Marta Hansen’s new music video “Bang Bang” confronts school shootings and includes local partners

you found Wisconsin's local music authority. This is magsync radio. We are local music.

And right now we have Marta Hansen in the studio with us. Marta is a songwriter, vocalist,

and pianist. And she's been performing in the Madison area for many years, has been nominated

for both Mama and Whammy Awards. And Marta is a piano technician and is the owner of the piano

gal shop in Sunperry. Marta writes about complex issues and has finished production of a video

for her song Bain Bain. We just heard. And that deals with the sobering thought of school shootings

from a mother's perspective. Telling the story as only she can is Marta Hansen. Marta,

welcome back to magsync radio. Hi, rocker. Thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure.

And Marta, tell us a little about yourself. I mean, how did you get started playing piano? Because

that's got to happen. Either it happens young, but probably because your mom throws you in piano

lessons. Yes, yeah. It happened young. I was seven. I started when I was seven. Yeah. And I,

yeah, my mom always nurtured it. She's not a musician. My parents were divorced. My mom found a

$70 piano from a neighbor and got me in lessons. And I never looked at a real full-size piano.

A real piano. Was it in tune? She made sure. She had it tuned every six months until I

took the piano when I was graduated college. And now I have a baby grant. But she took amazing

care of it for me. It was awesome. Wow. Yeah. How is the piano gal doing, by the way? Really well.

Yeah. I'm tuning five days a week full-time, traveling all over Dane County and outside of Dane

County. And I have clients all over the place. And I love my job. And you made a kind of a

transference from a retail location to more of a service that's a mobile service, right?

I did. I closed my brick and mortar so I could focus completely on piano tuning and repair and

doing custom work for people refurbishing because I was doing that already anyway. And I was

wearing too many hats. So I decided to just completely focus on that. And now I'm kind of a,

yeah, I'm a nomad. I travel to churches, schools, everybody's homes and it's full-time. I love it.

It's, I've been tuning now professionally for almost 15 years. And I've had the piano

gal shop for like 12 now. So now tell me, you know, I mean, we're so technologically advanced now.

Do you use it tuning fork or is it digital now? Um, well, hey, I do. I, so I have an electronic

tuner to give me my A, my A440. And then I actually tune about 90% of the, of any particular

piano tuning I do about year. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I've, we've, I find it's more accurate

actually to, so, but you have to train your ear to hear what you need to hear. But yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That's what my old bass players say. But I don't know. I don't know who works like that.

Let's see. How old were you when you started performing gigs? Um, you know, funnily enough,

I went to school for music. I got a music degree. I taught music before I got into piano tuning.

But I didn't really gig until I was in my 30s. Really? Yeah. I'm 45 now. After my second

son was born in 2011, I was like, all right, it's my time to shine. And I, um, I really started

to get brave and start writing original music and coming up with cool ways to do covers of songs I

liked. And I started getting out there. Well, that's cool to do at that age because you, you're not

after the golden dream of a record contract anymore. You're doing it because you love it.

I just do it because I love it. And because it makes me really happy. And, um, yeah,

I don't have any desire to make it a full time thing. I love being a piano tuner. And it just,

I love to fill the rest of my time, um, musically by by performing. And I'm picking and choosing

where I play and writing original music and just doing it because I'm passionate about it.

Now who are mom's demand action? Yeah. Um, mom's man.

Mom's demand action is actually a, it's a national. Like clean your own right? No, no, it's a

national grassroots organization. Um, that started, um, about 11 or 12 years ago now. Um, that is

specifically, uh, it's nonprofit geared toward gun violence prevention. Um, we have over 10 million

volunteers nationwide. And it's not just moms anymore. My husband's a volunteer, mothers and

others. Um, and we, you know, we, we partner with community, um, organizations, um, gun violence

prevention awareness, safe storage. Um, we go to the Capitol every year and talk with legislators.

We work on, um, getting a, we have a program to recruit and train people who have, um,

those values to make our country safer to get them elected to office. Um, and so we do a lot

with legislation and, um, hoping to change the laws, make the laws stronger, um, get people

to, you know, lock up their guns. And, um, so we do, there's, there's a lot of facets to it,

but we're all volunteers. And we just want to make the world a safer place.

Mm, I like to get some sarcastic comments in there, but I'll hold them for now.

Uh, some of your songs are written from a mother's perspective, including the song we just heard,

bang, bang, tell us about bang, bang, bang. Yeah. Um, I wrote, bang, bang, um, about the,

you know, school shootings can happen anywhere, and you always kind of, um, think it's not

going to happen to you. We had one right here, but we had one here in Madison, and it, it does,

there's, there's no discern, there's no, nowhere is really safe from it. It could happen anywhere,

any school, any age group, anytime. And there's always that fear, um, when you drop your kids off

at school, yeah, that are they going to come home safe? Uh, yeah. And, you know, it's just that

feeling. And it's a feeling of, of, for the kids too, that they're, they're the generation,

the active shooter drill generation, where they're just used to having that, like we used to have

tornado drills. Yeah. And all of that nuclear. Yeah. Yeah. I'd under the desk, and they have

active threat drills, um, a couple times a year, and parents were used to dropping our kids off,

and hoping they're going to be safe, but that's always in the back of your mind. Yeah. And that's

scary and traumatic for everybody when your kid comes home and tells you that that's,

that's what they did in school. Yeah. That they locked the door and they put a desk in front of it,

and they had to pretend there was someone in the hall. It's just, yeah. It's, um, it's just,

and it doesn't, you know, as a mom's demand action volunteer, I know that those things are

preventable, and there are things we can do about it. Um, and I'm trying to do my part.

