Hachiku
Over the past few years, Hachiku has quickly become one of Australia's most popular indie dream pop artists, with grainy guitars, layered ambience and Anika's signature vocals, Hachiku has been playing shows all over the world. Recently supporting Courtney Barnett in America (2020) and Snail Mail across the UK (2018). Hazy Days Music would like to thank Anika Ostendorf for taking the time out and having a chat. Make sure to check out Hachiku debut album “I’ll Probably Be Asleep” released today!
Anika, could you tell us a little bit about starting Hachiku and how it has developed since moving to Australia? You were on tour in America as the Covid breakout was starting, that would have been an interesting time to have to quickly figure out whether or not to come back to Australia or stay in America if shows continued.
I've been living in Australia for about 4 years now, I'm originally from Germany, and I first came to Australia as an exchange student studying Biology at university in London. Growing up, I have always played music, I liked the idea of being a musician, and that thought was always in the back of my mind while I was at university. In the end, the idea that I could be doing music instead of studying Biology led to my change.
Moving to Melbourne was great! The music community is so strong here. When I wrote my self titled EP "Hachiku" (2017), I recorded everything in my bedroom. I was isolated, I had no music connections, there wasn't a music community around me, and I didn't really know anyone who could play on the EP or help me with the production side. Plus I didn't have enough money for studio time, so I did it all myself. I'd pretend and told myself that I knew how to do everything, even though most of the time I was making it up along the way, but it was a great experience, and I learned a lot.
Over the past 4 years, I have gotten quite involved in the Melbourne music scene. Not long after I started at Milk! Records, I met my band mates (Georgia Smith, Jessie L. Warren and Simon Reynolds). Hachiku slowly started shifting from my bedroom hobby and grew into a four-piece band. I loved having other people in the room to bounce ideas off and share my music/songs.
When I was on tour in America, Covid was only starting to get into the news those last few days, it seemed like it was only slowly starting to spread out of Asia and no one really knew how big it was going to be. I considered heading back to Germany because I had a few shows booked in May, sort of a mini pre-album release tour around Germany. Not long after a lot of countries started shutting down their borders, and I was waiting for my Australian Visa to get approved, you really have to be in Australia for that to happen and can’t be stuck out of the country indefinitely. In the end, it was easier to come back to Melbourne and wait it out. My mum is like - I’ll see you again in 5 years haha. Who knows how long till any of us can travel again.
Debut album “I’ll Probably Be Asleep” is out on the 13th of November (today!). It's hard to single out individual songs off this album because they are all brilliant! It's one of my favourite albums of the year. How was recording this album in so many different locations? You have picked up a lot of hobbies over the lockdown period - cooking, book club and gardening did any of these influence the album? What is the story behind "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman"?
I recorded and mixed this album pretty much wherever I could pull out my laptop and set up. I recorded a lot of my vocals in my home studio in Northcote (the set up was a bit unprofessional haha), I would stand underneath a ladder with thick blankets thrown over the top and draped all around me, attempting to cut out all outside noise. I was able to record some of the drums at Milk! Records warehouse. This took a while because I have a two-channel audio interface. Limited to two microphones, I would take turns recording each part of the drum individually, starting with the kick drum, then snare and high hat, afterwards cutting and piecing it all together. I had some friends help me out along the way, my friend Laura recorded the drums for a song at RMIT studios and Evelyn Ida Morris a label mate at Milk! Records, let me use their studio to record some vocals in a place that was actually quiet. I recorded a bit of the album back at home in Germany as well. My father has built a little home studio, and I was lucky to lock myself away in there for two weeks.
I have a habit of leaving things to the last minute. I used to tell people that the album was only two months away from coming out. When I really only had an idea of the eight songs I would like to have on the album, and two years later it's finally coming out.
The date for when the mixes had to be finished and submitted was locked-in, I just happened to be on holiday with my parents on a houseboat. My father would hotspot my laptop so I could upload the mixes I was working on, wherever I could pull out my laptop and plug in my headphones turned into my studio. I was catching the train in Germany to visit my sister and spent the entire train trip working on arrangements and reworking lyrics and vocal ideas.
