GIITTV favourite Hatchie, the project of Brisbane, Australia’s Harriette Pilbeam, has returned signing to Secretly Canadian and shared a video for her new single ‘This Enchanted.’
The track, which marks her first single since her much-praised 2019 debut album Keepsake, captures the intense rush of love, the way you can plunge into those feelings. Its swirling pool of New Order- style keyboards, shimmering rush of guitars, bubbling beats and layered with Hatchie’s infectious melodies that are tinged with bittersweet feelings, yet in the release these exultant besotted hook laden refrains soar into perhaps her most pop moment yet. Taking the template of ‘Stay With me’ from her debut album, and turning the dial up it expertly melds elements of 90s and early 00s dance pop and guitar pop. In short its gorgeous. Watch the video below.
Of the song, Pilbeam says: “‘This Enchanted’ encapsulates everything I wanted to do moving forward from my first album. I started writing it with Jorge and Joe in February 2020 and completed it from afar in lockdown later in the year. We had been talking about making something dancey but shoegaze.”
“It’s one of the more light-hearted, lyrically vague songs of my new recordings, about falling in love. It’s not a perfect relationship, but you’re enthralled by one another and it’s an easy love,” she continues. “It’s one of the most fun songs I’ve written, so it was a no-brainer to pick it as my first solo release in almost two years. It feels so right to be working with a label as exciting as Secretly as I step into new territory with Hatchie. I’ve been counting down the days until its release for a long time.”
Hatchie’s ascent to international acclaim came suddenly. ‘Try‘ the first song she wrote for her own solo project, was a slow-burn to initially release. In 2017, she uploaded that track to “Triple j Unearthed”, the discovery epicenter of the national Australian radio station. It led to immediate airplay, eventually going on to be one of the top spins on the station. An avalanche of attention followed, all before Hatchie had yet to play a single live gig.
She went on to overseas touring, with Hatchie playing sets at SXSW and gigs across the US before her 2018 debut EP, Sugar and Spice, had come out. And in the span of just two years, Hatchie toured with/opened for the likes of Japanese Breakfast, Girlpool, Alvvays, Death Cab for Cutie, Beach House, Men I Trust, and Kylie Minogue, while also playing her own headlining gigs across the US and UK. A slew of major respected festival slots followed, including Pitchfork Paris, The Great Escape, Primavera, and more.
So now, Hatchie returns – with a new clear-eyed view of her songwriting abilities, and what her project can be. ‘This Enchanted‘ was conceived in February 2020, just ahead of the pandemic, while Pilbeam and Hatchie guitarist Joe Agius were writing in Los Angeles. They were working alongside producer Jorge Elbrecht, known for his work with dream pop contemporaries like Sky Ferreira, Japanese Breakfast, and Wild Nothing.
Photo credit: Nick Maguire