As someone who has been singing since elementary school—from school choirs to the Grand Rapids Youth Chorus—senior Hannah Weinman has recently decided to debut her impressive talent and take the next big step in her music career: releasing a song.

“I’ve been singing pretty much my whole life,” Hannah said. “Other than school choir, outside of school, I haven’t really done a lot of music. I’ve always done choir.”  

However, Hannah has participated in a myriad of choirs and musical groups throughout her years in school. Hannah is a fifth-year member of the Grand Rapids Youth Chorus, is a part of the Central Singers, and participates in Chorale during her first hour as well. 

However, Hannah’s passion for music does not derive from her active participation in choir. Hannah credits her childhood idol Hannah Montana’s music for encouraging her to begin singing herself.

“Hannah Montana was really popular [when she was younger],” Hannah said. “Honestly, I think I sang to her songs, and now I’m here.”

Besides Hannah Montana, Hannah has been inspired by many artists, especially those who write heartfelt and authentic music. One of those many artists is Adele. What she appreciates most about Adele is her ardent approach to conveying relatable and personable topics through her intimate lyrics.

“Her music has never really gone downhill,” Hannah said. “It’s really personal, which I like. If I had to randomly choose a song to sing, it would probably be one of hers.”

Determined to sing a song as powerful and emotional as Adele’s, Hannah was finally able to when she was approached with an offer which was indirectly given to her through her mom.

“My mom posted a video [on Facebook] of me singing a solo that I had for Central Singers at one of our concerts,” Hannah said.

However, Hannah was not aware that her mom had recently friended a man on Facebook whose son, Tristan Muizelaar, writes and produces music. Through their children’s connection in common, Hannah’s mom and the man decided to bring their kids together to share their talent. 

“His dad found it, and showed Tristan,” Hannah said. “Tristan then texted me and asked if I wanted to do a song with him. Once I agreed to, he texted me a track.”

After Hannah listened to the track, Tristan requested that Hannah divulge what thoughts it provoked in her. His purpose in doing this was to gather inspiration on what topic to construct the song about.

“The beginning of the song makes me think of what’s under the ocean,” Hannah said. “The concept of discovering yourself through that really appealed to me.”

Tristan decided to pursue Hannah’s vision, and out of her vision, their song “There For You” was created. Hannah sings the chorus to the song, and Tristan, whose stage name is Muze, raps the verses.

“He wrote the lyrics to the song after buying the track online,” Hannah said. “He let me know when he had it all figured out. He’s a nice guy; he was fun to work with.”  

After Tristan discovered and purchased the track, he wrote accompanying lyrics, produced the demo, and invited Hannah to River City Studios to record the song.  

Their song, “There For You,” is available on Spotify, SoundCloud, and Apple Music.

In regard to working with Tristan in the future, Hannah is open to collaborating on a song again—and possibly composing some of its lyrics as well. In the past, Hannah has attempted to compose a song of her own; however, she was constricted by time and was never able to finish a complete song.

“Tristan wants to do another song,” Hannah said, “since he’s coming out with an album soon. I’m going to try to write other stuff in the meantime. I really like him as a person, so, I’m definitely down to work with him again in the future.”

The entire song-creating process with Tristan has encouraged Hannah to exit her comfort zone; she is now again inspired to write a complete song entirely by herself.

“I’m trying to write a song right now,” Hannah said. “I want something that’s my own, even though I don’t know if it’s going to go anywhere or what I’m going to do with it.”

To help Hannah complete this goal, she recently had a setup, similar to a recording studio, built in her basement. She records demos of herself by attaching her computer to a box that has speakers and a microphone connected to it. Her computer is able to play songs through the speakers, and through the apps on the computer, Hannah is able to record what she sings and adjust how she sounds.

Hannah was also recently accepted into the University of Indiana—her dream school—and plans on attending there in the fall. She plans to continue with music in college as well; however, speech pathology is what Hannah will be majoring in.

“I’ll definitely try to do an acapella group there,” Hannah said. “I’ve always wanted to do something in the future with music.”

As to after college, the role of music that will be within Hannah’s life is undefined. She plans on rolling with the tide of life, and she does not wish to set herself on one specific vision of her future.

“Whether it’s something big or small, I want to do music,” Hannah said. “I just want to do it so that I have an outlet for myself to talk about things that I have going on and stuff that I think about.”