Crossover Music Magazine Interview

Crossover Music Magazine: Check out our interview with singer and songwriter Natasha Hardy who just released her latest single ‘Hallelujah’.

Natasha’s classically inspired take of this now timeless song leaves you with a chilled, inspirational and hopeful perspective.  

Natasha’s stunning vocals take centre stage, bringing themes of hope and connection to life through an emotional yet powerful performance. Among the gentle layers of ambient cinematic elements, the elegant instrumentation and the simplicity of the arrangement shines through. Her voice shimmers against the delicate backdrop of violin and piano, leaving listeners yearning for more. 

Originally written by singer-songwriter, Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah beautifully aligns with the Celtic, classical, and ambient influences that define Natasha Hardy’s debut album, Lost In Love. Known for her angelic, haunting, otherworldly and ethereal voice, Natasha brings a captivating new dimension to this timeless masterpiece. Her delicate take on the classical crossover style, laced with whispers of Americana, adds a unique touch that honours the heartfelt complexity of the lyrics, leaving listeners yearning for more.

Hallelujah - Natasha Hardy (Cover of 'Hallelujah' by Leonard Cohen)

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Crossover Deep Dive today. I'm so delighted to be speaking with Natasha Hardy! Hello. 

Hello Natasha Barbieri!

I think this a great chance to get your full story. It's also a good time because you have new music that you've just released, so how are you feeling about that? 

To be honest with you, I'm feeling a little bit relieved. I think what happens when you release music, is that there's such a build-up and then all of a sudden, on release day, that's it. Your baby is out there in the world, and it's like, what do I do now? The relief is palpable.

I feel really happy because, if you don't know already, my new single Hallelujah made it into the iTunes classical chart and reached number ten! I was super happy about that. It was a little bit unexpected as well, which made it even sweeter. 

I think, for me, the most wonderful thing is reading people's comments. Reading emails and messages that people have sent me, saying such lovely things. Not just about the music and how it sounds, but how they feel when they hear it. That is always the most important thing; to really touch hearts and souls, and to provide uplifting warmth, comfort, soothing energy to anyone that needs that through music.

Can I just point out, top ten on iTunes? That's really good for an indie artist! I think we get caught up all the time hearing the top pop stars have shot to number one, of course. But as an indie artist, that means that people are really rooting for you. They're loving what you're doing. 

Yeah it's amazing! If you follow me on social media, you can see I’ve been going absolutely crazy for the last month trying to get this, with the promo campaign for the song. I think what it means to me when I see something like this is that I've got the support, and it makes me feel, really blessed and excited about the new music that's going to come out in the future. 

Music is there to soothe us, it's there to heal us, and it transports us to somewhere else where we don't actually have to think about the mundane day to day things, even just for those 3 to 5 minutes for that particular song. I think that's what this song really does, and it's very special.

Can you tell us: Hallelujah is obviously a much loved song, but do you remember the first time you connected with it and you said, 'I've got to cover this piece'?

I think it was actually a gradual thing because I had decided to record some cover songs after my father passed away. I didn't really feel like writing any music at the time, but I knew that I wanted to do something creative. There wasn't a hard and fast rule of what song I was going to pick, but Hallelujah seemed to come up because it had all of the themes that I was feeling at the time: the heartache, the wondering why, questioning things spiritually, trying to find myself emotionally, trying to find some kind of redemption for feelings that I had at the time. It felt like this song just came into the ether. The more I realized how much I liked this song, I just thought, 'You know what? This is the song that I need to cover'. So I think it was a gradual process.

I've heard many, many renditions of the song, but as I did some research and I was trying to find different renditions and listening to them, I actually couldn't find one that I really loved. Hearing the violin and piano, I knew I wanted it to have a more orchestral classical sound. So I thought, this is what I have to do, and hopefully I've done it. 

Definitely. That's interesting, when you said you're listening to the piece, but then you hear it in your mind how you want it to be. How does that process work for you? Do you immediately bring people in or do you make a draft yourself? How do you bring that vision to life? 

I work with my good friend and accompanist Stefano Marzanni, who's an amazing pianist. I can play a little bit of piano, but I'm not a performer, so I asked him to arrange the piano part for me. I told him that I wanted it to sound really simple, very surreal like the style of ‘In Too Deep’ from my debut album, but still true to the original arrangement. We worked out some of the nuances, and then after I had gone through those with him and I had also chosen the verses I wanted to sing. Hallelujah is such a long song, and I think there's about 12 or 13 different verses you could actually sing, so I narrowed it down to the three main ones.

I knew that I wanted there to be this kind of climax at the end, and once I had done a rough vocal with the piano, I actually got in touch with Peter ‘Ren’ Renfree (who's an amazing producer in the States), and I told him my vision of what I could hear. I told him, I wanted it to sound classical, but still simple, with just enough orchestration so it still feels full. 

The more I spoke to him and the more we worked together, we came up with more ideas, such as having a harp on the track. He introduced me to a wonderful harpist, Karen Ballew, who was over in the States. She actually came up with the harp arrangement herself. This all happened during Covid so this was actually done remotely.

He also introduced me to a wonderful violinist called Michele Gazich. He's actually a folk violinist, so he played the violin with more of a folky style of arrangement. Because I was working with Ren in America, I felt there still should be some Americana influence, so in the breakdown you might be able to hear a little bit of what I would call a crystal G, or bluesy type of piano part. When we finished the track, it was just beautiful. It was perfect.

Then I left it a while, and when I came back to listen to it again, I realized I wanted something to fill out the deeper end of the song. So I decided to involve Tom E. Morrison, who produced my debut album, Lost in Love. He then put in some extra instrumentation to fill out the song a little bit, just so it still has that ‘In Too Deep’ style feeling. We managed to get my edits into the studio, and (this is after Covid) we recorded some extra violin parts that go over the bluesy arrangement. We also put in a little bit extra violin to increase that crescendo at the end.

So it was a long process, but at the time it felt very short, because there wasn't a massive amount of people that were working on the track. It just feels full enough but simple enough that it doesn't distract you from the message of the song, which I always had in mind. I could hear the simpleness and the heartfelt lyrics and (because I was grieving at the time when I recorded it) they're not by any means my perfect vocals, but they were the most honest vocals. They were very pure and full of emotion, and that's why I decided to keep them. I think they work perfectly with the accompaniment.

And that's how it all came together.

I feel like I could hear in your vocal performance that it's very soft, almost restrained in places, and then there's these moments where you can hear it breaks through. I don't know if you felt the same way, but that's what it felt like to me, like it just seems like your emotion is totally breaking through, and that's what people want to hear, right? It's like us at our best sometimes is not necessarily the emotion that we’ll capture. 

Yes, exactly. We chose the takes that I wasn't crying in, because there's a point where if you cry, then that's it, you're done. 

There's the point of no return. 

Yes. But if that's about to appear, those are the takes where you feel raw, you feel real. As an artist, I feel like I'm a channel. I'm just trying to channel pure energy through my vocal cords and try to reach as many people as I can with the emotion that I'm feeling. I'm glad that you noticed that. I wanted to make sure there was a beginning, a middle and an end with all to the vocals, because the whole song is a journey. 

I feel like, when you listen to Hallelujah, it's a transformative song because it covers so many areas. It covers the themes of spirituality, sexuality, redemption and hope, and I feel that if you don't have the softer, sensual vocals going into more raw vocals, and then into the crescendo, you would lose the feeling. So, yes it was intentional, and I'm glad that you could feel that. 

Definitely. I watched your beautiful video, and then I felt I had listen to it with my eyes closed, just get the experience in different ways.

I'm curious about your approach to music. Are you able to access it as purely emotional, or, when you listen to music, do you find yourself analysing it? Can you separate those two things because you are a trained musician? Can you appreciate it on that pure emotional level? Or do you start thinking, 'Oh, what's the piano doing? What are the chords doing?'. 

I think that initially I will always go with the emotional side, and then secondly I would think about it in a ‘what ingredients are there’ sense. I need to know, because sometimes you hear a song and there's just one sound, and you're questioning what it is. I think it's a little bit easier with classical music; it happens more when the song has ambient textures in and you're trying to isolate those. I think because my music has classical crossover and new-age elements in it, for me, I find that quite exciting.  

When you're going to sleep at night, do you have a restful book, or can you just put on a beautiful album and fall asleep to it? 

I cannot listen to any kind of music before I go to sleep. I get too excited, and it makes me stay up. I want to, but it will literally get my mind buzzing, and I'd feel like I need to get up and write something. When I hear melodies or, especially, chord progressions, it makes me start thinking up a song, when I actually need to go to bed! So music before bed is a complete no-no for me. One thing I do enjoy listening to is brown noise and crackling fireplaces, they’re my two main go-tos for going to sleep. Yes, I'm really boring. 

No, I totally get it. For me, it has to be a book I've heard before, because if I want to hear what happens, it's not going to work. It's the comfort of a story I've heard before that works.

I really love watching films for that reason. I can't watch new films when I'm on my own. I find that, especially thrillers or anything very exciting, are just too intense for me. My emotions just go crazy. So I get it. I love watching films that I've already watched over and over again. I can literally spend all day if I wanted to (which isn't very often) just watching ‘Lord of the Rings’, because I know it so well, and I love everything about it. 

We just saw that, I think last year or the year before, and I think I was on edge because I wanted to get to the end. Obviously you know what happens, but I think now I need to go back and fully enjoy it. That's another cover you did not too long ago, you did ‘Into The West’. Gorgeous version, and the video was so lovely. So I guess when it comes to these covers you talked about, they had a connection with that period in life. Is this part of a project that we're going to hear? Is that an album that's coming out? 

Yes. I recorded about ten songs all together, and they're all part of a covers album. ‘Hallelujah’ is the third cover, and this year I will be releasing more cover songs. It's actually quite exciting, because it's been a couple of years since I released, and I really held onto this one. Bringing out ‘Bright Eyes’, was very cathartic for me, and bringing out ‘Into The West’ felt very healing. And then it was all going too fast, so I ended up putting on the breaks. But now that Hallelujah has gone out into the world, I can carry on the rest of this year, releasing the rest of the cover songs from the album. So it's very exciting.

Then in the background, while I'm releasing all of this, I'm actually writing my follow up album for ‘Lost In Love’. So ‘Lost In Love’ was my first debut album, and now I'm actually writing my second album, because I'm in the complete right head space. I think that it’s really important to make sure you're ready and you don't rush that. It's an exciting time for new music. 

It's really exciting to have a new original album, because I feel like that was one of the unique things we saw in you as an artist. As you arrived, it seemed fully formed, like here's a completely original album. That's so rare. Does this album have a theme? I know that last one was very personal, so is this one also first person, or do you get to step into other people's shoes and do a little bit more fantasy writing? 

I think for me personally, I always write best when I’m writing about my own experiences. One of my greatest inspirations is (you probably know of her) Frida Kahlo. Her art was amazing, but it was all self. It was about her and her journey. I think that was what was so captivating about her as an artist, she just let it all out. She was painting herself when she was ill, when she was feeling beautiful, when she was sad, when she was going through amazing life changes, and I feel the same with the songs that I write. 

I want them to be expressive, I want them to be real. I think why Frida really touched all of our hearts is because we can actually see ourselves in her, and as an artist, that is what I would say my job to do: to really open up my heart and show as much humanity within as I possibly can, to help other people connect with themselves as well. Nowadays we're much more in the ether of people being aware of mental health, and I feel like mental health can often start with being able to analyse what you're feeling yourself.

