Hatchie On Working With Robin Guthrie, Meeting Kylie & Playing Primavera

On the eve of the release of Keepsake, the debut album by Hatchie, aka Harriette Pilbeam, the Brisbane-bred artist admits, "I’m excited to finally share it with the world, but it’s definitely a bit daunting. I put a lot of pressure on myself. I finished writing and recording it over six months ago, so I forget that no one else has really heard most of the tracks."

So did Pilbeam write the Keepsake material from scratch or were there some ideas left over from her debut EP, Sugar & Spice? "There are maybe two tracks that are as old as the EP demos," she shares, "and the rest I started writing around the time the EP was being released. It was a different process for each song, but they were all written at home either by myself or with my partner Joe [Agius, The Creases], who is in the band."

Hatchie songs usually spring from "melodies, very rarely the lyrics", she reveals. "I have a notes file that I’m adding to almost every day with little lyric ideas here and there, which I then use to fill in gaps when I’m working on a demo that doesn’t have any lyrics yet."

"Sure used to get played a lot on Virgin Australia flights, too, which wasn’t at all annoying on tour." 

When asked what a couple of her favourite keepsakes collected over the years would be, Pilbeam ponders, "Oooh, I don’t know actually. Probably tickets from the first time I went to Japan. I also have a really nice little antique box my parents gave me as a kid to put a lost tooth in for the tooth fairy to collect! Sounds gross, but it’s very sweet. And clean."

Since Hatchie's debut single Try dropped back in May 2017, Pilbeam has experienced a series of pinch-yourself moments including when one of her musical heroes, Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins, remixed her second single, Sure. On how this dream pairing came about, Pilbeam recounts, "I think someone sent him my first single, Try, and asked if he was interested in doing anything together. I had a few phone calls with him and he asked that we send over a track for him to mix as a test run. I really love what he did with it. It’s got its own special feeling that’s different from the mix we went with – by John Castle, who’s done all of my releases – but still really suits the song.

"Sure used to get played a lot on Virgin Australia flights, too," she points out before adding, "which wasn’t at all annoying on tour". 

Earlier this year, Hatchie experienced another career highlight when she supported Kylie Minogue for A Day On The Green. "We got to meet her and she was so lovely, as expected." 

It's fair to say it's already been one hell of a year for Hatchie, who recently performed at Primavera Sound in Barcelona. Pilbeam acknowledges the festival slot is one of her proudest achievements. "It was insane to look out at such a big crowd with heads bobbing and smiling faces singing along to my songs," she enthuses. "Any time anyone knows my lyrics, I’m stunned!" 

After blowing punters away with her divine, dreamy vocals and radiant presence at Primavera Sound, Hatchie tells us she then embarked on a European tour, which wound up in Paris, before catching the train to Brighton for the first show of the UK leg. "Yesterday we did a radio session in London, which was exciting," she says. "Other than that, we’ve been driving from city to city playing shows each night."

When Pilbeam tweeted out the YouTube link to her Primavera Sound set she included the following statement: "PLEASE assess my technical abilities and leave demeaning comments about my looks, I’m begging you! I love explaining them to my mum!" Although she was obviously joking, Pilbeam stresses this comment is also "addressing something really serious".

"I don’t read comments on YouTube or any live/radio performance anymore, because I’ve read some really horrible stuff over the years. I feel like there are a lot of sexist, cruel lurkers on YouTube. I’m sick of people nitpicking my skills based on a low-quality video filmed with an iPhone mic, or commenting on the way I look online."