Jeff Hanson was a singer-songwriter, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, whose voice was described in a 2005 Paste review as an "angelic falsetto, a cross between Alison Krauss and Art Garfunkel that is often mistaken for a female contralto". Hanson's vocal style is sometimes compared to Elliott Smith's singing manner.
"I grew up in a musical house. My parents were big music fans. And luckily for me, they were fans of really good 1960s bands like the Beatles and the Stones and the Kinks and the Who and all those bands that had such an influence, that just hit me hard at a really young age. All this really good music. You know, 26 years later, I'm still listening to it all and still liking it very much. Saturday night at my house, when I was a kid, would be record night. It would be my dad picking out all these records, and we would play them until... well, until bedtime. And that was, like, every Saturday night. So music was just such a big part of me growing up."
He started learning guitar at the age of four years and was involved in musical theatre at 10, then shortly afterwards joined a boy's choir for 3 years. By the age of 13 formed the emo/indie rock band M.I.J. with bandmates Ryan Scheife and Mike Kennedy. The band released a 7" on One Percent Records, an EP and a full album on Caulfield Records and remained active for seven years.
Career
He began a solo career in 2003 and was the first artist to be signed to Kill Rock Stars Records after sending in an unsolicited demo tape. He released three albums for the label, Son in 2003 and Jeff Hanson in 2005 recorded at Presto! Recording Studios with AJ Mogis and Mike Mogis. His third album titled Madam Owl was released on August 19, 2008. The song "Hiding Behind the Moon" was used in the episode 6 of the first season of the TV series Nip/Tuck. A previously unpublished song "Daylight" appeared on the compilation The Sound the Hare Heard in 2006.
In 2005 Hanson married Megan Anzelc, credited on his two albums "Son" with piano and electric piano, as well as "Jeff Hanson" with accordion, keyboards and piano. They divorced in 2008. Hanson was found dead by his parents on June 5, 2009 in his St. Paul apartment, into which he had recently moved. The cause of death was mixed drug toxicity. The medical examiner's office was unable to determine whether the death was accidental or intentional.
