Hatchie On Writing Songs About 'Love And Lust & Hatred'

"It's weird to be talking about myself so much," says Harriette Pilbeam. The 25-year-old is the Brisbane musician behind Hatchie and, thus, she's living life as a human buzz-band. This means endless interviews, including fielding phone calls from Australia when she's in London and it's 7am. "It's not that I'm an antisocial person, but I'm kind of a deflector in social situations. I don't like attention being on me, which I know sounds ridiculous given I'm an artist trying to make my way."

Pilbeam continues, "I've always been a bit shy. And I've gotten a bit more shy as I've grown up. Not in a bad way, I just think more carefully about what I'm saying. I was just more annoying as a teenager. I've always been into music, that's one thing that's remained a constant the whole time."

Growing up on Brisbane's north side, Pilbeam took singing lessons, played piano and guitar, was choir captain in high school. "And, along with that, I've always been an intent listener of music and a mega-fan of certain bands through the years," she offers. "When I was really little, my sisters and I were obsessed with the Spice Girls. Then, when I was starting high school, it was Fall Out Boy and Paramore. A little bit later it was Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes. After school, I got really into New Order and Joy Division, Beach House, Wild Nothing, Yuck, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart."

Pilbeam only started writing songs, really, at 21, by which time she was a veteran of the Brisbane indie scene, having played in Go Violets as a teenager, then in Babaganouj. "I tried writing some songs as a teenager, but I just don't think I'd experienced enough. I was always a pretty happy kid, I had good parents. I didn't have anything horrible or super incredible to write about. When I got into my early 20s, that's when I really started feeling these emotions that I needed a way to express."

In turn, Pilbeam says, the songs on her debut EP Sugar & Spice - five earworms delivered in bright, shiny, dream-pop shades, earning comparisons to The Sundays along the way - are about young love. "They've all ended up being about love and lust and hatred, because I wrote them all between [the ages of] 21 and 24. They're all very telling of a certain period of my life, of a certain age," Pilbeam says. "I must sound like some young girl who's obsessed with my boyfriend. I've grown up a bit and I've learnt a lot, since I wrote those songs. But, I'm still in the same relationship that I've been in this whole time, so, in that way, they still feel 100% true to my life."

While playing in Go Violets and Babaganouj, Pilbeam was studying "creative industries". That combination of playing DIY gigs and studying the music industry has meant she's felt plenty prepared for her sudden buzz-band status. "The best way to learn about the music industry is to be in it," she says. "I've learnt more about the music industry, the good and bad and ugly, just how dark it can be, from being in bands, playing shows."

So, even as Hatchie-mania has set in - a Best New Track from internet overlords Pitchfork cementing her 'rising' status - Pilbeam has felt in control of the band and its narrative. "I feel like 90% of it is me. I control my social media. I approve of everything that gets put out into the world," she says.

Getting used to the constant conversation, both in the press and on stage, has been the biggest change. "It's definitely weird and I'm still getting used to it," she says. "I'm not a popstar, I never will be, and I don't really want to be that kind of artist. I want it to be more of a band, even though all the music is all written by me. The hardest thing is being the only one who talks between songs. I'll start telling a story and halfway through I'll have forgotten where I was going with this, or realise that there's no punchline to the story. I've got to get better at it. That's on me."