The album was finished towards the end of last year, so these new hobbies I have picked up over lockdown haven't influenced those songs, but personality-wise, that's just me, so I guess in that way it plays into the record. I always want to learn something new, and I get distracted by these hobbies when I should probably be working on new music. I have always wanted to become fluent in Icelandic, but I have a short concentration span when dabbling with new things. Everything I have picked up over lockdown, whether it be - cooking, gardening or becoming a scientist, I’m fine with being an amateur. Music is the one thing that I have to stick with and work on to get better to make it work.
"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman" was written after talking with this guy about climate change in a bar at like 3am. You know these people you randomly have conversations with where you keep thinking to yourself "why am I even wasting my time talking with you?" He was saying stuff like - climate change isn't real - science is left-wing propaganda - you are being brainwashed by left-wing politics haha. I understand that we can have different political viewpoints, but there are facts and things you can't just choose to ignore. It seems to be a common thing these days where universally we can't decide or choose to argue against the facts. It was just a really frustrating conversation to have at 3am.
In hindsight, I never would have talked with that guy if it wasn't for such a random coincidence. The song is about processing that frustrating conversation, because we all need to have random conversations like that, even though it's frustrating otherwise we are living in our own bubble, living life in these parallel universes.
In September, the music video for "I'll Probably Be Asleep" was released. How was filming this music video, coming up with the idea, and who did you work with? Anika, when you tour internationally you play as a solo artist, in the future will your band join you on these tours?
Recording the music video for "I'll Probably Be Asleep" was really last minute. We filmed it on the last day before I left for America on the Courtney Barnett tour. We worked with Roxanne Halley again for this music video, Roxy has organised and directed most of our videos, we get along great, Roxy is super easy to work with, and we understand and feed off each other's ideas. I came in with a rough idea for "I'll Probably Be Asleep", and Roxy took those ideas to the next level, she is super organised and gets everything ready so when I show up it’s - stand here, sing this, do that and bang bang bang it's all done. We first worked together over 3 years ago on single “Moon Face”, we never clash with ideas and have been on the same page since the very start, I completely trust her.
Currently, I play/tour overseas by myself because it's really expensive for 4 people to do that for months at a time, the cost of visas and travelling, it's a lot of money and we just can't afford to do it yet as a full band yet. I don't like the idea that my band mates (Georgia Smith, Jessie L. Warren and Simon Reynolds) are replaceable by session musicians. I love my band and they are a fundamental part of who Hachiku is. They are all great musicians, we work really well together, and if I played with other musicians overseas it wouldn't be the same. I love the way Georgia, Jessie, and I harmonise, it's something special we have and I am attached to them. That’s why at the moment when I tour overseas, I play solo until we can afford for them to join me. I head over to America and Europe by myself to get a head start.
How will you be celebrating the release of “I’ll Probably Be Asleep”? Now shows are slowly returning in Melbourne, are you looking to play a few over the summer? Hachiku was invited to play SXSW 2020 earlier this year, did any streaming events end up happening after the in-person event was cancelled?
I don’t know, I’m not sure what people normally do when they release an album. My girlfriend has told me to keep my afternoon and evening free, so I’m not sure what she has planned for us, maybe a dinner. It's hard because in Melbourne with the restrictions you can’t just casually walk into a bar and get a few drinks, you have to book a few weeks in advance to get in anywhere. I’ve never released an album in normal time, so I’m not sure what you would do on release day, besides getting Bandcamp ready haha.
In March we are looking to do an album release tour hopefully across Australia, it depends on where we are allowed to go, it would be great to have some live shows to go along with the release of the album. It looks like shows are returning quickly to Castlemaine, so we might try and sneak a show in there early January. And we are supporting The Beths in June, which is still 8 months away. Early through lockdown, we had plans to go back to Europe, but we just have to wait and see when it will eventually happen as well.
SXSW 2020 got cancelled the week before I was heading over. Sounds Australia were trying to organise a streaming event in Melbourne for the Australian artists that were invited to SXSW. But that got cancelled as well because of the lockdown. Next year we have been invited back to play SXSW 2021 and it is going to be 100% digital. SXSW 2021 should be running again in March, but we have to wait and see when everything is announced.
Stay up to date with Hachiku on Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.