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Interview: Hatchie

Interviewed by Olive McCagh



"For me, it was about accepting my abilities and working with what I had rather than constantly striving for something more impressive. Deciding what was best for the song and not feeling like I had to keep working at it over months." HATCHIE


Hatchie returned last year with 'Liquorice', reminding us of her indie stardom and catchy songwriting that we have always loved about her. Brisbane-born Harriette Pilbeam prioritised a healthy relationship with music for her most recent record, allowing the project to connect with her life and relationships. Inspired by old movies that tell tales of love - the good and the bad - Hatchie has created a relatable album full of fuzzy guitars and melodic vocal bites. Her focus on intimacy and autonomy has allowed for this release to be extra special, and we are so excited to have her playing at Against The Grain this June.


 

With Liquorice, I know that you approached this album differently than your past couple, turning your priorities away from success and into making music that feels really natural to you. How did you approach your songwriting differently to achieve this, or did you at all?

I just tried to put less pressure on myself and tried to write the music that I thought I would really enjoy playing live, rather than being concerned about what I think other people might want to hear, what might make more people listen to my music or make more people enjoy coming to my shows. For me, it was about accepting my abilities and working with what I had rather than constantly striving for something more impressive. Deciding what was best for the song and not feeling like I had to keep working at it over months and months and months. Giving songs time to breathe and taking breaks, interweaving it with my personal life rather than completely pausing the rest of my life to write an album. It wasn’t like this huge mountain that I had to climb.

That's great that you've confronted that already. I guess it's going to help you move forward as an artist in that way, which I can imagine is a much more sustainable way to do it all.

 

 

I'm really curious if there's anything that inspires you and where you look to step into this headspace?

For this album in particular, I was inspired by movies a lot more than in the past. How effectively they conveyed feelings that I haven't had for a really long time, and they were able to transport me back to them within seconds. I think that's something that's really powerful about art and about creating is being able to teleport people to a different time and place or emotion. I was really inspired by that. I think especially because the relationship that I've been for a long time, I don't know, nobody wants to hear about my marriage woes. So, it felt more interesting to me to kind of draw from those external inspirations this time around.


 

Liquorice is all about love and the complications that come with it. How does it reflect your life when you were writing this record, I guess you said you looked externally. Is there anything from your own life you put into this album?

I'm a very emotional person, particularly when I was younger, and I was testing the boundaries of love and lust and figuring out what I wanted to get out of relationships. I think that's probably the main thing. That's the biggest part of me in this album; I'm a deeply emotional person. As much as I try to be cool, calm and collected and not show it, I'm very much a hopeless romantic at heart. I've had my fair share of heartbreaks, so that came very easily to me.





I wanted to ask because I'm quite interested in how the environment interlinks with art and I was wondering if there were any memorable places you could paint me a picture of, from when you wrote songs for the album.

Yeah, I guess with this one it was very DIY. I didn't do any writing sessions. I didn't do anything in a studio. It was all very simple and basic setups: me at my desk, not even using guitar pedals, just plugging straight in. I tried to strip everything back and make it as simple as possible and be as self-reliant as I could be. I think that really helped me feel more attuned to what I was doing. I isolated myself for a lot of it and took myself to Maleny/Montville for one weekend to start a few of the songs, and that was really lovely. There was one song that we wrote in New York with a friend. But other than that, it was all me and Joe, my husband, just doing it at home.

 


I wanted to ask because in other interviews you've reflected on your move back to Melbourne from LA and how you found importance in being with family, friends and familiarity. I was really curious. Who do you look to for feedback on your songs and who are you playing them to first? I guess you just mentioned working with your husband.

Sure, it’s definitely him. Joe's the first person. He's kind of the only person that I show my music to. I feel like I'm a little ‘woo woo’ about showing people stuff before it's out. I don't really share my music that much, even with my closest friends. I'm very insular and private about it. I'm a pretty self-conscious person as well, particularly with what I make. Joe's the person that I trust the most in the world, both creatively and emotionally, so I always feel comfortable showing him stuff. Even if it's just to show someone to feel like it's real. I'll tell him beforehand if I want like feedback or not and he's been the perfect sounding board for everything. We wrote the song Carousel together and that was a song idea of his that we fleshed out. A couple of other songs I started and he helped me finish. Even the ones that I wrote by myself, he was just the best person to show them to, to be like, “Do you think I am taking this in the right direction?” Or “should this song be longer?” Or “should I try something different for this section or what?” He's always got really good feedback because we have really similar tastes. But he’s got a better ear for production than me. He's really great for boosting the songs and getting them to where they need to be.

