It's not too often that you come across a multi-talented artist whose music resonates with you on a personal level, but when we heard Brisbane singer/songwriter/producer Hartley's debut single Used To, we had to know what made the 23-year-old tick. 

Used To was first released on triple j Unearthed but re-released today with a bit of a facelift. Still, the song's measured approach and energetic drum'n'bass-inspired hook remains and we get lost in the burgeoning Brisbane artist's inviting voice. 

Of the song, she explains, "Used To was a way for me to portray feelings of desire towards a person, it felt easier putting these thoughts into music rather than telling them face to face." Relatable AF.

We wanted to get to know Hartley more though, so we sat down with the pink-haired multi-instrumentalist to talk about what she was listening to growing up, how she started singing and producing, and what's on the horizon for her. 

How are you feeling about the release of Used To?

I’m feeling really relieved, because the process has been long and arduous. But, I’m so excited! I just feel a huge sense of relief and release. 

How long have you been sitting on new music?

You don’t even wanna know. Ages! I wrote a list of songs over a couple of years of my life, so when I look back at it, it’s like I can see the different events that have happened. I’m past them now. I’ve gone through lots of changes, it’s like a little moment in time from a couple of years ago. It’s cool to look back at it and remember how I felt! It’s quite a personal thing. I still haven’t gotten comfortable with talking about my songs, because you wouldn’t talk about your diary! 

Okay, so where did your musical journey start? 

I’m a sheltered Brisbane gal. It means I get really excited when I get to go somewhere that isn’t Brisbane! 

Do you have any siblings and is your family musical?

Both of [my parents] loved music growing up. My mum used to sing more jazzy, classical stuff. She says [she isn’t a good singer now], but she sings Frank Sinatra now as a joke. And my dad used to play the organ in church! We’re not actually a religious family, but he used to take the opportunity to play there. He had like, long hair. He was a bit of a rockstar I guess. And I have a brother - younger - and he’s not musical! I don’t think. I think he has a good singing voice, I’ve heard him sing a few times and he’s got good pitch. I encourage that!

When did you start singing and then producing? 

I got into it quite late, I was always in school choirs but I didn’t enjoy it that much, to be honest. Then I started going to concerts more when I was like, 15, and I saw people like Ed Sheeran using loop pedals. It blew my mind! I didn’t know how to create music in any other way because I didn’t play many instruments at the time, so I thought, ‘how about I buy a loop station and create my own songs using my voice?’ And it came really naturally! I didn’t expect it to. I thought I’d need YouTube tutorials or something. 

Then I was like, ‘I need a way to record those vocal layers into a computer program so I can keep it forever,’ so it’s not just when I have the loop station on, so that’s when I started producing. Instead of recording my vocals through the loop station, I started using probably GarageBand first then moved on really quickly to Ableton which is a lot better. Then I realised I didn’t have to do mouth percussion – I could add in drums! 

I’m self-taught, but I had people helping me on like, how to make songs sound fuller. It was about learning about how to fill the different frequency ranges in a song, which was a really cool lesson to learn. And then I just produced on Ableton from around 17 or 18 years old! I actually learned Ableton because I studied music at uni. They had all the free programs that I’d ever need – I was really lucky. I don’t know if I would’ve learned if I hadn’t gone! 

What’s your earliest musical memory? 

Oh my god. Two memories. First: Avril Lavigne’s album Let Go. First album, AMAZING. She was my queen. And then my first concert was Hilary Duff. I was a big Lizzie McGuire fan. I think I was 10. I’ve been a pop princess forever! I really have. 

What was high school like; what music were you listening to?

I feel like in high school you can’t be honest about the music you listen to. There’s so much pressure to be listening to the coolest stuff. Imagine what everyone was listening to but never talked about it. Poor darls!

I was really inspired by female vocalists who were doing something different. BANKS comes to mind, because she was so fearless in the way she was dark and honest. I don’t think that was a very “female” thing to be at the time she started making music. Same with Ellie Goulding. She had this angelic nature about her, with a smoky voice, that no one else was doing either and the style of her albums were really different too. 

I had a phase of indie rock, and I never put guitar into my own tracks. It’s just something I never do, but I LOVE listening to indie rock. Bombay Bicycle Club, I was really into, and The 1975.  

Used To has this cool drum’n’bass beat! Do you listen to much drum’n’bass or is that something you just wanted to experiment with?

Yeah, at the time I made it I was listening to a lot of Rudimental. Their song Free with Emilie Sandé – that shit was good. That influenced and inspired me. But I loved listening to Jack Ü and more tropical, calypso stuff, it's so chill. I noticed I wasn’t hearing TOO much of it on the radio at the time, so it happened naturally. I made the tropical/chill theme of Used To, then I thought, ‘what would happen if I added some drum’n’bass elements to this?’ and it just made sense and created its own genre in a way. 

So what was it like the moment your A&R hit you up and when you found out you were gonna be signed?

That was SO weird because it took me so long to convince myself to release a song on triple j Unearthed. I had to just psych myself up for months and in the end, I was like, ‘screw it, I’m gonna put it out’ and within a month I got this message from this guy, ‘hey, do you have anything else you can show me?’ I had more unfinished stuff, and I thought, ‘I can’t do anything about it now, I’ll just send them to him, hope he likes it, he probably won’t.’ He got back to me SO fast and said, ‘I love this, let’s meet up. I’m gonna fly to Brisbane!’ I didn’t believe it. I thought it’d fall through or he’d be some weirdo, because he’s so amazing and has so much knowledge – I just thought it was too good to be true. Then he flew to Brisbane and we went to lunch, and within the three-hour lunch, he’d offered me the deal. Actually it was in the first 10 minutes! 

I went home from that lunch and I was in a daze, like, ‘did that really just happen?’ I kept replaying what he said. Both of us were just keen to start working straight away – I was like, ‘I can’t lose this, this CAN’T fall through.’ I needed it to be legit. 

[The way my A&R found me was that someone in his office] was scrolling through Unearthed, listening to tracks as you do, and he heard Used To through the wall. He ran up to this person and was like, ‘WHAT WAS THAT SONG?’ and they were like, ‘oh, you know…’ and he was like, ‘I need to do something about this.’ I said to him – what if you went to the toilet? What if you didn’t turn up to work that day? Or went and picked up Uber Eats? 

I’m all about [fate] and manifesting and creating good energy and letting it out into the world. I was manifesting that sort of thing but I didn’t realise the power of it. 

So let’s dream for a second. What do you wanna achieve in five years?

Oh my god, that’s so hard. I usually look to people like Lorde, Khalid, even Billie Eilish, and they’re not exactly mainstream, they have more of a niche audience but have been able to tour the world. I just wanna be able to tour the world! I just wanna be able to go to decent size venues in every city, and just continue to develop my own style and not feel pressure to be like, super commercial or anything.

Listen to Hartley on Spotify

Listen to Hartley on Apple Music