Photos and feature by Monica Kurowski
Summer in New York is nearly coming to an end. But by the looks of the weather my trek to Bushwick Inlet Park with Harriette Pilbeam, you wouldn’t even know it. It’s sunny, hot and humid. Pilbeam’s debut album, Keepsake, released under the moniker Hatchie, was brought into the world on the first day of summer this year. Two months later, she embarks on a full fleshed U.S. tour in support of the record, beginning with a show at Brooklyn’s Rough Trade. I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to sit down with the rising Aussie star and chat all things about her whirlwind of a career.
The last time you played here was with Japanese Breakfast just a few days after your album came out. How has the reception been different now that it’s been out for a few months?
It’s been really good. I feel like the shows really illustrate that more than anything when people know the songs. But I definitely have felt a bit of a surge since the album came out. Even of just feeling more of a connection to people through social media commenting about their favorite songs and stuff.
I’ve definitely seen “Stan” Twitter coming your way.
Yeah! And I’ve definitely had more communication with people, so now I’ve got more of a connection that way. So it’s been really cool. But I feel like this next month will really illustrate that even more.
I know that you’ve had some of these songs sitting with you for quite a long time, even while you were still in school. So it’s like a new chapter of your life is ready to start.
Totally, it’s been a long time coming.
You’re just beginning to take off on a full tour of America. I know you’ve previously mentioned that what most Americans see as boring on the road, you find interesting about this country. What have you seen so far that maybe has been weird but has managed to capture your attention?
Nothing yet this trip because we haven’t been here long enough. I feel like with big drives, it’s the landscapes that we see and even just all the pit stops – I don’t know, it’s kind of hard to explain. Australia is such a huge country, like America, but between the major cities there’s not much going on. And the major cities are like 12 hour drives apart on the East Coast. If you drive from Brisbane to Sydney, there’s not much to see. There’s like three landmarks.
When you drive for long enough in a country, everything starts to look the same.
Exactly. Whereas in America, the cities are a lot closer together, so the drives are a lot more fun and there’s more to look at. But maybe it’s because we’re foreign so it looks different to us.
I understand, it’s like New York eventually loses its shine.
Exactly, it’s still weird. Even last night it took us 45 minutes to find parking. Oh well, it’s all part of it.
You’ve spent most of your youth living in Brisbane, do you still live there?
Yes!
So you haven’t gotten sick enough to the point where you have to leave and come back to it?
Hopefully in the next two years — we really wanna move somewhere, I don’t know where, maybe to like LA or something? But I’m still kind of figuring that out. Just really enjoying life with my family and friends.
In other interviews you have made it very clear that you don’t like to be pigeonholed by genre. For people who haven’t really listened to Hatchie, without using genre related terms, how would you describe your sound?
I guess it’s kind of like sparkling nostalgia for a lot of it. Originally, especially when I was deciding on what I wanted my sound to be like two years ago, a lot of influences that I wrote down were words like sparkling and shiny. Yeah, it’s kind of hard to do without saying genre names.
Your music definitely evokes a feeling of nostalgia. I think that this album, Keepsake, specifically really documents a coming of age. I can 100% see it in those teen romance movies.
Totally, I get that a lot and I love that. I remember when I was doing the EP, I wanted it to sound and be euphoric. And I felt like a couple of those songs really did that for me, but with the album I kind of wanted to expand on that a bit more and have more dark, harsher sounds.
You typically record melodies first, since they come to your head quickest, and then you go to a “lyric bank.” What kind of lyrics can be found there?
I mean, it’s just a massive note on my phone and it’s been going for a few years now. It’s literally just like little phrases, sentences – there’s a lot. Just random things that come to mind. Sometimes I’ll have like a couple of verses ready to go that can be slotted in or sometimes it’s just a word that I really like that I’ve heard recently that I don’t want to forget and incorporate somewhere.
Has it ever been the other way around where you already know what you are trying to do lyrically and then the melody comes to you?
Yeah, a little, but not much. Most of the times it’s the melody first. Or sometimes I’ll have a concept. I’ll be like, “Oh, I want to write a song about this.”
Like with “Obsessed.” You’ve brought up that you wanted it to sound like a scrapbook by copying and pasting the instrumentals. But that was definitely intentional, you wanted it to mimic obsessive behavior over a person.
That’s exactly that. So yeah, that one was one where I really did plan it out.
On a different note, it’s great to see that you’re getting the acclaim that you deserve. I know that it’s coming at you fast, but it seems like you’re also taking it a step at a time.
Yeah, it’s been good. It’s weird — it feels so fast and slow at the same time cause I was working towards this project for so many years. I was in other bands and I really wanted to do it for so long, so it kind of feels like I was waiting so long to get it started. But then once it started it was so fast. Even getting management, labels, a band together and tours together have been all super super fast. But now that I look back on it, I’m like, “Fuck I can’t believe the first single came out over two years ago.” But my EP only came out a year ago.
Did you like being a support act? Or do you prefer headlining your own shows?
I like both. I think support is cool cause it’s a really good experience to learn, both from the act of playing the show, but also watching what the other bands do. Whether it’s how they achieve their sound live, or how they do little things behind the scenes like production stuff, you learn something from every support slot that you do. So they’re always super valuable, but we’ve definitely done a few supports slots where it’s a bit like –
Like 2 songs on the setlist?
Yeah, or the audience really couldn’t care less because they’re just there for the main band.
As an artist you like to keep your audience engaged, but at the same time you don’t really like being a front woman to a certain extent. How do you balance the two?
I mean it’s hard, I’m still figuring it out. I feel like I’m a lot more confident now than I was a year ago when I was really struggling with it and almost not enjoying the front woman aspect of it. But I think now that I feel like I have a body of work that I’m really proud of and that I can see how it connects with people I feel more comfortable and relaxed on stage. It’s less like I’m trying to – I guess sell it or something? Even though it was never like that. But yeah, It’s definitely getting easier. I think it’s something that I struggle with because I’m not a super extraverted person.
I feel like your biggest critic is yourself. At first you used to take into account what other people were saying, but now I’ve heard that you no longer read YouTube comments. As long as it’s good to your own ears, it’s good enough to put out into the world.
Exactly, it’s like that now so I’m way more relaxed.
For your album cover you had a few concepts for it. I really liked the chain one which is now actually available for purchase as a necklace. Did you have to struggle to find your final cover?
We definitely struggled for a little bit, but then it came together super quick. We had all these different concepts and I was really just unsure; nothing was really jumping out at me that we were trying. But then we kind of just stumbled upon that one it was like, “Oh cool, that was easy.” We went this weird way around to get to what we wanted, there wasn’t a straight line. We went through all these things that I thought I wanted, and then by trying to achieve something else, we got the photo that we ended up using. It was an outtake from these shots that we were taking thinking that they would be the shots. So it was cool, it was nice to stumble upon it and just for it to happen naturally, and to not have forced the final product. Because we were forcing a lot of other things and they weren’t working.
Do you guys only record your albums at home?
Yeah, so with all the songs for the album and the EP, we demoed them at home in my spare bedroom. Then we went to Melbourne, which is like a two-hour flight away, just to work with a specific producer that we liked. We actually kept around 80% of the original tracks and just replaced a few little bits, and then he mixed it. A lot of it ends up being the original demos which is nice. I like that kind of DIY aspect of having a lot of control over the sound.
And then you still have those moments when technology fails you and you have to do things all over again.
I’ve had to do that with a few songs! The original demo gets lost, so I have to redo it all. Most of the time it’s almost like a blessing in disguise because it ends up sounding better. I forget a lot of the elements, which sucks at the time, but then in hindsight it would’ve been too crowded if I left that shit in there.
Do you mostly write on the road? Have you ever thought about recording somewhere else in solitude?
I actually don’t really write on the road that much. I kind of struggle with it, but I do it a bit. At the moment I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with the next bunch of writing that I do and whether or not I want to have some solitude. But I feel like that might drive me crazy. I think I need help a bit too much; I’m always asking for help from Joe [Agius, bandmate and boyfriend] with finishing off demos or using programs and shit. I feel like I would just flail.
What’s it like being a vegan on tour?
It’s actually the easiest in America. I was surprised by it! I mean it’s still hard when you’re in the middle of nowhere at like a truck stop or something. But there’s always gonna be chains. Burger King has the Impossible Whopper now, and a lot of chains are going to get more into it. But it can definitely be hard. America is totally the easiest. I find it’s actually harder to eat vegan in Australia when you’re on the road.
Since you spend a lot of time on the road in the van, what have you been listening to lately to pass the time?
We just had two months off and haven’t really done any driving on this tour yet, so it’s been a while. But the last big tour we did, because it was just the three of us and we didn’t have a tour manager or anyone else driving us, we kind of just did it like whoever was driving got to pick it. So depending on who was driving, it could be completely different. But yeah, we did a lot of podcasts last time, like the Serial podcasts or random episodes of This American Life. I don’t know, I find it best for me to concentrate by listening to upbeat music. Something that I can get into to keep me awake. I think last time one of the latest Ariana Grande albums came out, so we listened to that for a little bit. And Kacey Musgraves! We listened to that heaps on the last tour. So yeah, it’s a lot more like our pop taste jumps out. Like the Christine and the Queens and the Lizzo records just came out on the last tour, so we gave those a spin. I feel like this time it’ll be different. There’s more of us in the van, we’re sharing our van with Orchin, the support act.
And I know you don’t see yourself as a “pop star” in a traditional sense, but there are definitely very different meanings of the word “pop star” today. Like you mentioned, there’s Ariana Grande, but also artists like Charli XCX and SOPHIE in that realm. I feel like you definitely have your own niche in that term.
Yeah, I feel like there’s more places to slot into these days. Charli XCX is the perfect example, and we’re a huge fan of hers. And she’s really proven that. I mean even though she’s obviously incredibly beautiful, so she definitely visually fits into being a “popstar,” you don’t need that specific type of music or type of personality to do it. You can do it in different ways, even with how she did a lot of mixtapes rather than albums and promo tours.
My last question is: What’s in store for Hatchie?
Oh, I don’t know, you tell me! I think I’m already kind of getting back into writing for nothing in particular, which has been really nice. Not being like “Oh, well I’ve got an album coming out at this time, so I need to do this.” At the moment, I’m kind of really just trying to work on expanding my sound and working with new people. I think I’m gonna get into cowriting in the next couple of months, which is something that I haven’t really done before. So I feel like that’s like the next big, not obstacle, but goal for me, is to get into that because it’s always been something that’s scared me a little bit. So yeah, we’re kind of wrapping up touring at the moment over the next couple of months. I just want to focus on writing.
I know that you’re also big into production and have the names of many producers you’d really like to work with.
Totally, so hopefully I’ll get to work with some new people and maybe come back over to write in LA and New York, since I’ve only ever been here for shows. That’s something that I think I’m really going to try to do within the next six months to a year!
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