You may not have heard of Barbie Hatch, but that doesn’t mean you haven’t heard her sing. In 2009 she performed alongside RZA (Wu-Tang Clan) and John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) on the N.A.S.A. track “Way Down,” a standout off their knockout album The Spirit of Apollo. Hatch returns next month with her debut Hypertrophic Heart on N.A.S.A.’s label Spectrophonic Sound. We’ve got a peek at it below, with her cover of the Bee Gees’ “Run to Me.”
In a way, it’s an obvious pairing: two artists with heaven-sent voices. The result couldn’t be much more different though. Her cover boasts a modern electro-pop shimmer, with skittery drum machine going up against spacious synth. No amount of production detailing can upstage the main attraction though: Hatch’s voice. It wafts above the proceedings like a feather in a wind turbine. We asked her why she chose the song.
In the very beginning of my love affair with vinyl, I bought the Bee Gees ‘To Whom It May Concern’ at a garage sale. The front photo is the brothers singing live in what I later found out to be 1972. The back photo is from 1963, and I was pretty enchanted with the Bee Gees as I had never seen them. Young men in plaid vests, nice. The first song is “Run To Me,” and though I have always loved Gibb harmonies this song absolutely knocked me flat. I asked my collaborators Rusty [Logsdon] and Brent [Nichols] if they wanted to work it out, and thanks to them I was soon singing my heart out.
She might just tear your heart our. Download the cover below.
Check out more Barbie Hatch at her website. ‘Hypertrophic Heart’ drops June 28th.