 


I wanted to talk about preparing for the tour because your album was released in November of last year. Could you walk me through what the process is like from release to the stage?

I'm so lucky to have Joe because he can set up the whole live show for me. We use a lot of backing tracks live, because it's the only way to really pull off certain songs that have like one hundred layers. Joe really takes care of that part, and we just practise as much as possible.

We thought about how we want the album to be visually represented. So, Joe and I did a lot of brainstorming and a lot of mood boarding to figure out all the colours and textures that we're using with all the artwork and everything. We did the album cover photo together in our backyard and I knew that I wanted a main colour. I wanted to have really earthy tones, really warm romantic tones. So, I knew that I wanted like a dark, deep red wine, Burgundy red to be the main colour of the album.

We just take it a day at a time. Whenever we've tried to plan things super far in advance, it's just ended up that things change along the way. So, you can't really plan that far in advance. We just take it like show by show and event by event and single by single and do it all ourselves.

Yeah. Lovely. That's so cool. I think that'd be a good amount of autonomy to have on a project. I feel like that's quite rare for artists.

Yeah, totally.





You debuted under Hatchie in 2018, but previously you played in groups Go Violet and Babaganouj, and I wanted to ask about them because I'm quite a big fan. I was wondering how those experiences have shaped you as an artist, and if you ever find those fingerprints still on your work now?

For sure. I think that really taught me how to collaborate and how to focus on what's best for the song. I mentioned it can be challenging playing music as a group, but it's also so much fun. Anytime I've done stuff solo, like done solo touring or solo recording, it's definitely nowhere near as fun as playing with a group. So, it really made me appreciate working together and collaborating on projects. It’s really where I learnt how to tour, how to do everything sustainably, how to look after myself on the road and how to put the project first and forget about ego. I think that is really important and something that you can only really learn when you're in a group setting. So yeah, it taught me how to tour and how to write music. I feel like I took all the best parts of those projects and tried to put them into this one. I'm lucky that I did that so young and could figure out what I liked and disliked about being a musician before starting this project.

 

 

You're currently on the album run promoting Liquorice, you've played a couple US dates and you're back in Brisbane soon for Against the Grain Festival. I wanted to know how the brand new record has been performing live with audiences.

It's been so good. It's been one of our favourite shows ever. Honestly, I feel like we've really figured out how to have fun on stage and not worry too much. We've started booking consistently with the same sound person as well, which has really helped us feel more comfortable. And when you feel comfortable, you play your best shows. So that's been really amazing. We’re just trying to play less shows so that the shows are more special and we're not getting completely burnt out on tour by just playing a hundred shows. I think that's made everything feel more rewarding and special as well because we are just appreciating everything more. This time around, we also didn't tour too much until everyone had a chance to get to know the album. Which has been really cool because everyone knows all the words to the songs already. You're not touring a bunch of songs that no one knows yet, where you're getting blank faces looking back at you and people trying to suss out the songs and figure out if they like it or not. Everyone in the crowd has been super receptive, and it feels like they really want to be there and they're having a great time. So, I'm feeling really happy with the shows at the moment.

 


On tour, what keeps you grounded? What essentials are you packing in your bag to stay sane on the road? 

Good question. I always have so much crap in my bag. I feel like the main thing for me on tour is just getting enough sleep. So, if it means not hanging out after the show and missing out on the super fun times, so be it. Because if I'm cranky, I'm going to ruin everyone's day. The main thing for me, I'm really big on bedtime routine and feeling clean and at peace. So, for me, I’ve always got my water bottle, I've got my moisturiser, I've got my vitamins. I'm very much a health nut on the road. Unfortunately, I don't have that much fun on the road in terms of partying these days, because it's the only way to protect my peace.

 



Hatchie is performing at Against The Grain Festival on June 20th.


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