She Kicks a Beat: Wilky Striking Sweet to the Soul (Hannah Wilkinson interview)

New Zealand forward Hannah Wilkinson has played four major international tournaments, come back from an ACL injury between a World Cup and an Olympics, and carried a guitar through all of it. She started playing at twelve and describes music as the thing that calms her when football’s pressures build, which she says happens often. She began performing publicly on national team duty in Cyprus and has since played small venues in Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Ireland, with professional recording an ambition. At Rio 2016 she formed a band with three ukulele-carrying team mates, inevitably named Wilky and the Uku-Ladies. Her admiration for Texan artist Shakey Graves inspired a home-made suitcase kick drum, which she had to leave behind in Knoxville when she moved to Sweden.