POPSUGAR Australia is dedicating the month of October to featuring the next generation of inspired thinkers and courageous individuals who are building and manifesting a brighter future — because the next gen is unstoppable. We will deliver personal essays from young Australians who are making a name for themselves, as well as inspiring thought pieces and interviews with rising talent across different industries throughout the month. Find all of our pieces here, and if there’s someone you think is missing, email our editor so we can share their story — abardas@valmorgan.com.au.
Australia is filled with young talent, and one particular young woman who stands out is Becca Hatch. Hailing from South-West Sydney, Becca is one of Australia’s most promising young singers, and after winning the triple j Unearthed High Indigenous Initiative in 2017, she has gone on to perform at various different venues.
From the NRL Grand Final to the Sydney Opera House, Becca is slowly taking over and making her mark. Leaning into her Samoan heritage and Indigenous roots, Becca’s music stands the test of time, in particular her brand new single Safety, which comes out on Wednesday, October 6.
Studying at University during the day and pursuing music at night, the 20-year-old truly manages to juggle it all.
POPSUGAR Australia had the chance to sit down with Becca to speak about her new single Safety and what inspires her when making music.
POPSUGAR Australia: Tell us about your new single Safety.
Becca Hatch: Safety is a song that I actually wrote two years ago, and is a song that really means a lot to me. I wrote it for a friend, just to let them know that I need them to be there for me, like when I was going through a rough time during my career. When I wrote it I was struggling to become an artist and become independent, and I was 18. I just turned 18, so I was going through it, and I originally wrote this song as an R&B song. It was straight to guitar, and then I showed it to my mentor Howie, and he straight away had this crazy idea of doing a jungle version of the track. So he sent me back a demo with drums on it, and my mind was blown. It was the exact kind of story I was trying to tell.
PS: Talk us through the process of creating a song. Where do you draw inspiration from when writing music?
BH: I think a lot of my inspiration is just stuff that I’m going through. I find music is pretty therapeutic for me. A lot of the time when I’m writing music, it’s stuff that I’m going through, and it helps me kind of assess the situation. It helps me take a step back and look at my life. At the moment during lockdown, it’s been pretty hard because my life experiences haven’t really changed. I haven’t been doing anything, haven’t been able to travel or go out with my friends much. So, recently it’s been hard to come up with ideas that are really fresh and new. But I usually start with melodies and then lyrics kind of come with them.
PS: You’re currently going to university and you’re making music on the side. How do you find the time to do it all?
BH: I’m barely getting through *laughs*. To be honest, the lockdown has been helpful because it’s my last semester so I’ve been able to put everything else on pause and just focus on uni. But, I have always struggled to juggle everything, because I’ll be travelling to go play shows in like Victoria, for instance, come back Monday morning and then go straight to class. So it’s full on. I usually do uni in the day and go to the studio at night. It’s good that I’m studying sound design and music, so it’s still pretty creative.
PS: Which artists do you look to for inspiration?
BH: Growing up, there’s been quite a lot of inspirational artists. A lot of my inspiration comes from stuff that my brother showed me growing up and stuff that he put on my iPod. Like Frank Ocean and Beyoncé. I think now, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve kind of realised my creativity isn’t limited to just songwriting and music. One artist that I absolutely love and adore, and I’ll do anything for this artist is Rihanna. Legit, Rihanna. Anything she does is so inspirational for me because as an artist she’s been able to build a business separate from just music. That’s something that I aspire to do myself.
PS: What drew you to the R&B genre?
BH: As I said before, growing up my inspirations were Beyoncé, Destiny’s Child, Frank Ocean so creating R&B music was something that I never had to think about. When I did singing lessons that was the music that I would learn and would ask my teacher to teach. I would say, “teach me Alicia Keys” or “teach me Beyoncé songs”. That’s what I was drawn to because especially growing up in Western Sydney, that’s what kids would be playing in the playground and at school.
PS: Have you always wanted to pursue music? Or was there a moment in your life when you knew that you could do this long term?
BH: I always wanted to do music. Growing up, my siblings were swimmers and I used to swim with them competitively. But I did not enjoy going swimming, so I would pretend I was sick and go into the bathroom and just waste time. I just could not bring myself to do it. So that was when I told my mum that I want to do singing because the only way I could quit swimming was to do singing. So, she took me to singing lessons and that was how I got into it. But it was something I always wanted to do, and no matter how many times I tried different things, I didn’t enjoy anything else as much as I enjoyed music.
PS: Your song 2560 really took off. Were you expecting that kind of popularity when you released it?
BH: Not really. It’s really hard to put out music and have expectations. I try not to have expectations behind songs because it just makes it hard if they don’t do well. In movies, for instance, there are always three things: The plot, the scene and the character. So when we put out the song, we thought, “this is setting the scene for Becca Hatch.” It explained exactly where I’m from, the core of where I grew up and the environment that I’m in. So putting that out first was really important to me, because it allowed people to understand who I am before I put out anything else.
PS: How has the pandemic shifted your perspective and influenced the way you write and the way you connect with fans?
BH: It’s a really interesting one right? Because everything now has shifted online and like every other 20-year-old in lockdown, I’m just trying to keep myself sane. Honestly, as I said before, I’ve been struggling to write new things, so a lot of the time I’ve been trying to connect with my fans. Being more active on TikTok, making content. I recently got into the Twitch community and have recently been watching a lot of Twitch streams and getting into gaming. It’s really fun and I think I’m actually pretty good, I’m not going to give myself a big head *laughs*. But a lot of it is just going online and thinking of new ways to interact with people. This lockdown has been pretty hard on me, I’ve lost a lot of shows including the Vivid set, so it’s been pretty rough.
Listen to Becca’s new single Safety here.
