Skills and Experience:

Most of Hanna’s experience is rooted in the multiple choirs she was a part of, the most notable being St Anne’s Gospel Choir, which she was a part of from ages 11 to 16. With this Gospel choir, lead by Kingdom Choir conductor Karen Gibson and The Spirituals conductor Marsha B Morrison, Hanna had the opportunity to perform at the Royal Albert Hall alongside The Kingdom Choir at age 14. Being a part of this gospel choir trained Hanna’s ears, as sheet music wasn’t used when learning parts, and she was expected to have learned her soprano parts after hearing the song twice. Although Hanna would often switch from soprano to alto or tenor, her home in the Gospel choir was with the other sopranos. 

Gospel music is very demanding in terms of technique and performance. Most songs were high energy, and made up of complex vocal melodies, all which developed Hanna’s vocal abilities. During her time with the choir, Hanna performed at many other notable venues, such as the Royal Festival Hall and Oxford University, and even made an appearance on Britain’s Got Talent. Hanna was also a member of her local church choir, where she was taught to sight read vocal sheet music, and was a part of the tenors. This helped broaden Hanna’s vocal range, and improved her harmonic abilities as the tenor parts were most often the most harmonically challenging. With this choir, she had the opportunity to perform alongside Adoramus, a Christian Choir and Orchestra which performed classical and choral music such as pieces by Mozart and often sung in Latin. Simultaneously being a part of two choirs which performed such different genres of secular music broadened her musical abilities.

Hanna spent two years studying at the BRIT school, where she had the opportunity to perform with bands. Over four performances, Hanna played and sang as a part of over 10 different bands, with different peers in each one. Studying at BRIT developed Hanna’s musicianship and allowed her to fully immerse herself in a creative environment. Hanna’s biggest musical influences are Phoebe Bridgers, Lizzy Mc Alphine, and Taylor Swift. Her interest in English literature works well alongside her admiration for complex lyricism. Hanna enjoyed studying English literature at school, and used it to aid her lyricism. Being able to write lyrics that can be interpreted differently by every listener is Hanna’s biggest ambition as an artist. Writing music that can shape-shift to fit each listener’s experiences is how Hanna wants her music to affect her listeners.

Contact:

siwiechanna04@gmail.com

The purpose of my EPK is to inform the reader of  myself as an artist, and to contextualise the sound of my music. The EPK serves as a collection of things promoters should be aware of. I included lots of detail about me being a member of many choirs in the past because in my opinion it was what turned me into the musician I am now, and played an important part in influencing the sound of my music. I think this could be a good way to market myself as an artist, as it is something quite memorable, the fact that I was part of a gospel choir for five years, as my music sounds very different to gospel music. For example, PinkPantheress has shared that she is a K-Pop fan, which helped make herself more memorable to a group of people that would normally not know who she is. 

I hope that in the near future, I can complete the EPK and include links to my music on streaming services, as I have not released any music yet. I would like to have more content of me performing live, so I will aim to perform more. Making social media accounts that are only for my music would be helpful as it will allow me to solidify my presence as an artist. My audience is young adults and teenagers. My EPK does not present me as a brand yet, as there is not much content to work with. I need to focus on turning myself into an artist, rather than being someone who writes music. In order to do this, the first step is to release music, and then perform it live in order to introduce myself into the industry as an artist. Then I will focus on creating an image for myself, and making myself memorable visually. This EPK is almost the base layer, which I can keep adding to as my career progresses. Once I have released music, I will be able to edit it and include links to streaming services and reviews.

I would like to move the EPK and turn it into a website format, with interactive images with links to playlists my songs would be on, and music specific social media profiles. 

When researching EPK’s, I came across Chris Ostler’s EPK. His EPK is presented in a bullet point format, breaking up long pieces of information and making them quicker to read. It is quite basic aesthetically, with just white text on a black background, and no pictures. In my opinion, it would be more effective if there were more pictures throughout the EPK instead of YouTube video thumbnails at the very bottom. The pictures I used in my EPK were taken by my friend, so there is no asset cost there. In regards to future alterations I would like to make to my EPK, I would most likely use free website building software, and make the website for it myself. The more I develop my EPK, the more helpful it will be with things like getting performance opportunities. In order to present myself as a product that people could invest money and time into, I need to first release music and gain attention on social media.

At the beginning of the semester, I wanted to create a business plan, rather than an EPK, because I was worried I did not have enough content to include in an EPK. I spoke to my classmates in my bi-weekly seminar, and explained how I wanted to create a business plan on releasing an EP. After some deliberation, I decided that an EPK would benefit me more. My classmates and I all decided to create EPK’s, and we all spoke about what kind of content we had that we could include. At first I was skeptical, because I haven’t released any music onto streaming services, or performed on my own recently. Most of my recent performances have been as part of a band or with a choir. Over the course of the semester, my classmates and I discussed our EPK’s with each other. I initially wanted to present my EPK on a website, but I do not have enough content at the moment to do so. We spoke about small details like color schemes, and which pictures look best at what parts of the EPK’s. I decided that having a full body picture of me on stage was the best picture to have at the beginning of my EPK because it presents me in full to whoever is reading it.

Social media has completely changed the music industry, especially TikTok. I decided that part of building myself as an artist is posting short form videos on social media, and gaining interest online. Many music fans, including myself, will now discover new artists by hearing their music on social media, which is why I think building an online presence is important and will make me look more appealing to labels and promoters. Although having an online presence is important, not all information that is provided in an EPK can be found quickly, for example information about my past experience which I haven’t posted about. EPK’s are useful because they give people like journalists and agents a concise collection of all the information about you as an artist. Social media allows for quick real time updates, which can be more convenient than having to check an EPK. It is not always as effective as an EPK because social media can come across as informal, and the short video format on most platforms doesn’t allow for much time to go into depth about certain things. An EPK is tailored to industry professionals, and can be shared via email, rather than depending on algorithms. Although an EPK is considered more professional, it has to be either sought out or sent by you, whereas on the other hand,the algorithm of many social media platforms allows profiles to be shared onto feeds.

Writing this EPK has helped me become more self-aware of where I stand on my journey to becoming an artist. Although my main ambition is to become a lyricist, and write lyrics and songs for other people, having my own artist image is important to make me more marketable. In order to implore the EPK, the first step is releasing music. I have been posting covers and original music on my TikTok account, but am not as consistent as I should be. I also post other non-music related videos on my TikTok account, which seems to gain more interest. Making a new account only for original music and covers is the next thing I need to do moving forwards, as the algorithm associated with my current account does not spread videos with original music very well. Overall, this EPK is to be continuously updated, alongside me building a social media presence to solidify myself as an artist. Once I release music, I will have to consider what kind of visual aesthetics I want associated with myself, for example what colours and fonts I will use for the website I plan on creating. Consistency is also crucial to using social media algorithms as much as you can, which is why I also need to focus on posting music consistently, and building a following, where for example, people suggest what songs I post covers on. This will also serve as a marketing tool, where once I build a following, I can use it to gain attention on upcoming releases. 

Bibloigraphy:

Ostler, C. (2023) Electronic Press Kit – Chris Ostler – Singer Songwriter Chris Ostler – Singer Songwriter. Available online: https://www.chrisostler.co.uk/epk/ [Accessed 14/May/2025].