Eliza Delf & The Wilderness have just released their new single ‘Don’t Love Me Lightly’ ahead of their second album release ‘Feast’. Eliza was kind enough to take a phone interview with me:
HC: How did getting involved in a band came about?
Eliza: The way the band started was slightly unusual because of COVID. The order of my getting going with music was a bit strange as I recorded the album before I had a band and I did it with the producer John Looms who’s based in Yorkshire and it was largely done remotely. I’d written the songs, I sent him demos and he work on some ideas and then we e-mail about it but it’s quite an unusual way of getting your first album out there.
HC: Have you always wanted to be in a band?
Eliza: I’ve always loved singing and then I started writing songs, not really with a big plan I just enjoyed writing and then I started to think ‘Oh you know I’m pretty much I’m writing an album’, and then because of COVID the only option was to record as we couldn’t play live. It was only when the songs were recorded I started to think I would like to share these songs and anyone who’s heard my songs would agree, they don’t suit being just me and maybe a piano I think they really work well with a band so it just was the natural next step.
HC: Where did the name ‘Wilderness’ come from?
Eliza: One of the songs on the first album is called ‘Into the Wilderness’ and it was written partly about lockdown. I really struggled with lockdown, I became very inward and struggled with leaving the house but then when you were supposed to get out, I still was really struggling with it. The song was a little bit about the idea of trying to reclaim the outside as a space I wanted to be in. Those themes were cropping up in the other songs I thought it would be a good title track for the album. When we were talking about the band we liked the idea of having my name to start and it came from that song and just like the image of it.
HC: Tell me who’s in the band and how did you find them?
Eliza: Tim Skinner is my percussionist I found him on the website for connecting musicians and we’re lucky we’re both local, went for coffee got on really well and he just loves the music which is the main thing! My celloist is Eva Wright, we went to university together. The guitarist Jacob Browne is actually my partner. He had previously been on bass in the band but is now on guitar.
HC: I do love the inclusion of the cello it adds such a different layer to the music
Eliza: It does have its classical roots and because I was classically trained the two sounds just marry really well together.
HC: What is your classical training?
Eliza: Classical singing. I started when I was about 11 years old, my piano teacher told me I should probably do singing instead and I was much happy doing that. I then got to the crossroads of did I want to continue with classical singing or my own music and I decided that I wanted to sing my own songs.
HC: Do you play any other instruments?
Eliza: A little bit of piano but I definitely don’t claim to be amazing at it, I can get by enough to do demos for sharing with the band. I think a lot of people actually feel more comfortable on stage with an instrument but for me I want to be focusing on my myself and my body and what I’m doing and not having to worry about an instrument as well.
HC: Your website describes your sound as “indie music with gothic folk noir in its veins and art rock in its heart” which is a wonderful description, but what does that mean to you?
Eliza: The question of genre comes up a lot. Those words are very carefully chosen because we really struggled to know how to describe our music. We’ve been described a lot as a bit genre-less so it’s not just us failing to think of something.
It is a long phrase and I think it has to be to do it justice. We do get a lot of comments that our music does stand out as not having a clear definition or clear genre. There’s the classical elements in my voice and there’s also a slightly folky tone to my voice at times but I’m definitely not a folk singer. The music has hints of pop, I do listen to pop music and I enjoy catchy music.
The noir side, the gothic is because the music and lyrics can get quite dark. There is a new song we’ve got coming out and there is a line that says ‘the skin and sinew from my skull’, it’s about your skin being ripped off your body. When people listen they at first think ‘that sounds nice’ and when they hear what I’m singing there like ‘oh’. I drew a lot on writer called Angela Carter who has quite colourful language but quite dark and I definitely have taken that influence on.
HC: Which leads very nicely to the next question: who were your influences growing up and have they changed today?
Eliza: Musically, I learned the lesson quite quickly that you might like your influences but don’t be consumed by them because when you first start writing songs it’s very easy to copycat and you have to stop yourself doing it.
We do get a lot of people mentioning Kate Bush, partly because I sing quite high and it’s slightly flamboyant, but it’s not necessarily someone I think I’ve been influenced by and then I’m like ‘Oh yeah I probably have been’. On a more personal level I’m massively influenced by feedback from people around me particularly my dad, he also manages the band, he’s the first person I send it to.
HC: With your father also your manager, how is that for you and are there other family members involved?
