The New Zealander can be an unnerving presence. She’s also one of the most original songwriters around. She talks about Meatloaf, Apocalypse Now… and why her generation is so frightenedLook into Aldous Harding’s eyes. It’s hard not to. To be fixed by her gaze is to be profoundly unnerved. This is a large part of the appeal of this
New Zealand musician, whose
music is as disquietingly beautiful and unsettling as her image.
On stage and in videos, the strangeness of Harding is intensified. Take the video for her new single, Zoo Eyes: she’s dressed like an overpainted clown from a Jodorowsky film. At festivals this summer, she wore burnt-orange workmen’s clothes and a porkpie hat, her eyes twitching, her mouth gurning like a silent film comedian. If felt like watching the deeply peculiar child of Patti Smith and Buster Keaton or a wayward musical niece of Kristin Hersh and PJ Harvey.