very successful start<\/a> to a solo career. But after a few dizzying years of releases and touring and starting a new life in Los Angeles, Pilbeam felt empty.<\/p>\n\u201cI was definitely at a low point mentally after the last album,\u201d Pilbeam says, as a Coke Zero is delivered to the table. \u201cI put a lot of pressure on myself, and it performed fine. It didn\u2019t perform badly. I think the issue was that the early [music] took off really quickly, and every time I went back to certain places, certain countries or continents, the venues were twice as big. It has to plateau at some point, unless you\u2019re Billie Eilish. I set unrealistic expectations, and I was like, well, if we\u2019re coming back and it\u2019s not doing twice as well as last time, that means we\u2019ve failed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really wasn\u2019t taking it all in or processing it or congratulating myself or celebrating anything,\u201d Pilbeam continues. \u201cI was like, \u2018Okay, cool, onto the next thing \u2026 we can do better\u2019. I just always thought I could do better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amid this crisis in confidence, life in Los Angeles had reached a low point. In the space of a particularly distressing week, Roe v Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, a shooting occurred close to their house, and Pilbeam and Agius both caught a bad round of COVID-19. It prompted serious conversations about where they wanted to live, where they felt safe. \u201cWe were like, \u2018Let\u2019s just go home. We can go home. Why not?\u2019\u201d Pilbeam says.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t a decision they made lightly. \u201cIn a way, I had a little bit given up on my music doing well in Australia because I felt really out of place,\u201d Pilbeam says. \u201cAnytime we booked a festival, it felt like we were this outlier on these line-ups \u2026 It felt like there was more of a market [in LA] for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was definitely a feeling of being embarrassed that we didn\u2019t stay for longer,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I mean \u2026 we never said \u2018we\u2019re gonna live here for 10 years\u2019. I\u2019ve come to terms with that, and I don\u2019t care any more. But in that moment, it was a difficult decision. It felt like we were giving up a little bit, but I don\u2019t regret it at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I had isolated myself because I thought that\u2019s what I needed to do to progress with my career … I realised it wasn\u2019t worth it. I need friends.\u2019<\/p>\n
Pilbeam and Agius landed back in Brisbane and moved in with her parents (\u201cDamn, rock bottom,\u201d Pilbeam laughs), and the abrupt pause allowed her to think clearly. She went back to work, went to therapy, played her Nintendo Switch, had singing lessons, had board game nights. Yes, she even started knitting (\u201cOnly recently,\u201d she points out). And she poured her energy into her friendships, feeling like she\u2019d neglected them for years as the Hatchie project raced around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt really isolated,\u201d she says frankly. \u201cI had isolated myself because I thought that\u2019s what I needed to do to progress with my career. I was just like, \u2018It\u2019s okay if you miss out on people\u2019s birthdays or weddings or big life events, as long as you\u2019re working towards being more successful it\u2019ll all be worth it one day\u2019. And then after a while, I realised it wasn\u2019t worth it. I need friends. So I turned around and worked on that and worked on myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
The slow and steady pace of life also undid Pilbeam\u2019s tightly held expectations about her music and career. She began writing streams of consciousness as a way to break her habit of spending hours and hours making one song better. She wrote \u201cbad songs and bad music\u201d, telling herself that she didn\u2019t need to show anyone, that it was just for her, and nothing had to come of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helped me figure out what I enjoyed about it and helped me realise that I do want to keep doing this, just on different terms,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019d set a lot of limitations and expectations on myself, and I just kind of forced myself to stop doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The process also unlocked her third album, the dreamy, love-filled Liquorice. Through her streams of consciousness and scribbled tracks, Pilbeam noticed a familiar theme emerging: infatuation, lust, and heady, almost delusional romance. Soon, she was tunnelling back through memories of her early 20s, when she was an \u201cunhinged lover girl\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we all probably were!\u201d Pilbeam laughs. \u201cWhen you\u2019re younger, before you\u2019re in a real relationship, you take everything so seriously. You\u2019re replaying the smallest interactions in your head for weeks, and you\u2019re just romanticising your pinkies touching. The electricity that you feel is unparalleled.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Giving The World Away, Pilbeam worked with producers Jorge Elbrecht and Dan Nigro \u2013 you might know him by the music of Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan. \u201cI would never afford him now,\u201d Pilbeam quips. For Liquorice, she opted for Melina Duterte, who releases music under the name Jay Som. Together with Agius, Pilbeam and Duterte set about building the luscious wall of dream-pop that defines Liquorice.<\/p>\n
Clearly inspired by dream-pop and shoegaze icons like the Cocteau Twins and Mazzy Star, Hatchie\u2019s voice floats through curtains of glassy guitars (see lead single and standout Lose It Again) and reverb-heavy kick drums (another standout, Only One Laughing). Layers and layers of guitars dosed with chorus pedals fill every gap. Then there\u2019s Hatchie herself, sounding freer and more exuberant than ever before.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there was one thing that I planned, it was just that I wanted it to sound natural and DIY and messy, because that\u2019s how love feels,\u201d Pilbeam explains. \u201cIt\u2019s very messy and fuzzy and confusing, but warm and comforting \u2026 it was more about recreating feelings rather than telling stories.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
When Pilbeam started Hatchie nearly 10 years ago, the project came with a strict mission statement. \u201cI had so many rules. In hindsight, they were restrictions, but at the time I was like, \u2018These are my goals\u2019. I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t want to be described as synth-pop. I don\u2019t want to be described as X, Y, Z.\u2019 I had all these things that I didn\u2019t want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
She pauses for a long time. \u201cNow it just feels more like me, rather than something I\u2019m trying to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hatchie\u2019s Liquorice is out on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size Harriette Pilbeam is not going to order a coffee. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-263982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}