So there's a huge process that comes with writing music. It comes from heart. And then there's that final part; the sprinkling of the fantasy element. That's when I think that comes in, rather than trying to pretend, in a way. I'm only on my second album, so maybe when I'm further down the road of being an artist, I will get more comfortable with doing that, but I'm quite happy to be my own muse right now. 

That's what listeners are connecting with, too. I feel like through all the different things you do, whether it's livestreams or reading poetry, it does feel very personal with your audience. 

Yes. I think creating a community is really important. It's what brings us closer together and helps us as the human race, and as a light bearer, so to speak, I feel like that's part of why I'm here; to be able to dive deep into my heart, get all of those deep feelings and emotions, and share them with the world. I think it makes it easier for people to connect because they will be able to see that it's actually not as bad as you think, when you need to go deep within to find your own truth. 

It makes total sense to me because, when I was younger, I think that's just the thing. When we're kids, you feel so isolated, right? You're feeling this big thing, and you think you're the only one in the world. But then when you find these emotions, they're universal, even if people don't understand your exact circumstance. You feel that community. It's a beautiful thing, thinking ‘I'm not alone, there’s other people that experience this’. 

Yes, absolutely. I'm the same, you know. I'm terrible actually, because it could just be an advert on TV and I'm just bawling my eyes out. It's just a Christmas ad, but I've gone because it's touched me, and that's the whole point, isn't it? 

Yes. I think that the older I get, I'll just hear the swell in the music and it's already touched me. I get it. But it's good because we're releasing it. That's the thing I'm trying to do this year, is not say ‘don't cry’. Let yourself experience what your experiencing. 

I always cry. I literally cry every day, I think. It's just healthy.

Exactly. So that's the thing, we're going to keep going. 

When I was researching for Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen, he was an amazing songwriter, and I've watched several interviews where he's so interesting as a person. It's a real gift that he gave us with this particular song because it's been covered now so many times, but the reason people keep covering it is because it keeps touching people in a different way. That is why I wanted to release the song first without a music video so people could just hear the music, and then obviously release the music video after. And people are loving it. I feel like that is also part of the journey: to try and create something beautiful, and something that can touch you through being in nature. That's where I feel very connected; I find myself again when I'm surrounded by trees. 

That ties in really well. Many of your videos are set in forests, is there a special significance or connection you have with the environment? 

Definitely. I really feel connected with myself when I'm in the forest. It doesn't have to be a big forest, it can just be a small woodland. And it doesn't even have to be a forest, it can be anywhere where it's just pure nature, where you can hear the sounds of birds, where there's fresh air, where you can feel a sense of expansion, where you feel at one with the universe. If I have time and if the ground is not too dirty, I can literally take my shoes off and just ground myself on the earth, and I feel like how I should as a human. It's like going and pressing a reset button.

I think the connection is being able to feel clear in my head and clear in my heart when I'm surrounded by nature. The forests in my music videos, they're where I feel I'm safe and surrounded by the energy of nature, which is really important. If anyone has never taken their shoes off in the forest, I guarantee you, when you walk barefoot on some moss or grass, it's like nature's battery charger. Definitely recommend it. 

Your videos are so beautiful, and now I'm seeing the common theme to it, so thank you for pointing that out. Just a reminder, of course, we've been talking today about Hallelujah, and you can stream it on all platforms, or buy it from iTunes. That helps. 

Yes definitely. 

The music video is what we've been talking about. It's a stunning video. Go check that out as well @NatashaHardy on YouTube. 

Thank you. Incidentally, I actually got my niece to shoot the cover art. She does some photography and I asked her if she wanted to come with me and do a photo shoot. And I didn't expect anything, I thought it was just going to be for fun. Out of all of the photos, this was the only one where she said to me, ‘why don't you put your hand up and like this’, so she directed me and at that moment the sun shone, and it looks like I have that beam of sunlight shading my face. I think she took about 300 photos, and it's the only one that was like that. When I was looking through the photos, I thought 'this is the one', because it just stood out.

