For close to a decade now, Anika Ostendorf has been dazzling music-lovers the world over thanks to her truly special compositions as the singer, songwriter, and producer of Naarm/Melbourne outfit Hachiku.

Since debuting back in 2017 and sharing music via the acclaimed Milk! Records label, Hachiku released the album I’ll Probably Be Asleep in 2020, only to properly resurface with fresh tunes again in 2024.

A lot has happened in that time, and while Ostendorf had previously touched on deeply personal themes in the past, her latest batch of music sees her veering into a new sense of vulnerability and wrapping it up inside of a dreamy indie-pop sheen that reflects the sort of youthful optimism her music offers.

The latest collection of music is The Joys Of Being Pure At Heart, named for a subversion of the beloved band The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Indeed, the title indicates there is indeed joy left to experience in a world where vulnerability, emotion, and concern about the human condition are often on full display.

"I am learning to allow myself to love and be loved, and reach a stage where I can be compassionate and gentle with myself, so I can show compassion to others," explains Ostendorf. "Many of these songs are me talking to myself – trying to soothe myself and calm myself down, while searching for purpose in the bigger picture, which is what art is so helpful for."

Described as mutmachers in Ostendorf's native German, the songs present themselves as "blobs of encouragement" which are as reassuring and comforting as they are pertinent. Needless to say, The Joys Of Being Pure At Heart is a vital album in an age where uncertainty and fear are in abundance.

With the new album released on February 28th, and just before she heads over to the US for a run of tour dates (Hachiku will be back in Australia for a run of tour dates in late March, with full details below), Ostendorf has shared a track-by-track breakdown of The Joys Of Being Pure At Heart, taking us inside the inspirations, the stories, and the intricate details of what makes this such a moving record.

1. Don’t Put Your Head Underwater

This song is about facing your fears head-on and resisting the urge to constantly escape from anything hard or challenging – because the faster we try to run the further we drift from our sense of self and truth.

From memory I was inspired by this quote in a Willie Nelson book: “In the speed of your actions you are just a blur in the mirror. To glide through life as a deep rooted center of calm, surrounded at times by a whirlwind of energy, you are the captain of your own ship sailing towards the future.”

All we really have is one another and turning towards rather than away from the people that care about us is sometimes all we need to feel a little more at ease.

2. Tell Your Friends You Love Them

A lot of the songs on this record are my attempt at making pop music, without really knowing how to make pop music. Musically that’s what I’m leaning into here – a two-chord pop song but with a little bit of a wacky twist because I’m a little bit wacky. This song is about gratitude, sharing affection, and celebrating friendship and connection.

To quote myself: “Not everything can always be so sure / Your impulse is to think that you need more / Now hang in there - embrace the mystery / See, you’re exactly where you need to be.”

Lean into uncertainty and trust that things will make sense when you’re ready for them to. And tell your friends you love them!

3. Keep On Swimming

During the pandemic I was trying to make up my mind whether I’d be more successful swimming from Australia back to Germany or digging a tunnel through the earth – this song is the resulting love letter to my family back home and everyone I’ve ever missed.

There's a certain self-inflicted heartache in the repeated goodbyes and the masochism of choosing to move to the other side of the world – always wondering and worrying, yet holding onto the belief that it was for good reason. We must peel away layers of suppressed grief and excavate mounts of piled up anxieties to reveal our true selves on our individual lifelong journeys of self-acceptance.

Ultimately I feel like life is about endurance and staying afloat, knowing that there’s no point fighting the rough waters, the calm ones will naturally follow.

4. Wild Eyed And Free

Without trying to sound too lame this song is about the relationship and love I have for myself. I used to feel like I didn’t quite fit in or that I didn’t belong anywhere, but I’ve learned over the years that it’s enough to just be me and the rest will follow. Who I was at 16 and who I am now aren’t so different – just shaped by time and experience.

Moving away, leaving my family behind, and questioning the idea of home has been complicated, but everything has come together in its own way. Growing up isn’t about erasing the past but understanding it, embracing the path life takes you and knowing there’s always more to learn. 

5. Do You Like What You See In Me

This song is about fighting, swallowing your ego, and admitting when you're at fault. Kurt Vonnegut famously said, “If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.” It’s so easy to get hung up on the little things but it’s so important to value the people that matter to us in our day-to-day actions and recognise when things are good and find those little moments of peace – like the sun on your skin.

Throughout her life my grandmother Oma Grete (somehow she’s inspired many Hachiku songs) had written down all the grievances she’d had with my grandfather. When she was close to dying she threw all the papers away because she knew deep down that she didn’t want him to remember her that way – over their lifetime together the love and care they had for each other was way more important than any pity arguments.

6. Victims of Our Own Demise

This is overall meant to be a rather positive album but here you go with another song about conflict – this time on a societal stage going down rabbit holes of century-long conflicts where everything feels unresolved without a clear way out.

I think the way we treat one another in personal relationships ultimately transcends to politics perpetuating violence and resisting all efforts of peace. It’s about how we all think we’re doing the right thing, but in reality, we’re often throwing fuel on the fire and dividing ourselves further.

The song reflects on the question of how to stay hopeful when everything seems lost and what the right thing is to do when we’re all just victims of our own pride refusing to admit fault. No one wants to take the first step to admit wrong-doing. It’s really part of any relationship where one focuses on differences rather than commonalities. 

7. Time Wasted Worrying

When I was around five, my grandmother told me: "If you don’t have a thought in your mind, you’ll die." I internalised this, fearing sudden death, and don’t think I have stopped thinking since. I have since learned the value of a calm and quiet mind and recognised that I indeed spend a lot of wasted time worrying.

This song is like a little reminder to myself to take care of myself, be kind and self-compassionate and take it easy! It's a special moment as all Hachiku band members unite for the first time on a track, with Jessie Warren my bassist and Georgia Smith my guitarist joining me on vocals. I like to envision them as a choir of reassuring angels behind me.

And perhaps my grandmother watches from above, her mind at ease, knowing that things unfold as they should, whether we worry or not.

8. What Rhymes With Serendipity

This song is the love song of the album. In literal lyrical terms it’s about when my now fiance Marcelle and I got together – we had been friends for a year and I was way too shy to tell her that I liked her so before going back to Europe for 10 months (oops). I semi-cowardly decided to write her a letter to confess my feelings (her favourite word is ‘serendipity’).

In bigger picture terms it’s a little bit about all sorts of love – parental love, love for ourselves, love we hold for strangers, platonic love, infatuation. “The things we love, they will become” - I recorded those final outro lyrics in my friend’s spare room looking at a photo of her mum holding her as a baby. I was thinking about that sort of unconditional love that nurtures the best parts of us.

9. Fun For Everyone

This song is our ‘a little bit sexy, a little bit raunchy, slightly out-of-character, opposite to death metal’ heavy rock song with bassoon. It took me a long time to figure out my sexuality, in the very essence that it is fluid, which I think is because I didn’t have any queer role models where I grew up so I didn’t know all the places sexuality could go.

Over the years it’s morphed from asexual, to gay, to demisexual – I'm still discovering it day by day. The song is a little bit like a tongue-in-cheek roleplay of who I either wish I was or feel like I should be based on society’s expectations of how attraction traditionally works – I do have crushes and fall in love and experience sexual attraction, just in my own way.

10. Room For Everybody (Never Let Go Of The Joy)

This last track inspired by the title of the album is all about the need for human connection and our desire to be loved and to belong. It’s a love letter to kindness, letting people in and endless encouragement. It’s inspired by a Cherokee story about a battle of two wolves within each of us – one that is evil, bitter and full of resentment versus another wolf that is good, full of joy, peace, hope and empathy.

Ultimately the wolf that wins is the wolf we decide to feed - we must nurture the good within ourselves and each other and remember we are human beings capable of love and compassion. I’m so happy with the beautiful harp Mary Lattimore added to this song in particular.

Hachiku’s The Joys Of Being Pure At Heart is out now.

Hachiku – 2025 Australian Tour Dates

Friday, March 21st – National Theatre, Walbanga Country/Braidwood, NSW
Saturday, March 22nd – Oxford Art Factory, Gadigal Land/Sydney, NSW
Sunday, March 23rd – The Servo, Dharawal Country/Port Kembla, NSW            
Friday, March 28th – Northcote Social Club, Naarm/Melbourne, VIC
Saturday, March 30th – Royal Mail Hotel, Gulidjan Country/Birregurra, VIC

Tickets on sale now.