Meet John Hannibal of HVNNIBVL in Downtown LA – Arts District

Today we’d like to introduce you to John Hannibal.

John, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Originally I am from Buffalo, NY. I had always loved music, and art, stemming from a young age of drawing, singing, and playing the drums. I had started making music officially around the age of 12-13; I went by a couple of different names but really only got to a point where things started sounding good enough to me to put out in 2014. In 2014, after years of figuring out a lane for my sound, I decided to hone in on being a Pop singer, writer and producer, and bring light to the HVNNIBVL project. The name comes from my surname, though the “A’s” are replaced with “V’s” to represent the fact that I am the fifth of my name (my full name is John Jacob Hannibal V). The HVNNIBVL project started working in 2016 with songs “Lose” and “No Cover”, charting on Spotify UK’s viral listings at #6 in June 2016 and #36 in February 2017, respectively. In 2017 I also opened for Lil Uzi Vert, blackbear, Poppy, THEY. (from winning a contest submission), & more. 2017’s big independent single, “On & On”, and its remixes were successful, as the Evix remix gathered over 1 Million plays on Trap Nation, while the original was featured in Clash Magazine amongst other notable press features. In 2017 I was also grinding on vocal collabs, including a couple notable vocal features with duo It’s Different, amassing millions of streams with songs “Will You I Will” and “Holding On”.

In 2018, the HVNNIBVL project saw the most success from my remix for PRMD Music (Every Wave – HVNNIBVL Remix), and my work with frequent Zedd collaborator, artist KDrew. Our single “Body of Gold” was featured in Apple Music’s “Hot Tracks” and “A List: Dance” for weeks in the March/April period. Toward the end of 2018, I took more of a break to refocus on the next steps with my life, as I was graduating from college (I was in college at the University at Buffalo while all of this was happening). In February 2019, I came to LA with the hopes of getting acclimated and getting the HVNNIBVL project’s name around beyond just an online presence here (I noticed before that a lot of my traction online was from LA-based listeners). When I came here, I got on the move and got headlining spots at UCLA and The Satellite, and continued to work on new music with a more real portrayal of my sound. For hours and hours, days and nights after my day job, I would sit in my apartment and figure out better techniques for mixing, writing, producing, put together my own branding strategy / made all of my own visual work, and just tried to make sure that the next project was bigger and better. Right now (2020), I’m in the middle of releasing that project and have seen some pretty solid traction via streaming and press – very thankful for everyone who has been supporting this project, which will at the end of the release of singles in October 2020 be titled “Reasonably, Relative”.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ah man. With any great story comes the struggle. I would say the hardest things have been growing up surrounding the challenges I faced internally with my family, the fact that I went to school for something I didn’t want to do but knew would be helpful and just trying to maintain the drive to continue to pursue music as a passion and turn it into my career against the odds. I definitely hit a snag my Junior year of college where I realized that the amount of work going into this was draining me, as the music had become far more of a business than an enjoyment. That is a large part of why I had to take a small step back and re-evaluate what it was that I wanted from it. My goals have never shifted though; everything I’ve been through in my life has made me stronger and pushed me in the direction of wanting and NEEDING to be a successful entrepreneur in entertainment. I love so many facets of music and art and continuously push forward in developing my skills with it, regardless of what else is going on in my life. 2020 specifically for all has been a huge challenge and has put people in dark places, but I think that if you use it as an opportunity to try to develop in other areas while you have a little more time (in some cases) you can come out of this ready to go much more than before. It’s all about the way you view life – are your circumstances going to control you in a positive or negative manner?

Please tell us about HVNNIBVL.
HVNNIBVL is a Pop project – I use that term because Pop just encompasses whatever genre is at the forefront. Right now, it is more hip hop based, not too long ago it was Dance music based, and before that it was alternative rock-based, before that more R&B based – that just about sums up the length of my life so far (I was born in ’96). I’m proud of that because it takes a specific person to be malleable enough to move with the times and blend sounds/song structures together to make something great. There are so many great defining artists/producers like Benny Blanco, Max Martin, Skrillex, Bruno Mars, Usher, Chris Brown, many many more (as that convo could get into the Stevie Wonders, Lionel Richies and Michael Jacksons amongst many of the past generation) – just people that I look up to that continue to move with the times and make fantastic output. I bring this up because I base what I do and how I operate off of great people within Pop. I segment out my talents as a producer, engineer, singer, songwriter – whatever I’m needed to do in the moment to help other people and help myself by doing all of it myself. That is certainly what I’m proud of and without sounding conceited, good at, that sets me apart and continues to push me forward with more people.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
There’s a few things, so I’ll be a little more general but I have to split it into two things because I was raised in 2 families as a child of divorce. On my Mom’s side – I always remember / value my time with my cousins, holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc. Playing the drums and running around in my basement, making music on my laptop, going shopping with my Mom. My Mom and my grandparents (my Ammamma and Thatha), through their support, were the reason I was able to actually start creating any music in the first place – so that was one of the biggest pushes for me to be able to do this. On my Dad’s side, I remember loving more from my younger youth, where I would dance around with my brother to classics that my Dad and grandfather would put on, baking cookies and such with my Grandma, and again – spending time with my cousins on that side. I just had a lot of people around when I was younger that made things so special, so it’s hard to pinpoint an exact memory – but all of that is what made me in part today. You get older and start to lose some of that innocence until you really think about it like I did now. I’m very thankful for all of the good times and the bad to equally help me grow.

Pricing:

• One Spotify / Apple Music stream – free, but makes me about $.0035 – $.006 per stream, so do it up haha

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/hvnnibvlmusic
• Facebook: facebook.com/hvnnibvlmusic
• Twitter: twitter.com/HVNNIBVL
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vTVlsNH3dt1nn4TMkRQIN?si=tTeONUMLTcKZDfg9G9HIAg

Image Credit:
Photo design / editing – John Hannibal (Hvnnibvl) – @hvnnibvlmusic, Photography credits – Shane Adams (Inshane Photos) – @inshanephotos

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