Maddie Hogan, who performs locally, says she is ‘a walking music note’
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
TOWN BANK – Singer-songwriter Maddie Hogan takes requests.
That isn’t unusual for a performer who sings and plays guitar at local venues around the area. What may be surprising is the range of her repertoire and her musical influences.
Hogan, a Pennsylvania native who now lives in the Town Bank section of Lower Township, loves to sing, no matter the genre. “I am music,” she said with a smile in her voice during a recent interview. “I’m a walking musical note.”
She can go from rhythm and blues singer Etta James’ “At Last” to songs by cartoon Disney princesses. She’ll do a country-pop number by Shania Twain, a rendition of political anthem “Zombie” by Irish rockers The Cranberries and a Sinatra tune.
“I love and appreciate all music. It’s all beauty,” she said. “I think that when people make requests I always tell them if I know it, I’ll play it. If I don’t, I’m sorry. I’ll try my best to learn it for next time. I just try to have a little bit of everything in my repertoire.”
Hogan performs for herself and for her audience.
“I like to feel the energy from the audience and I like to see the smiles. I like to see people singing along and clapping their hands, tapping their foot, bouncing along. I like to see people enjoying themselves and I like bringing happiness to people’s lives. It truly makes me happy,” she said.
Turning serious for a moment, she added, “I struggled with depression for a long time in my life, so making other people happy, it really makes me happy. Maybe that’s a little selfish, but it’s how I get through life.”
As quickly as the somber moment comes into play, she is buoyant again.
“I like making other people laugh, too. I like saying silly, goofy things into the microphone and making people laugh between songs. When I first started doing it … I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I just said that,’ and I’d turn all red. And now I just go with it. This is me. I’m an artist. This is who I am. I’m a person. You can think I’m weird and I’m OK with that.”
Whether singing Janis Joplin or Rosemary Clooney, she personalizes the songs. Listeners will recognize the tunes, but with a Maddie Hogan interpretation.
“I put myself into the song. I sing it my way,” she said.
“When I sing songs and play songs, when I learn songs and pick songs to learn, I have to make sure I can connect with it in some sort of way even just a little bit,” Hogan said. “Otherwise, if I’m singing it, it’s a blank page. There are some songs and some artists that some people request and ask me to play, but … I don’t relate to that artist. It’s no offense to that artist, it’s that I can’t relate and play my own version of that artist or that song.”
When she was growing up she loved singers Christina Aguilera and Beyoncé, but she got important advice from her father, who was a lead singer in a band before she was born.
“Growing up trying to find my voice, I often mimicked those two artists and I sounded a lot like them. People said, ‘You sound just like Christina Aguilera. You sound just like Beyoncé when you do certain songs.’ My dad, actually, put his foot down and said, ‘Maddie, you sound too much like them. You need to find your own voice.’”
She was in high school then and initially didn’t appreciate the advice.
“At first, I got mad at him …. Then it sunk in. I don’t want to be on the radio and have someone think it is Christina Aguilera. I want them to hear me. And be like, ‘That’s Maddie.’”
Her father gave her both her musical abilities and diverse interests.
“I have him to thank for introducing me to Frank Sinatra, Kiss, the Beatles, Tomeka (Reid), the composer; he’s amazing.” Hogan enjoys Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Julie Andrews and Rosemary Clooney. “I love to sing those classic artists.” She also loves to sing Disney princess songs and songs by Kiss, especially vocals by Paul Stanley.
Hogan’s dad, a Kiss fan, got his daughter hooked on the band when she was a child. Hogan’s mother was beginning a face-painting business around 1995-96, when Hogan was 5 or 6 years old, and the whole family went to a Kiss concert in Philadelphia. Her mother painted the family as different band members. (For those unfamiliar, Kiss is a rock band that formed in 1973 and the four members wore elaborate black and white face paint and costumes.)
Hogan remembers rocking out – as much as a child can rock out – at the concert, but is slightly embarrassed about what happened.
“I was hooting and hollering and screaming and next thing I know I’m waking up and there is confetti falling and the lights were on. I fell asleep during a Kiss concert,” she laughed.
Her fandom hasn’t diminished. She went to see Kiss play Madison Square Garden last year. She didn’t fall asleep this time, but she still wore the makeup.
She loves the band because of the members’ musicianship and that lead singer Paul Stanley “has a helluva voice.” It’s also more than that.
“I love and I appreciate that they love their fans,” she said. “They are constantly giving shout-outs to their fans and they look at everyone in the eyes. Gene Simmons looked at me. He sure did,” she laughed. “I know for a fact he looked at me at Madison Square Garden and I was going to pass out then. Not again!”
“They make their fans feel loved. They make me feel like they love me. And I love them. A lot of artists don’t make me feel like that. A lot of excellent artists that I respect and love, I see them live and I don’t feel the love back. I do with them and it makes me cry. I’m very emotional. I appreciate that they love us.
“And it makes me want to portray that kind of love to my fans and let them know, ‘Hey, I love you.’”
Singer-songwriter
While most of Hogan’s performances are songs by other artists, she writes her own music.
“My songs are relatable. I pull them right out of my journal. My aim as an artist is to let people know they’re not alone, that ‘hey, I’ve struggled too and I’ve gone through this.’
“And also love songs. I like to write songs seeing people going through situations. I will take a step back, put myself in their shoes, pretend that I’m them, and write down all these thoughts and feelings about how I must feel being that person going through this. Then I write a song first-person, as that person. That’s story writing.”
“Soldier,” she said, is the “most personal song I’ve ever written and released” and she has received positive feedback. While preparing for a July 5 show at Rotary Park in Cape May, she ordered a pair of custom-made “blinged-out patriotic heels” from a woman in Texas. The woman wanted to hear some of Hogan’s music so she directed her to “Soldier,” which is on her website, www.officialmaddiehogan.com and on YouTube. (She also has a Facebook page under “maddieleehogan.”) The craftswoman emailed her, saying she was sobbing when she heard the song.
“She said thank you so much for my words. … That makes what I do worthwhile. I told her, ‘You are a soldier yourself for everything you’ve been through.’ This song is for everyone, not just for what I’ve been through, but for everyone.’”
Hogan recorded her first single, “Wrong Guy,” in February, but hasn’t released it yet. She is going to record another song so if fans like the first one, they can hear more. She is collaborating with producer Joe Nicola, who has worked with The Fugees, Cypress Hill and Kevin Bacon, among others.
Her goal is to record her songs as soon as possible “because time is flying by.” She wants to release them on iTunes and put them on records – 45s, to be exact. “I think that is really cool, classic. Everyone has CDs. I want to sell records.”
And her dream is to collaborate with artists, including Kiss and, again showing her glorious eclectic nature, Eminem. “Besides Kiss, he’s my favorite artist,” Hogan said of the Detroit rapper. “He is so incredibly talented. Oh my God. He is a genius. If I ever get to collaborate with Eminem, that’s my dream come true.” Laughing, she added, “Then I can settle down, get married and have kids.”
Where Maddie Hogan is performing soon
She’ll be playing from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 25, at Hawk Haven Winery in Rio Grande; from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 28, at the West Cape May Farmers Market; 8 to 11 p.m. Saturdays, Aug. 1 and Aug. 15, at The Reeds at Shelter Haven in Stone Harbor; 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7, at the Mudhen Brewery in Wildwood; and 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 23, at the Westside Saloon in West Wildwood.