As a creative, Christina Hansen often finds herself working in two different directions.
As a licensed and registered architect with over 25 years of experience across the country, Hansen describes the duties she performs as an “outside-in” type of experience. Working with her clients and collaborators on projects requires Hansen to make her work “look” polished on the outside — a consummate translation of a vision from her client’s imagination into reality. On the inside, however, Hansen’s process is much messier than the stunning creations she helps bring to life for her customers.
On the flip side, Hansen is also a musician, vocalist and voice actress. This, she says, is her “inside-out” work — a process imbued with a more internal, personal touch that manifests itself on the “outside” of her final creations.
Hansen, who spent much of her architectural career in New York, moved back home in the mid-2000s to Marin, where she was born and raised, and established her own architectural practice. However, Hansen has always been “spinning plates,” as she puts it, with her musical side always bubbling within.
Hansen’s most recent project with producer Roger Greenawalt, “Rocket Girl,” is a manifestation of that simmering, just-below-the-surface relationship that she has gradually cultivated with her musical side — a creativity she felt was missing from her architectural practice.
After record label executive Michael Mistroff unearthed and expressed interest in a cache of songs Hansen had written and shelved decades previously while visiting Greenawalt in Pasadena in 2021, she began to explore the new life and relevancy that her work had suddenly taken on. Hansen says that Mistroff felt that the music was “important for the world to hear.” After listening to some of the project’s early tracks like “Fire Engine 563” and “Theme Song,” Mistroff contacted Hansen to collaborate on an official release for the music which spurred the character explorations and soundtrack-like storytelling that is present in the work today.
The project currently consists of three EPs (“Escapism Inspiration,” “Desperate Urgency” and “Fever Dream”) based around the character development of the imaginary, futuristic Rocket Girl and her time-traveling, rocket-launching, space-exploring escapades, with more music set to be released upcoming. Though “Rocket Girl” is in its early “startup company” stage, as Hansen would put it, there is only room to grow. In fact, in June, Rocket Girl experienced a +15,400% change in listeners worldwide. Hansen hopes to sustain the growth that “Rocket Girl” has already achieved.
Below is an edited Q&A with Hansen about her latest work.
What is Rocket Girl? Give us an insight into the project and how it came to be.
These songs are going to be released as a library catalog. I had developed 50 songs, 30 songs — I don’t know how many will be released. Many of them I had composed and written a couple decades ago, and then a record label had recently expressed interest. It was something that I had shelved. I’d always enjoyed it, but I never brought it out to the public. It was the work I did after work. I feel like it’s one of these poetic things in life where you plant a seed and you feed it a little bit when you can. You’re not sure what’s going to come of it, and you’re still fully engaged in your other career and all the rest, and it sprouts, and you don’t have control over that. One day, it just becomes interesting to someone.
Who is Rocket Girl? Why did you choose to make this project a character project?
When my demo was listened to, and I was invited to bring these pieces off the shelf, I struggled to answer this question. I listened to it again and I was thinking, ‘Oh gosh. I don’t know what this is.’ And, I’m older now, so I was like ‘This is actually not me anymore.’ But if someone is interested, I need to find a way to make it work. I used my techniques in my character work and went through the catalog of music and studied it. And I was like, ‘I understand who this character is and I want to advocate for that someone.’ The work was really developing the character and the situations around the character.
In addition to your musical and vocal work, you are also an architect and have been professionally trained as a voice actress. Do you ever find that there is crossover between those different lines of work?
It’s all connected conceptually. Rocket Girl is building stuff and she’s trying to make change. In the first EP, “Escapism Inspiration,” is the story of a professional doing the work and feeling that there is more beyond it. That is very architectural. It’s the whole idea of imagining and dreaming about what’s out there beyond our more mundane daily situations. That’s what people do — no matter how much they love or despise their daily. It’s all about wondering and dreaming and searching. It’s about creating.
Where do you draw inspiration from as a musician and a vocalist?
I was coming out of my professional practice, which was a high end practice, and then I would walk into the recording studio very informally. Sometimes I would bring in work that I had written and wanted to try out, and other times it would be crafted on-site, in the moment. It was fun to work with Roger because he and I have a natural thing where I would walk in and I’d be like ‘Oh my gosh I’m so tired this thing happened at work’ and that would be the beginning. In terms of influences, it’s pretty varied. There have been chapters. I can go from opera to synth pop to ’80s. I was influenced by Bjork for some time too. I love all the music where there is room for imagination.
As a working professional, and one with a family, what have some of the biggest challenges been as you’ve dived back into these songs and this project?
I’m someone who, whether it’s with my family or doing work for a client, doesn’t like to do things “sort-of, kind-of.” I’m a committed person. I didn’t want this to just be some hobby. I didn’t have time for hobbies anyway. The first challenge was making the decision to do it. Once I said that I was going to do it, I was like ‘I’m going to love doing this.’ Which sounds weird because it makes it sound like I didn’t like the work in the first place. But it wasn’t my idea to bring it out into the public at that time. Now, the challenge is the support. It’s the marketing and financial support. It feels like a startup company.
“Rocket Girl” focuses a lot on this idea of the “greater good.” What pieces of the “Rocket Girl” project and message are most relevant to listeners now?
The response we’ve been getting is that this is so relevant to today. People wondering, ‘Is it an AI voice that you started out with?’ Who is this person? She sounds young and naïve, but she’s also really wise and she’s talking about all those climate change issues. There’s a lot of reading into today’s world that excites me because the future work that I’m going to be releasing has more to do with that.
What’s up next for “Rocket Girl?”
The dream is that, whether it’s the music or the character, that maybe she becomes the brand of a company or a product. Someone recently told me that they were reading the book “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” and said that “Rocket Girl” was the soundtrack to it. I liked that. I like when people can make connections between things. Someone else said that this project was like the opposite of an AI project. The vision is that she is the face, the icon of good. It can be anything, whether it’s social change or climate change. Again, going back to interpretations, in a lot of the lyric videos they are tied back to planetary issues. I have a whole bunch of other music that I will probably brand differently. You’ve seen the cover art — she’s kind of an AI character, but she’s turning more human. It’ll be in smaller pieces. At the same time I’m pitching to anywhere that’s interested. I would love a partnership and I don’t know how that looks yet.
“Fever Dream,” the next EP in the “Rocket Girl” triptych, will be released on July 26.
