Hi. Who are you and what do you do in Batts?
My name’s Tanya. I’m the singer and I write all the melodies and lyrics and help Alisdair (the other half) with all the arrangements and ideas.
Can I get an insight into how you and Alisdair work together?
We normally start with him sending me some basic chords and maybe a beat that’s normally about 30 seconds, and I’ll extend it to over three minutes and lay down the vocals, writing all the melodies and structure with them, and then we build from there. Then it goes back and forth for a while.
What music have you guys released recently and what can you tell me about it?
We actually just dropped a cover of the iconic ‘90s banger What Is Love by Haddaway on our Soundcloud (Ssoundcloud.com/battsofficial). It’s one of the best songs ever so it was a lot of fun to cover, but to make our own. We have this amazing saxophone solo in it by my friend Luke from Brisbane band Scholar, and I’m vibing on that heaps.
Have you got anything big in the works for 2016?
I’m moving to the UK to live with Alisdair, which is insane because we met on Soundcloud and live on opposite sides of the world, and now I’m moving there to live in the same house as him to focus fully on Batts. I think we will just be working on getting the best music we can possibly create into your ears and getting the live set together in England to tour. Who knows what’s going to happen, I’m just going to go with the flow and enjoy a new city and adventure.
How’s the fan response been to Batts? I’m hearing some of your listeners are eager to help out in unexpected ways.
We have been insanely lucky; the response has been overwhelming. We have been getting the coolest things happen, I got a custom made Batts jacket, which was sick. It’s like my favourite item of clothing now. People have made their own music videos of our songs. That is always super cool to see. Humans can be so awesome.
BATTS are playing at the Shadow Electric at Abbotsford Convent on Friday January 22 with Canary and Zlatna.
