Holly Hansen

Holly Hansen is well known for her band Zoo Animal and other projects, and she is also a music-community organizer and sound engineer. Each week at the 331 Club she hosts t.e.e. (Tuesday, Early Evening), a space for local musicians to experiment and share what they’re working on. Since 2008, Hansen has taken Zoo Animal from a solo songwriting project to a fully-fledged, heavy-gigging band, and put out three records that tracked her own personal growth, shifting beliefs and identity, and musical exploration. With Hansen on guitar and vocals, 2008’s Young Blood and 2010’s Zoo Animal won Hansen critical and popular acclaim in the Minneapolis music scene, with comparisons to Cat Power and Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards, and producing partnerships with the likes of Low’s Alan Sparhawk. In October 2018, all three Zoo Animal records were re-released by Waxploitation Records along with previously unreleased Zoo Animal recordings to give Hansen’s fiery, minimal, guitar-driven rock past its due, and to showcase new Holly Hansen music to come.

In 2019 she released the Naive Enough EP (Suntanman Records), the first new Zoo Animal recording in 7 years, to critical acclaim, supporting Trampled by Turtles, The Cactus Blossoms, and touring with Damien Jurado. Holly is a City Pages Artist of the Year (2011) and Best Live Artist (2012), the recipient of a Minnesota Emerging Composer Award from the American Composers Forum (2017), and was named one of “9 Queer Musicians to Watch in 2020” by Twin Cities Pride Magazine, in addition to many other awards and accolades.