Hennessey

Photo provided by, Leah Hennessey

Meet Hennessey

Jump on to the new new new wave with Hennessey. This fabulous pop rocking project has all the vim and vigor of the good old lower east side scene with a biting modern edge. Their latest release “Hennessey, Ep. 01” is fantastic for practicing all of your secret quarantine dance moves. We chatted with Leah about the project and a couple of other fun things. Check it out.

Two Truths and a Lie

(Answers at bottom of article)

I have no tattoos.

I have heterochromia.

I have no piercings.

Would You Rather

be trapped in a dark closet with a swan or a scorpion? Please explain why.

As a Scorpio myself, I know the subtle dangers of the secret sting all too well. Give me the raucous demented panic of a swan any day.

Some questions with Hennessey

What do you think it was about the ’80s that has left such a profound impact on music made today?

Every phase of music gets raised from the dead and dusted over and over again, but I think one thing that’s relevant about the 80s today is the friction between the freedom of the DIY approach to recording and the allure of studio finesse. People get so excited by the fact that Billie Eilish’s album was recorded in her bedroom, but like, the Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” was recorded in their tiny home studio too. Also, what we call Pop music today is still just a variation of House music- so you know, the empire never ended. 

Who is your favorite NYC-based musical act from the ’80s? Why?

 Right now I’d have to say Cristina (Cristina Money Zilka), who has never been properly canonized as a saint of New York City. She’s a huge inspiration to me- she was so funny and sexy and precisely observant and her songs always absolutely kill at a party. She was a poet and a no-wave disco-pop queen. This verse is like if Cole Porter was a girl:

“The party was a huge success
"But where should we go next?", they said
They killed a tree of ninety-seven years
And smothered it in lights and silver tears
They all got wrecked, they laughed too loud
I started to feel queasy in the crowd
I caught a cab back to my flat
And wept a bit and fed the cat”

She was in the first wave of New Yorkers to die from COVID, and even though her life didn’t even really seem to be about her musical output I hope people continue to celebrate her by playing her timeless records.

What was the best interaction you have had with a fan of your work?

A friend of mine, not a close friend but a girl I admire and respect enormously, came to one of our first shows and she said that the songs made her feel like she could and should write songs.  I wish I had felt like my songs were worth writing and singing when I was her age. If my songs actually help anyone start writing songs and sharing them then I’m already doing what I’m supposed to be doing. 

If you were offered a free tattoo right now what would you get?

“Byron is Dead”. 

What was the creative drive behind your 2020 release “Hennessey, Ep. 01”?

This is our first real release as a band, and we wanted it to capture all the tones we were using- the satirical slant of the knife, the dreamy static and the Bacchic frenzy. There’s one cover on here, “We Will Not Be Lovers”, originally by The Waterboys. That song has all the magic and complexity that I’m always looking for lyrically.  I want to write lyrics that hit people right in their nerves and get all the nerds dancing. 

Where is the best place to get pizza in NYC?

One of the harder questions. Everyone knows it’s Joe’s, but if Joe’s is too crowded I always get so happy remembering I can go to Percy’s instead. The pizza is one dollar and it happens to be perfect. Then you can still go sit in Father Demo Square to eat it with everyone else who went to Joe’s and watch the pigeons. I used to sit there eating pizza with my heart pounding getting ready to do the open mic at The Music Inn, which is where I started playing these songs.

What song are you looking forward to performing live once we can have concerts again? Why?

This week we performed our song “Nobody lives like this anymore” from a fire escape on Division to a crowd of unsuspecting outdoor diners and it was perfect. The song is about the feeling of being a freak or a failure for holding on Romantic dreams of a poetic sort of life, and it felt like a twisted painful victory to sing it to the rooftops as proof that yes, some of us still do live like this, and we’re living it right now, despite everything. Art survives, communities heal and New York is reborn once again.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

I’m really moved and inspired by the way our city has come together to rebuild and re-imagine a future. That’s very abstract and platitudinous but I’m just really happy that no one in my life is aching for things to “go back to normal.” It’s a very exciting time to be alive and aware. We may be among the last generations of humans on this planet! Or we could save the world! It’s all up the air right now! And it’s up to us. Sometimes the feeling of responsibility is paralysing, but so many people in my life are doing such inspired creative work to fight racial injustice, to redistribute wealth, to unthink capitalism, to live in a new way and to cultivate hope. I’m so proud to be a New Yorker I could cry and I love my friends.

Two truths and a lie answer key:

Truth: I have no tattoos.

Lie: I have heterochromia.

Truth: I have no piercings.