You have recently wrapped up production on a video for bang bang, and you're fusing your

advocacy for mom's demand action and your art, and you brought in partners to make the video.

Tell us about the video, uh, your partners, and how we'll be able to watch that online. Yeah. So

it's in post production right now. I partnered with a nonprofit called Children's Film Academy of

Madison. Um, and they, um, I was working with them, and we also recruited volunteers from

some pretty east and west high school theater departments. Wow. To be in the video and, um,

other volunteers, and then also worked with Stutz Photography, and, um, got a, a small grant

from Dean Arts as well. Oh, that's awesome. How about those guys? Yeah. So we're, you know,

working, I'm sure you'll bring that up a little to, you know, fill the funding gap. Um, but

it's just been a really big team effort, and I'm really grateful to Children's Film Academy,

because they really know what they're doing. And we had a three day shoot and, and they have a

stake in this. They do. Yeah, they do. So, and I think it's going to be really powerful video.

It's going to be ready, hopefully, within the next couple months. And will it'll be,

there'll be a screening event, which I'll have, um, information available for that on all my

socials, Children's Film Academy website, my website. What is your website? Uh,

martahansinmusic.com. And that's H-A-N-S-E-N. Yes. And same with my Facebook and Instagram,

it's Marta Hansen Music for both. Well, thank goodness you don't spell the other ones with it all.

Exactly. So, and after the screening, then it'll be available, um, you know, on YouTube,

and on my website and on Children's Film Academy website. And you have a Kickstarter?

Yes. We have a Kickstarter to fill our funding gap. We're over halfway there.

So there's a pretty big budget for that in this video. Yeah. For, I mean, for a local music video,

yeah, it's, it's, we want to make sure that it, it sends a message and maybe calls people to

action and wants people and, you know, calls people to, to do a little bit more, um, and maybe

joins mom's demand action. You never know. Wow. Yeah. Uh, the annual Wear Orange Gun Violence Awareness

Weekend, June 6th through the 8th, uh, it's through the Dane County Public Health, um, and mom's

demand action. And there are several events. Tell us about the events and why Wear Orange. Yeah.

So, um, so Wear Orange is, um, started in, I think, 2015, um, after a child in Chicago was shot

and killed on a playground. And her family wore orange to commemorate her. And there was an event

around that, um, that inspired the Wear Orange Movement. And now it's a national weekend, um,

every year to, um, for gun violence awareness and prevention. Um, and so Dane County Public Health

kind of has taken the helm on that. And then we've got three events. Mom's is helping out. So

the sixth is, um, from four to seven at brick citer in Mount Horib. Okay. And I'll be performing

for a couple of hours there. We'll have Dane County Public Health folks, mom's folks, um, and it'll

just be a fun. Oh, and there's an art installation, um, that there'll be a couple pieces at bricks as well.

So that's June 6th at bricks in Mount Horib. Yeah. And then the seventh is a vigil. We'll have

speakers, the mayor, chief of police, um, will have, um, Melissa Acard, uh, several other speakers.

This is at the Capitol. This is at the Capitol on the Capitol steps on the, the forward statue side.

Okay. And that's, yep, that's from six to seven thirty. And then Sunday is a, like,

just a community party event. And that is from one to three. And that is actually going to be

at North Sherman Avenue Methodist Church. Um, and that'll be a community resource event. We'll

have food, DJ, um, speakers, um, games. It'll just be a fun time. Wow. Yeah. And that's the, the

where orange? Yes. Where orange weekend? Where, where orange weekend? Gun violence awareness weekend.

That's June 6th through 8th. Uh, how can we find more about those events? Um, you can find details

on those events at, um, both the Ding Coney, uh, public health website and their Facebook page

as well as mom's demand action Wisconsin, um, Facebook page and Instagram.

That is perfect. Marna, thank you so much for coming into the studio to chat with us tonight. We

really appreciate it. My pleasure. Um, another song that you wrote that has a motherly perspective

to it. It's a song called The Lasts. Yes. And, uh, this is just, it's kind of, it's crazy complex.

Tell us about the last. Yeah. Um, I wrote it. My kids are, uh, both teenagers. I have an almost

senior and an almost freshman. Um, yeah. And I wrote it. I'm just, it's amazing how, you know,

somebody I had seen a post a face, I think it was Facebook post one day that they're like, you

never know, um, when you set your child down after you've been holding them, yeah, that it will

be the last time you pick them up because they've gotten too big, right? And it got me thinking

about how many lasts you have like a piggyback ride carrying them, yeah, holding their hand walking

them to school, like all of these things. And then one day they're just, they've just grown out of it

or they're too big. And you never know that that moment is the last moment you have of that with

your child until it's already passed. Right. And I wrote the song about those moments.

It's like sometimes you're looking back at an old picture and you think, yeah, when was the last

time that he wore that, that Darth Raider mask? Well, my kids still wear it. Yeah, you just think,

they just, it's, you know, it's those moments where you're raising them to, for them to grow up

and to leave the nest and to spread their wings. But it's at the same time, it's, it's bitter sweet.

Yeah. Yeah. When, when's the last time that they, they come to you to snuggle? I know.

It's usually me saying, give your mom a hug, please. No, mom.

Come on. I know exactly. So yeah, I wrote this song about that. And I don't think there's

enough songs out there of, you know, raising kids and being a mom. And that's my life. And so

I write about that. That's pretty cool. Yeah. I like it. Songs from a mom's perspective. We're here

with Marta Hanson, the piano gal. Let's take a listen to that song. This is called The Last

Marta Hanson. You're listening to Maxing Gradio. We are local music shop local, eat local, listen

local. This is Maxing Gradio. We are local music.