In the miserable shitsack we called 2021, Hatchie kept us ‘gazing forward.
In September, the Australian singer-songwriter dropped one of our fave tracks of the year in “This Enchanted,” a swirling beaut of a tune that came with word the artist born Harriette Pilbeam had also signed to Secretly Canadian. A month later, she covered Jennifer Paige’s forever unfuckwithable jam “Crush” for the label’s anniversary series, and that one-two alt-pop punch was enough to color the dark year in brighter hues.
This week Hatchie returns with a hat trick of goodness: A vertical barrage of dream-pop through a new tune called “Quicksand”; word of her sophomore album Giving The World Away, set for April 22 release on Secretly Canadian; and a North American tour in the spring that brings her to Somerville’s Crystal Ballroom on May 6.
Whew — that’s a lot to take in.
“‘Quicksand’ is about dealing with the realization that you’ll never be satisfied,” says Pilbeam about the new single. “I started writing it when I was home between tours in 2019 before finishing it with Joe Agius and Dan Nigro the next year. I was feeling guilty and ungrateful for not being happy about a few different things in my life that were technically going well. I had to work through some tough learned thought processes and emotions that had been working away for years to try to understand how to be happy with my present, and stop fixating on my past and future. The video digs deeper into showing this juxtaposition of such sadness and anger despite being surrounded by glamour and grandeur.”
That video was directed by Nathan Castiel, and it’s available to view below.
“I created a video that plays off of some tropes of Hollywood glamour in a melancholy and surreal way while giving Harriette room to perform and express the song’s raw emotion,” adds Castiel. “We leaned into a neon-tinged after hours aesthetic and shot on 16mm which added a griminess to the opulent locations and set pieces.”
So very 2022.
Hatchie: North American Tour Dates
May 4 – Washington, D.C. – Songbyrd Record Cafe*
May 5 – Philadelphia, PA – The Foundry*
May 6 – Boston, MA – Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre*
May 7 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg*
May 9 – Montreal, QC – Bar Le Ritz PDB*
May 10 – Toronto, ON – The Garrison*
May 12 – Pittsburgh, PA – Club Cafe*
May 13 – Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups*
May 14 – Chicago, IL – Sleeping Village*
May 15 – Minneapolis, MN – Turf Club*
May 19 – Vancouver, BC – Fortune Sound Club*
May 20 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios*
May 21 – Seattle, WA – Neumos*
May 23 – San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop*
May 25 – San Diego, CA – Casbah*
May 26 – Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room*
* w/ Caroline Loveglow
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