Hannah Trigwell at the Borderline

With a soft style of indie acoustic rock, Leeds singer-songwriter Hannah Trigwell became famous through self-promotion on social networking sites and YouTube. Tonight the varied crowd, particularly the younger ones, demonstrated the power of social networking in building a rising star’s career.

Despite having released two records solely of cover songs and a few original songs via EP, YouTube managed to draw in a huge following for the singer. Her online success – she boasts 10,000 visits a day to her channel – is evident, as on the first leg of her UK tour, Trigwell begins with a sold-out London set at the Borderline.

Tonight Trigwell played a range of songs: her original unreleased music and her most popular covers. The most impressive cover of the evening was of Drake’s Hold On, We’re Going Home, just for its sheer unexpectedness. The lyrics were changed to “I’m a good girl and you know it” , which came across as uncomfortable, but the acoustic version of the hit worked – it was soulful, interesting and powerful.

Trigwell also treated the audience to a cover of Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, a song that is often covered by singer-songwriters, and it did not particularly stand out tonight. Perhaps Trigwell should stick to covering hip-hop, for an air of uniqueness.

Her own music gave a very different performance – it started off slow and repetitive. It could be likened to any other female singer-songwriter of this age, with soft wailing and indiscernible lyrics about new and lost loves. Trigwell is fresh-faced and sweet though, coming across as a very homely girl. Her voice is not too deep, nor in any moment breathtaking. She is a consistently good singer but without accompanying drums and a steady baseline, the music can be forgettable, with endless songs blending into one.

Luckily Trigwell’s style does encompass her band, and has the potential to be catchy and more upbeat. The song Rectify differed from Trigwell’s normal indie folk style. The baseline had a distinctive jazzy feel, the song was the most popular with the audience, with some spontaneous dancing from her Yorkshire fanbase who kept shouting out how much they loved her.

Hurricane started off louder and rockier than the other songs, with some catchy “oohs” the audience were encouraged to join in with. This next single looks to be promising.

Bryonie Carolan
Photos: Alejo Garcia

For further information and future events visit Hannah Trigwell’s website here.

Watch the video for Hallelujah here: