BATTS telescoped longing on the beautiful and sad "Dancing On The Moon"

 

"see if I can find you"

"Dancing on the Moon", by BATTS, the project of Melbourne based singer-songwriter, musician (and space enthusiast) Tanya Batt, is one of those songs that slowly invades your space, surreptitiously leaning in and wrapping it's arms around your waist. Intimate, bathed in beauty but in sadness too. Batt's voice is evocative and so beautiful but is able to hold bruises and longing in it's lilt. Along with that longing and sadness, there is lovely whimsy and surreal poetic vibes in the song's deeply romantic narrative.

The song is sort of a response. Inspired by another (song that is):

[In February of this year BATTS was contacted by Philadelphia-based This & That Tapes owner Joseph Carlough to collaborate on a tape. Carlough, whose sweet and sad moon-themed country band Gravey Train had a song about 'an Astronaut who goes to the Moon', and after hearing BATTS’s debut concept album, 'The Grand Tour', wanted her to write the other side of the tape. 

How BATTS came up with the response song is best told in her words:

"I received the email from Joseph and had a listen to their song 'Liftoffs and Landings'. I really loved the song and the lyric 'I miss my wife' really jumped out to me. I quickly walked into my studio and picked up my guitar and within the hour had written and recorded a response as the 'wife of the astronaut'. I really love diving into stories and creating little worlds so this was a lovely fictional call-and-response project to be a part of."

The collaborative tape, featuring BATTS’s ‘Dancing On The Moon’, the version on the tape is the original lo-fi offering made for the tape the day she received the email and features a sample from NASA's Voyager mission. The tape is available to purchase on Bandcamp.]

-Robb Donker Curtius 

BATTS · Dancing On The Moon

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BATTS is the project of Melbourne based musician and space enthusiast Tanya Batt. Creating a blend of folk and rock, whilst weaving in samples collected from space missions courtesy of NASA, throughout her music.

BATTS has been touring Australia the past few years building up a resume of local and international supports with Sharon Van Etten, Lucius, The Teskey Brothers, The Magic Numbers, Nilüfer Yanya, Didirri, Leif Vollebekk, and many more. In 2018 BATTS embarked on her first international tour to the UK, supporting Cub Sport and also playing shows with Communion Music and Sounds Australia.

A strong obsession with space and novels help inspire the concepts and writing within BATTS music. Creating soundscapes that take you on a journey, BATTS recently collaborated with the Planetarium in Melbourne to create a visual experience to accompany her debut album ‘The Grand Tour’, which was released into the world on April 12, 2019 through THAA Records and is a concept album based around NASA’s 1977 ‘Voyager’ mission.