MILK! Records are proud to present Hachiku‘s forthcoming debut album I’ll Probably Be Asleep, on November 13th. Born in Detroit, now based in Melbourne, Anika Ostendorf offers up a new single ‘Bridging Visa B’; a tale of being left in bureaucratic limbo.
On the surface, the track exudes breezy delight with Hachiku‘s trademark production of elastic guitars, Casio drum beats and gentle vocals but beneath lies a concern that the validity of your romantic relationship—not to mention your fate—is in the hands of the authorities.
Ostendorf says, “A Bridging Visa B is the visa that you need to apply for every time you want to leave Australia while waiting for your permanent visa application to be processed. For me it represents the whole frustration of going through the quite intrusive visa application process and all the obnoxious government officials that think they have the right to ask you about your private business.
And I am super privileged as a white person from a Western country where I actually unfairly receive a very special immigrant treatment. I can’t imagine how dehumanising this whole process must feel like being a refugee or person of colour. I’m lucky I ticked all the right boxes for them, it’s outraging to think what power they have over you when you are in a desperate position.”
For the video, Anika collaborated again with director Mickey Manson who had previously made Hachiku’s ‘Shark Attack’ video. Manson says, “I had just started doing Bob Ross tutorials on YouTube with oil paints and the process with his ‘happy little worlds’ seemed to fit well with Anika’s song. Having emigrated to Australia myself there is some kind of wonderland that you build up in your head and that’s what I tried to express in this clip. But like any fantasy land the dream can all sort of fall apart as you get glimpses of the inevitable underbelly of life there.”
‘Bridging Visa B’ is lifted from the album I’ll Probably Be Asleep which was recorded in countless locations from houses in Australia and Germany to backyard sheds, rehearsal rooms, and the Milk! warehouse. “It’s like a big puzzle, piecing together these randomly-recorded sounds,” Ostendorf says; offering that she thinks of herself “more as a producer than a songwriter”.
I’ll Probably Be Asleep is out November 13th on Milk! Records
