Track-by-Track // Hattie Cooke – Bliss Land

“It’s about the in-between moments.” – Hattie Cooke “Bliss Land” is the new LP from Brighton born artist Hattie Cooke. Her third album and debut release for Castles In Space opens up her sound by managing to find a balance between the introspective and the communal. It is an album that looks forward whilst acknowledging the creators past creating a work full of a nostalgia that also feels vitally current. – Relevant Record Cafe

I Get By – I wanted to capture the claustrophobic emptiness of March/April 2020 when we first went into lockdown, so lots of room in the music reflecting empty streets but with a kind of soaring intensity like looking out at the world from the top of a quiet hill.

Mistaken – I wrote this around July/August 2020. At that point the internet, and particularly twitter, felt like a bunch of crazy people screaming at each other while the whole world was on fire. I wanted the song to feel intense and chaotic, that’s what the lyrics are all about.

Cars – I think I was getting fed up with lockdown at this point, just walking around all day doing nothing. The most exciting thing I could do was play in the traffic. That’s why it’s called Cars. There’s a moody attitude in this song, ‘get out of my way/Richard Ashcroft walking down the road’ kind of thing going on here.

One Foot Out the Door – this is a song about trying to leave the past behind, it’s what the bliss land cover artwork is all about. It’s about stepping into the unknown, and I wanted the music to reflect a kind of anxiety of the future whilst having a dreamy reflective quality. There’s a bit at the end that sounds like ghostly singing sirens trying to pull you into the rocks. That’s what leaving the past behind feels like.

Youth – I had to escape the boredom of lockdown Britain and went to see my sister in Italy for 3 months. We talked a lot about growing up and I kept thinking about the past. It’s supposed to be an ode to my twenties and capture all the melancholy that came with it.

Don’t Wanna Talk – I wrote this in 2016 when I was in a relationship with a Z-list musician who wasn’t very nice to me, very controlling. I withdrew and stopped talking to people. But we went out dancing a couple of times and that was fun, so it’s a dance song. It’s meant to reflect the happy dancing memories but with a sinister tone, me trying to convince myself I’m ok when I’m not.

Invisible Lines – this is actually about trying to make it in the music industry, but also about having inner strength to leave behind comfortable situations for risk/excitement. It’s got a kind of angry urgency to it, like I’m trying to kick myself up the arse and tell myself to take risks.

Fantasies – fantasies had a whole set of lyrics I didn’t use, about things I wanted for the future. Instead I kept it as an instrumental, it’s a bit of a nod to my sleepers record. It’s supposed to be uplifting, grab your dreams and fantasies by both hands!

Lovers Game – this is one I wrote in 2018/2019 after a particularly bad break up. It was my first attempt at a ‘pop song.’ It’s actually extremely simple in terms of structure/production. Sometimes painful subjects need space in music because the lyrics/subject already has so much weight to it. I wanted the message to come through unclouded.

Summer Time – this is the first ever ‘electronic’ song I wrote, about ten years ago. I had to redo it as the original recording was borderline unlistenable. It felt like it made sense to go on the record at the end, like the closing of a circle. I made it on a Yamaha PSS-170 that a boyfriend had in the living room. It has drums in the original but I left them out, it made more sense sonically especially as it’s the album closer. It’s like a lullaby, bedtime for the record, time to go back in the sleeve.