Staff writer Jessica Hardison talked with H.C. McEntire, a musician from Durham and Mount Moriah frontwoman who just released her first solo album, “LIONHEART.” McEntire is currently on tour, and spoke with The Daily Tar Heel while she was driving to Chicago to perform.
The Daily Tar Heel: Can you tell me about yourself as a musician?
H.C. McEntire: I started playing music when I was 18. I’ve been in a lot of different bands with a lot of different styles, like punk music, pop music and country music. I started writing first as kind of like an alternate outlet for poetry. I went to school for creative writing, so that was kind of how I got introduced to music, through finding melodies for music around the poems.
DTH: Can you tell me about your debut album, “LIONHEART”? Were there any particular themes you were going for in the album?
HM: I didn’t have any intentions, really. I didn’t start out with a concept. It just kind of came together, and then it became clear that the songs were cohesive in a certain way. It is a personal record and there is a lot of imagery from the South and from my childhood.
DTH: How does it feel to debut as a solo artist?
HM: It’s terrifying in a certain way. I had never released a solo record, but it’s also really empowering. It’s been a mix of those things.
DTH: How is it different creating music solo instead of as a band?
HM: When you’re with a band, there are lots of different points of view and I think the collaboration style is just different. With the solo record, I felt like I could dig a little deeper into the personal parts, you know? It’s not that my band mates have ever tried to hold me back in a certain way, but it allowed me some space to just really, really dig there.