Acclaimed singer, songwriter, visionary and fierce guitarist Hannah Wicklund releases her most personal song yet, “Witness.” Marked as the sophomore single from her forthcoming 10-track album, The Prize (due October 13), the song is about claiming heartbreak, embracing it and using that to heal through some of the toughest times in life.

Perhaps one of the most satisfying songs she’s ever written, “Witness” is a song she says truly helped heal her. “Getting into your first relationship as a strong, driven, and young woman, it’s very difficult to experience someone dim your light, but even harder to recognize it,” Hannah confesses.“Insecurities within young people play out in terrifying ways, and it’s very hard to not absorb other people’s darkness. Witness was the awareness I found in myself that it is not my responsibility to save anyone.” The single arrives accompanied by another of Hannah’s whimsical oil paintings as the single cover art. “With the artwork behind ‘Witness’, I wanted to capture the release of someone from your life; that last look before they are gone,” Wicklund shares “So clearly the castle is my space, and watching ‘him’ go from the front steps, as he saunters back into the world he came from, feels to me like a reclamation of my heart, mind and peace.”

Due out on Friday, October 13, The Prize — produced by Sam Kiszka, marking the Greta Van Fleet bassist’s first producer credit outside of his band — finds Wicklund coming into her own following the debut LP she released in 2018. This project showcases personal development translated through intentional musicianship all pointing to the thesis of the record: passing the baton from girlhood to womanhood. “I hope this record lyrically, musically, and artistically paints a picture of what raw feminine power and determination look, feel and sound like,” Hannah says. The empowering album features Kiszka on bass, keys and organ, while fellow Greta Van Fleet member, Daniel Wagner, holds it down on drums. The 10 songs on The Prize serve as a rock ‘n roll roadmap to a crossroads that Wicklund has been unknowingly gravitating towards for over a decade. 

“Working with Hannah was an incredible experience that glowed with inspiration all the way through the process,” Kiszka shares about working on The Prize. “With the help of Daniel on drums, we were able to craft a fully realized album that tells Hannah’s story in the exciting vernacular tradition of rock n’ roll. I’m proud of this album, The Prize, for Hannah, as an incredibly gifted musical artist, and I’m delighted I was able to help capture that lightning in a bottle.”

Photo Courtesy: Aliegh Shields