Yes, the magic of that moment. Natasha, we have come to a new year, so do you participate in New Year's resolutions, or how do you? 

Absolutely, I love New Year. For me, I think New Year is the best part of the whole year. This year, I actually went down to the beach on New Year's Eve, took the dogs for a walk and had a stroll. It was really windy and blustery, but that was me getting in with nature. I didn't take my boots off this time because it was way too cold, but I took the dogs for a walk on the beach, and at about ten minutes to midnight I walked down to the beach again so I could see the sea, be with the elements, and see the sky full of stars.

In my mind, I'm already in full speed ahead, because January feels like a time to renew and to go forward with new plans for the year. So with regard to New Year's resolutions, I think because there has been a little bit of a hiatus with the releases, it is now exciting for me because I do feel like my energy has changed, and new music will just continue to come out now. And I feel like it ends up seeping into all parts of your life when you start feeling this new energy.

I actually have a health and beauty channel that I don't use very much, and it was always one of my intentions to share more of my lifestyle, because I'm actually very health conscious, and I have so many videos on my phone, I should share them at some point. So one of my New Year's resolutions is to share more of, not just the music BTS and what's here in this small studio, but the other stuff that goes on. How I eat, how I look after my health (physically and mentally), how I get to look like this, all the things that I kind of take for granted that are just part of my job. I feel like I'd like to share those moments, too. So I think that part of my New Year's resolution is to let people even more behind the closed doors, so to speak. 

An exciting time if you are a fan of Natasha Hardy, and I hope you are! And Natasha, can you tell us a little bit about your Patron too?

Yes! I have my own Patron page, which is directly connected through my website. So all you have to do is go to www.natashahardy.com/patron. Then you will be able to choose what level membership you want. It starts out really simple, then you get more gifts with the higher tiers, so it's really easy to become a Patron.

One of the things that I do for my Patrons are exclusive seasonal concerts. I do one every Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, and I try to get a live accompanist (if I can't get a live accompanist, I will have live backing tracks). And I try to tailor all the songs around that particular concert. I interact with my Patrons and it's just so much fun. 

The other benefit that you get when you become a Patron is you get access to my exclusive live listening parties. So this is actually a really good time to join because I'm going to be doing more music releases. We actually do the exclusive live listening party via zoom, so I'm able to interact with you. We can have a live chat and it's all very chilled. It feels like you're part of the family because you're kind of in my home and the poodles come on camera. So if you want to become a Patron, you can do that too. 

Perfect! Natasha, thank you so much for talking to us. This is a lovely single. Thank you for being vulnerable and sharing, I know it's not easy. 

Thank you so much. It's actually easier now than ever before. I think I've grown so much as an independent artist in the last five years. When I originally released ‘Lost In Love’ it was very beautiful, but very overwhelming because I didn't prepare for what happens after the release. As you know, I lost my father at pretty much the same time, and then it was Covid, so I didn't really have the odds stacked very well in my favour. With the new year, I feel like it's a rebirth as an artist, so to speak. I'm looking forward to sharing much more with you from now. 

Thank you so much, Natasha. We look forward to having you again for a new episode very soon, so stay tuned for that. Go stream Natasha's music and we'll connect very soon. 

Thank you so much, Natasha, for having me on Crossover Music Magazine. You're wonderful. Thank you for supporting us, as independent artists and I know I don't just speak for myself when I say that. I know a lot of work, time, effort, money and energy goes into doing what you do for our genre of music, and it doesn't go unnoticed at all. Natasha, thank you. 

Date: 02/01/2025

Interviewer: Natasha Barbieri

Interviewee: Natasha Hardy

Magazine: Crossover Music Magazine

Natasha Hardy interview / Natasha Hardy Hallelujah / classical crossover singer / ethereal vocals / Leonard Cohen Hallelujah cover / Celtic and cinematic music / classical crossover music / Natasha Hardy Lost In Love / indie classical artist / Natasha Hardy Crossover Music Magazine