Hannah, Gerry

Websites:  https://gerryhannah.com/
Origin: Vancouver, British Columbia
Biography:

Punk, Prison and Politics

As far as I'm known at all, I'm probably best known for my 25 year on again/off again involvement with the old-school, Vancouver punk rock band, the Subhumans. As one of the founding members of that group, I played bass guitar, sang background vocals and penned a few tunes that became fairly well known in the early North American punk scene. Oh Canaduh, Slave To My Dick and Fuck You would probably be among the better known ones.

Other people may know of me through my brief involvement with a Vancouver urban guerrilla group known as Direct Action. This was a group of political activists commonly known as the Squamish Five. We had given up on trying to effect real change through the electoral process (seemed pretty hopeless) and instead, decided to try to stop political and environmental catastrophe through, well, direct action. We were all eventually arrested and I was sentenced to ten years in prison for my part in the group’s activities.

But all along, I've also been playing guitar and singing folk and rock songs that I've been writing since my late teens. Some of these songs first made their public debut in 1985 on a recording I released while in prison titled “Songs From Underground”. One of those songs, “Living With The Lies”, gained a modest following in the underground scene after it was featured in the Vancouver cult movie Terminal City Ricochet.

When the Subhumans broke up for the last time in 2010, I decided to re-record some of the songs from Songs From Underground as well as record some new ones, and with the help of some friends and some session players, ended up putting together a ten track CD titled Coming Home in 2012. I went on to form my own band in 2014 called Gerry Hannah and the New Questioning Coyote Brigade, with the idea to continue writing and playing my folk and rock songs. The band has since gone through a number of line-up changes, but currently consists of Rob Kerr on Drums, Joe St. Amand on bass, Stacy Britten on lead guitar and myself on rhythm guitar and vocals.

Besides playing a bunch of live shows over the past few years, we also recorded a six song video in May of 2019 at a studio in Vancouver. Over the next few months, I will be posting each of the individual songs from that session on You Tube and eventually, the whole six song session, which will be called One Last Warning.

With my musical efforts, I try to provide social commentary about the world around us and how we treat one another. With many of my songs, I'm trying to articulate what I see as the danger and immorality of pursuing social policies that are failing the vast majority of humanity and indeed, the planet itself. As well, some of my songs deal with specific political issues, or caricature ideologies that I see as being born out of denial or insecurity. And I suppose some of my songs also reveal something of my own personal struggles and some of my observations on human relationships and trying to find one’s own place in the world.

And in edition to writing and playing songs, I've done a bit of writing articles as well, including some for Maximum Rock n' Roll, the Prison Journal and my own blog Another Useless Subhuman on Blogger. It's my intention to write a lot more in the future, as the world situation seems to be getting more urgent by the hour and I believe discussion is required. So I'm hoping that this website will help me reach a wider audience for both my words and my music. Thanks for checking it out.