Johnny Horwood, Chris Horwood, and Hannah Noll performing at Hillcrest Coffee| Photo courtesy of David William Wilt
Jacob Howard
Staff Writer
Seniors Johnny Horwood, Chris Horwood and Hannah Noll have taken their original music to the stage at local Lakeland venues.
The Horwood twins first started working with Noll when J. Horwood was asked by his producer’s brother to find an opener for his band. She was the first person that came to mind.
J. Horwood and C. Horwood have been performing together pretty much since they figured out that they could sing. Music was always present in the twins’ childhood, as their mother was a music teacher. They began picking up the ukulele around the age of three, and added other instruments, like the piano and guitar, shortly after. While they primarily performed at funerals and weddings with their siblings, the twins didn’t start song writing until shortly after arriving at FSC.
J. Horwood was able to find an escape in life by writing songs during a time of grieving over the loss of a loved one. After years of continuing to improve their song writing abilities, he created his debut album, “Letter to My Younger Self,” in July of this year. The album tackles themes of struggling to make it out of mental slumps, finding assurance on how time works things out, nostalgia, grief, feeling homesick, accepting change, taking control of your future, finding the faith to move forward and self-validation.
With the hard work that both twins put into the release of the album, doors began to open leading to the twins getting to performing their original work for the first time in Lakeland and even Nashville during fall break. They have had a lot of validation in being able to perform this semester, being able to hear the audience singing their lyrics and knowing all the effort that went into recording and writing was worth it as artists. Johnny opened up about the crowd singing along to his song “Find Home” at Hillcrest Coffee, how it made him realize that he loves performing his own music over covers.
Noll is a double major in communications in advertising and public relations and musical theatre. She has been performing for about a year, showcasing her originally composed music in the spring of this year at Union Hall. Since then, J. Horwood invited Noll to perform her own set at Hillcrest Coffee and Union Hall’s Lakeland Indie Bash, which happened in November.
Noll started writing her music around the age of 15. Alongside song writing, she has fours years of piano experience and is teaching herself guitar. Noll got confident in her song writing at 17. Since getting to perform at both Hillcrest Coffee and Union Hall this year, she’s felt really affirmed in her desire as a songwriter and performer. She’s described the experience as a “new challenge in performing.” While she isn’t the type to get anxious on stage with her history in theater, performing her own originally composed music has given Noll a new stage to be herself on.
Though Noll doesn’t have any upcoming gigs lined up just yet, she has big plans for music going into the year 2025. She has been sitting on an EP and is waiting for the chance to get the project produced and recorded sometime in the spring semester. The EP is titled “Pull of Friction” and is expected to drop sometime before May next year. Noll described how writing the EP has helped her learn about growth, comfortability in breaking daily patterns and self-acceptance in the way that she loves.
Noll continues to learn more about her approach to music and song writing with plans to pick up instruments like the banjo and even considers writing sheet music to incorporate orchestral components, as well. After graduating this spring, Noll plans on moving to Nashville to continue her passion for singing and song writing, hoping to also find an opportunity to work in marketing, as well. She is also open to the idea of performing and acting on cruise ships.
For the Horwood twins, the two will be spending most of their spring semester in Nashville during their internships. Both twins will be interning at Nashvox Studios. He will mostly be producing and audio engineering along with catalog grading, which is where you listen to a song and grade it without bias.
J. Horwood also secured an internship with the Nashville Songwriters Association, where he will be around publishers, songwriters, to learn about the setup of their songwriters’ festival.
The two are working to release an album in April 2025 as a collective after finishing their internships. Until then, they continue to promote “Letter To My Younger Self” under J. Horwood, and C. Horwood’s single “Better Half” under Chris Coastal. While both twins will soon spend their spring semester in Nashville, they are both optimistic about continuing to perform and produce music with Noll in the future.
