Carlie Hanson still has a thing for ‘608’: First single off new album to be released Oct. 7

Randy Erickson Special to the Tribune

Five years ago, Carlie Hanson moved to Los Angeles on her own, just a teenager, determined to make a big splash in the music business. The Onalaska native has done that, releasing her debut album, “Tough Boy,” in February on Warner Records.

She’s been on the West Coast nearly a quarter of her life, but Hanson still feels a strong connection to her home, to her family and friends. She still feels like she’s the same small-town girl, despite the success she’s had and the trappings that go with that.

“I thought when I left Wisconsin that I would never look back, but now all I do is reminisce,” Hanson said. “I moved to L.A. at 17, and it still doesn’t feel like home to me now, five years later.”

That comes through loud and clear on her second album, which she expects to be released next spring, and especially on the first single from the album, “608.”

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The song and a video she filmed for it on a recent visit back home will be released Oct. 7, the day before Hanson was supposed to start a national concert tour opening for 18-year-old pop phenom Gayle. The tour was cancelled abruptly by Gayle on Sept. 19, but Hanson is going ahead with the release, excited to let the world have a taste of what she’s been working on.

On the new album, Hanson has expanded her sonic palette, experimenting with sound, co-producing some tracks, and “writing the best music I’ve written.”

Hanson’s “608” is a rumination on missing the simple things, the small-town life, a lilting psychedelic pop gem that kicks off with gentle, somber guitar arpeggios, building in intensity as techno tones overtake the guitar for a time before it reasserts itself.

“‘608’ is about how I feel being away from my hometown, my friends, and my family. I feel like anybody can relate to this feeling of missing home,” Hanson said. “Every day I reminisce about the past, imagining what it would be like to sit in the passenger seat of my best friend’s car, in the middle of winter, just driving around and smoking because that’s all there was to do. That’s what I miss.”

Coming back to film videos for “608” and another song from the new album gave Hanson an all-too-brief taste of home, and she got a kick out of introducing western Wisconsin to the six-member video crew. “It was really fun to bring this bunch of L.A. boys to Wisconsin because they’re not used to greenery and seeing stars at night,” Hanson said. “They got to shoot a BB gun and ride an ATV.”

Despite the video crew being strangers to Wisconsin, Hanson was impressed with how well the video turned out, how they tapped into essentials of the place she calls home. “I think we really captured the essence of La Crosse and Wisconsin,” Hanson said.

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Carlie Hanson recently completed a run opening for Troye Sivan on his Bloom Tour.

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