Hanne Kah Confronts How Women Are Treated in the Industry on “Trick Me”

You keep falling out of space / You keep turning worlds around / The next day you burn them to the ground, sings German indie-folk singer Hanne Kah on the hypnotic and revelatory “Trick Me.”

Kah’s first new music since 2019 album, Y, “Trick Me” addresses the often unspoken treatment women face within the music industry, from executives to peers and collaborators, spanning condescending language, emotional abuse, and more which she has personally experienced, particularly as a queer woman.

“‘Trick Me’ is our own take on the old saying, ‘Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me,’” Kah shares with American Songwriter. “Having dealt with many toxic and destructive relationships in my past, I felt it was time to get these words out.”

Whispering a refrain of trick me once, trick me twice beneath more sharpened lyrics — Paid my dues, waited in line / And prayed for it to take some time / I lost the clear view in the mist —Kah unravels some of the experiences. Some were specifically linked to several past collaborators when she found herself talked down to and treated unprofessionally.

“I think we can all relate to that certain feeling when you’ve been through something horrible and you just want to file it under ‘experience’ or ‘lesson learned,’ because those are the only positive aspects you can take from it,” shares Kah. “This song is a reminder to listen to your gut because sometimes it makes wiser decisions than your oh-so-powerful heart.”

Working with guitarist Patrick Jost, the song began fleshing out more. Jost also admits that “Trick Me” was also inspired by one particular Fleetwood Mac classic.

“The music just came to me,” said Jost. “When we were preparing to go to the record studio earlier this year, every time I walked into my music room and grabbed my guitar, these chords squeezed themselves out of my fingers. I’ve been listening to Fleetwood Mac quite a lot at that time, just trying to suck in that magic and see what it could do for me. Once I had this song, it felt like my own personal ‘Go Your Own Way.’”

Based in Germany, Hanne Kah is steadily pushing into the U.S. since 2016 debut Handful of Secrets. Kah also recently performed at the Folk Alliance in Kansas City, Missouri.

“My wish is that German artists are seen more and more on an equal footing with established international bands and that we don’t have to hide,” says Kah. “Us women in the music industry are struggling with a wide variety of challenges, and I hope that many young women in the music scene will be inspired so that more and more talented and self-confident women will assert themselves in the music industry in the future.”

Photos: Hanne Kah /  Niklas Quernheim / Courtesy of Present PR