so much for my career,” Bahng repeats the sentiments she shared with the fan during their tour meeting.
“I made everyone say hi to her. I was like, ‘Guys, this is Hannah Bahng USA, you better be nice. This is [a] VIP right now,’” she continues. “Seeing the face behind the fan page, the face behind the comment… It’s just really nice seeing that there’s actual people that care as much as I care about this. It’s a nice little reminder to be humble, and to have faith.”