HANNAH KATE
- ballpointpressbne
- Oct 20
- 6 min read
Writer: Aysha Swanson
Images: @divascum
There’s something beautifully mundane yet deeply emotional about boiling eggs in a kettle — a kind of accidental poetry that only someone like Hannah Kate could turn into a song. The Naarm-based indie outfit comprised of Hannah Kata, Samuel Drew-Rumoro, Eddie Knight and Alice Shannon, return with ‘Eggs in a Kettle’ - the final single before their highly anticipated debut LP (due early 2026), and it’s a tender, nostalgic breakup track that simmers between love, loss, and self-awareness.
Where their last release ‘End of the Day’ waded in existential waters, ‘Eggs’ narrows its gaze to something more intimate — a first love gone south, a winter in Tasmania, and the strange comfort of knowing that even heartbreak has its small moments of beauty. With its conversational lyricism, crisp band chemistry, and emotional precision, ‘Eggs in a Kettle’ captures Hannah’s knack for making the specific feel universal — the kind of song that sneaks up on you in the Coles egg aisle.
Ahead of the release, Ballpoint Press caught up with Hannah to chat about writing heartbreak in hindsight, the meaning behind ‘Eggs’, and what’s next for one of Naarm’s most quietly powerful voices.
AYSHA: The image of “boiling eggs in a kettle” is so vivid and specific — can you tell us the real story behind that moment, and how it found its way into a song?
HANNAH: It actually just happened. An ex-partner and I were in Tasmania at this Airbnb, and I just didn't realise that the Airbnb didn't have a kitchen, there was literally just a kettle and a toaster. We just really wanted to cook a proper breakfast so we realised that we could try and boil eggs in the kettle. I guess not long after that we broke up and then it was just something that came out when I was writing a song. It's just something that popped into my mind. I just thought it was a kind of funny thing to include in this song that's about heartbreak.
AYSHA: You’ve described ‘Eggs in a Kettle’ as a breakup song that still holds space for love. How did you find that balance between heartbreak and gratitude?
HANNAH: Yeah, it's nice when you use the song as a kind of way to get through the heartbreak. It's a way of putting it all into writing and feeling a bit lighter - you don't have to carry it with you. I guess. I don't know, it kind of fell out of me. It wasn't really a song that I was trying to write. It kind of just happened one day and I thought "oh, cool, I didn't even know that those feelings were in there".
AYSHA: The lyric “I’m only 22, I know I’ve got lots left to learn” feels incredibly self-aware — do you remember what was going through your head when you wrote that line?
HANNAH: Yeah, It's such an old song now. I mean, it outs me for being 22 at the time and now I'm 27. I feel like when you' have going through a breakup with that age, your friends are kind of like, "oh, you're only 22, it's fine. Don't worry about it". I thought yeah, but it's still hurts. I guess that's what that line was saying. I know I'm only 22, but this actually feels really big right now. So I let it feel big.
AYSHA: Compared to ‘End of the Day ’ – great track and love the music video! - ‘Eggs’ feels a bit more stripped back emotionally — what shifted for you between those two releases?
HANNAH: I think that I don't usually tend to start writing a song with any kind of intention. I feel it just kind of happens naturally, depending on where I'm at in my life. 'End of the Day' was a lockdown song, so I was kind of going insane. When I showed my drummer that song, he was like, "this was my makes no sense, every line is in a different time signature" and I didn't even realise. I was just cooped up of my room going insane. Whereas I think 'Egg' was before that. It does feel more of a stripped back and kind of more cohesive song.
AYSHA: You recorded ‘Eggs’ with Fabian Hunter and worked with Sam Swain on mixing and mastering — what did that collaboration bring to the track’s final sound?
HANNAH: Yeah we recorded with Fabian and that was really cool. He's got this little studio out the back of his house and the sound in the room was really good. I sent it off to Sam to mix it because he mixed our previous songs and I wanted them to all have the same sound. Sam just kind of ran away with it and made it sound even more huge somehow. I feel like its great to get different people to work on the tracks, but also I feel like it's nice to work with the same people because you feel more comfortable around them and you're not nervous to ask "can we change this?".
AYSHA: With your writing process, do you kind of bring the songs to your band and they add their own parts?
HANNAH: Yeah, I usually bring a song that's fully formed to the band and then they'll add their parts and then maybe I'll have other guitar parts for Alice, but most of the time she'll now she writes a lot of her own parts as well, which is cool. I don't know how to explain it but I feel like I never really know what genre we are because when I write the songs on my own, it feels very singer-songwriter and then whenever everyone adds their parts, it kind of becomes multiple different genre genres. So I always have a really hard time describing what music we are.
AYSHA: You’ve got a run of shows coming up with Hobsons Bay Coast Guard and a spot at Northcote Social Club — what are you most looking forward to about being back on the road?
HANNAH: We've actually never played Interstate before. Which is crazy, we've been a band for ages, but we had a bit of a break in COVID times, obviously. So I'm just keen to play in Sydney for the first time. We've got one show with Hobson's Bay and then we've got another show with a Sydney band called Marilyn Maria, then finishing off at Nott Social on the Monday for Social Sanctuary. So that should be sick. I'm nervous about playing three shows back to back as well as flying to Sydney, playing Saturday, Sunday, and then flying back on Monday to play a short Monday night. I'll probably die, but it'll be fun.
AYSHA: Visually, your music videos always have a strong personality. What can you tell us about the ‘Eggs in a Kettle’ video shot by Clara Slewa?
HANNAH: We didn't have a solid plan. We walked around lots of different suburbs and we went to Footscray Market and bought a whole bunch of eggs and then just saw what popped out at us as we were walking around and got lots of little shots. Clara shoots it all on old kind camcorders. It resulted in me just getting eggs piffed at me, essentially, which was really gross. My stairs leading up to my house just smelled like raw eggs for a full day. So hopefully it was worth it. I haven't actually seen it yet, but I think it'll be really fun. I think it was cute and silly which I kind of wanted. It is quite a serious breakup song, so I kind of wanted the video to just be a bit more lighthearted and funny.
AYSHA: You’ve hinted that this single is the last before your debut LP next year. How does ‘Eggs’ fit into the larger emotional arc of that record?
HANNAH: Yeah, it's just a it's a record full of songs that I have I written over the past five years. I think some of them are quite old and then there's others that are quite new. So I think it's kind of cool because it's kind of what I was writing back then and then also songs that are more what I'm writing now. I'm just kind of keen to have it out and start working on a full album of new new stuff.
AYSHA: Finally — when you think about where you were when ‘Eggs’ was written versus where you are now, what do you think has changed most for you as a songwriter and as a person?
HANNAH: Yeah, I don't know. I think I think I, um. I think I've definitely grown up a lot since then. I mean, how many years is that? Probably five years? I think I would probably write it pretty similarly, though. I think I think my writing style is kind of still quite similar till back to back then, but maybe maybe just a little less a little less youthful.
AYSHA: Yeah totally, its a hard thing to conceptualise.
FIND HANNAH KATE HERE
SPOTIFY | INSTAGRAM | LISTEN TO 'EGGS IN A KETTLE'
Comments