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.
Beautifully done Barbie….Wow…