Hohnen Ford on building a community, hating Christmas, and third EP 'Incurable Optimist' • Neu • DIY Magazine

“I’ll rest when I’m dead,” Hohnen Ford quips down the phone. It rings true: the north London singer-songwriter has hardly stopped this year, opening for Finneas and Orla Gartland on back-to-back tours; sandwiching those between stints in LA writing her latest EP, ‘Incurable Optimist’; headlining her own tours in Europe and the UK, and finding time for a run around the festival circuit before joining Patrick Watson on the road. It’s from their show in Nantes, squeezing a call in between soundcheck and stage call, that she’s able to chat. “There have definitely been moments of overwhelm, I can’t lie to you,” she laughs, reflecting on her full calendar. “The show must go on!”

The show is very much going on: to round off the year she has a Christmas EP on the horizon, and a recently-announced date at London’s Hoxton Hall - string quartet and special guests to boot - to celebrate the occasion. The only slight problem? Hohnen hates Christmas. “I think a lot of people are quite disappointed when I say that, because I make sort of wintry music and I’m a wholesome person,” she says. “I think the music is really great! That’s Christmas’ redeeming factor, so I’m trying to lean into that.”

It’s a wintry, wholesome feeling that permeates her new EP, fittingly released at the start of October. Think crisp walks through the park under newly-orange leaves, cosy nights in with friends and fishing your big coat back out the wardrobe. Hohnen was on tour in Paris the day ‘Incurable Optimist’ came out. By showtime, the audience were word-perfect. “I really try and not have any preconception of how things might be perceived, because it will never be what you think it will be,” she says of the release, “but it’s been really beautiful, nourishing and inspiring.”

Hohnen’s is the schedule of someone determined to make 2025 the year to “abolish insecurity” - no biggie. “2024 was the year of holding boundaries with people that walk over them,” she explains. “[2025] was the year of security. I think working on your insecurities, like going to therapy, isn’t just for you; it’s for everyone around you. If I can be more secure in myself I’m a better artist, and a better person to people around me, so that’s my intention.”

“I feel like I work in a community. It means that my artistic pursuit is not about me — it’s about us, and that’s all I can ask for.”

After taking up piano and flute as a child, Hohnen’s interest in jazz led her to studying at the Royal Academy of Music. While her background in the genre perhaps explains her instinct when performing live, it took time - and the isolation of lockdown - for her to realise what she wanted to say as a writer, and to escape the perception (“who knows how much of it was my own narrative and how much was actually there?”) that to attract an audience is to compromise your artistry.

“I always said, growing up, that I wanted to be Prime Minister, work in communities or do music,” she recalls. “I don’t feel like I’m Prime Minister! But I feel like I work in a community. I feel so seen by the people around me and I think, and hope, that they feel seen by the Hohnen Ford world. It means that my artistic pursuit is not about me - it’s about us, and that’s all I can ask for.”

‘Incurable Optimist’ culminates in the standout sunny lullaby ‘Tomorrow’s Tomorrow’, but it’s the second track ‘Ordinary’ that has a special place in her heart. Despite it not making anyone in her team’s top five when it came to selecting the EP tracklist, Hohnen’s belief in the moodier, more abstract cut was validated by fans’ glowing reaction. “I trust my audience so much, and they get me and they get that song,” she says. “I feel proud of that decision to stick to my guns.”

It’s a testament, too, that she’s stuck to her New Year’s resolution-of-sorts. As for 2026? “Maybe there’s something in it being the year of conviction,” she muses. “I’ll let you know.”

‘Incurable Optimist’ is out now via Giant Music.

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