Charlotte Hatherley on new project Sylver Tongue

Former Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley has spoken about her new musical project Sylver Tongue and said that her new outfit will be "everything she ever wanted to do."


The guitarist, who has released a track titled 'Hook You Up' as a free download from the new project, will put out her debut single proper as Sylver Tongue on May 21. That track is titled 'Creatures'.


Speaking to NME about the project and why she'd decided to adopt the new, 80s influenced persona, Hatherley said: "I've always wanted to be more theatrical, but I've never really had the time or the budget. But I've decided that this project will be everything I've ever wanted."


The guitarist, who most recently toured with Bat For Lashes and KT Tunstall, also spoke about her progress in recording her debut album, saying that she'd recorded six songs so far.


She said of this: "I've recorded six songs, so half of it's done. I'm about to go back and do the other half with James [Rutledge - producer]. All the songs are written and ready to go. I'll finish it in the next month and it'll either come out at the beginning of next year or at the end of this year. I don't want to release it independently. I want to get a record deal and then go on tour. Hopefully it'll get done really quickly." 


Hatherley also spoke about why she'd chosen the name Sylver Tongue, revealing: "It's from a massive list of sci-fi references that I had. I read the Philip Pullman book His Dark Materials trilogy and there's a girl in there who exists in a parallel universe called Silver Tongue. I put the 'Y' in there as an odd to David Sylvain, because I'm just obsessed with Japan."


The singer also spoke about her plans for her live shows, which she will end up being "totally mental".


She said: "It's very 'Mad Max'. It's quite futuristic, but quite apocalyptic. I don't want to go around wearing big shiny helmets, so at the moment it's just fur and leathers. I want to be completely unrecognizable, so I've got all these amazing face masks and it'll build up to something a lot more extravagant. It'll be totally mental by the time I'm finished with it." 


You can watch the videos for 'Hook You Up' and 'Creatures' as well as live versions of three other songs by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking.