From a young age, Tara Hack realized the power and symbolism of music. Every great social movement in history had inspirational songs and anthems connected with them. Growing up on Long Island, Tara witnessed older generations being transported back to their youth, recounting the stories of their childhood by specific songs that encased these moments.
Tara Hack is documenting modern life and love, observing characters and their stories, chronicling all of it and setting it to music. “I try to write empathically,” Tara says. “Observing characters and imagining what they would feel, channeling that into stories”. Tara found an early affinity for classic music from the 1940s and 50s, dancing around her living room to the likes of Bing Crosby, Etta James, the Rat Pack, and Glenn Miller Band. Tara’s father worked as a conductor on the Long Island Rail Road, and as a teen she would sometimes accompany him to work. On days such as this, they would both notice musicians busking for tips inside Penn Station in New York City. Dad suggested that Tara give it a try, a suggestion that changed the course of Tara’s professional life as a performing musician.
Watching the world go by from inside a train station is a unique perspective, one that has shaped Tara’s repertoire as well as her approach to songwriting. Busking has created tremendous opportunity for Tara: donations collected at her Penn Station and Atlantic Terminal performances funded a 2019 trip to Abbey Road Studios in London for a set of recordings to be released later this year. Making music for commuters is a reciprocal relationship, one that Tara respects deeply. When asked what her ambition is for the release of her new music, Tara replied simply “to make someone’s day better. Whenever I’m performing, that is the goal.” In these unprecedented and pressing times, that seems to be exactly what is called for: music that makes someone’s day better.
Tara is currently in the studio, writing and recording her debut original album. The process has been an empowering one, with Tara firmly in control of her creative process, incorporating the music of her childhood influences, as well as more-current artistry from Coldplay, John Mayer, Avril Lavigne, Vanessa Carlton and Michelle Branch.