Eliza: I love working with him, we’re so in sync and because there’s that personal element to it, no one else will ever promote my music in the way he does. Anyone that’s ever spoken to him knows his commitment to the band is incredible but I’m very lucky that he enjoys it and is happy to do it for free because I don’t have anything to give anyone so it’s amazing plus he’s one of my best friends.
Anyone who works in music knows it’s such a DIY thing unless you’re super super famous you’re getting by by the skin of your teeth. My brother is really good at photography so he does a great job taking photographs of the band and my mum is an accountant which is actually very useful, it’s been fantastic and she’s also comes along to the gigs and do the door and the tickets if the venue is not doing it.
HC: Was it a musical household growing up?
Eliza: There’s definitely musical roots that go back on both sides. My mum’s family is from Wales, a big singing culture, and my Nanna sung when she was younger and performed in a duo.
On my dad side again, very musical and they all loved to play instruments. My dad has a slightly different style, he loves punky music and was a big fan of The Damned. He was in a band when he was younger, he recently found some demos he made and put them on SoundCloud which I really enjoyed so I’m threatening him with doing a cover of one of them.
HC: What challenges do you currently face in the music industry?
Eliza: I’ve touched on it a bit but being really transparent the financial side is really difficult. Currently I’m doing a couple of jobs part-time but then I’m also self-employed as a musician, it’s full on. I think I’m making peace with the fact that it’s not really an industry I’m expecting to ever feel financially stable in, it’s not that kind of industry but if you love it you do anyway.
It’s not easy we we’re really lucky that we’ve had some amazing people who support us and buy CDs, because merch and CDs actually is where you make some money, you don’t make it from places like Spotify at all.
Also the organisation, there is a lot of us making the music and you have to really be organised because you definitely don’t want to be flaky and make a bad impression with a venue or an artist you’re supporting, for example. Luckily I’m quite organised but it’s a lot of plates to keep spinning.
HC: You’re about to release your second album and we will talk about that, but I saw that you used crowdfunding for your album? How did that come about?
Eliza: We did a Kickstarter for the first album and people were really generous and wanted to get involved so when it came to the second album I thought we’d do it again. What’s great about Kickstarter is that in some ways for some people it’s a show of faith, they can make a donation but I’ll give them a CD or maybe like a T-shirt or something when it comes out. It is people helping me make a commitment to making music and giving me the confidence to commit to it, which is fantastic. People are so generous at a time when no one’s feeling super flush right now. It’s really lovely the way people will support us.
HC: How do you enjoy working and recording within a studio?
Eliza: I love it. I mean I love being in the studio, I feel so at home there. We recorded the second album with Adam Bowers who’s based in Ipswich at the Boathouse Studio which is by the edge of the water, it is beautiful. We spent a week there, when you’re in a studio it does become this little microcosm and you are all completely obsessed with the music and you get to spend a week just being creative and trying things. I enjoyed it so much.
HC: Tell me about the song writing process?
Eliza: I will write a song, lyrics, chords and structure so it’ll be a song but there is a lot of potential left with it. I’ll essentially have a rough demo and then I’ll bring it to my band and I’ll show it to them or play it on the piano and I’ll say ‘OK what do you think?’ They’ll come up with ideas for their instrument, make suggestions and it is such a collaborative process which we really enjoy.
Obviously with the first album it was more me just saying here are the songs, but with this album the songs were much more raw, there was so much space for them to come up with ideas for their instruments. It makes it very exciting when I get to bring a song to them as I know it’s going to be a much better song by the time we’ve all worked on it, so that’s always really fun.
HC: One of your strengths is conveying the emotion in a song and the lyrics, I have seen you perform live and you really bring the songs to life. It seems such an emotive experience for us the audience, is it for you?
Eliza: It’s obviously really great to hear that because with performing, there is an element where it does come more naturally to some people and the fact that I enjoy it is great. I’ve worked hard to be better at it and there was a point last Christmas where we reached the end of the year and I’d done quite a few gigs but I realised there’s definitely room for improvement.
We did a gig in February and a lot of people commented that there was a switch in the way I was performing as it was a lot more wild. I made that commitment, I know what I want to be doing on stage and I have to let go of some of the inhibitions that stop you from just being a bit crazy on stage.
That process has been so worthwhile because you’re right I think the gigs we do now are more of a show, it’s very intense. It’s intense for me performing as there are some songs that are very personal even if it’s not obvious to the audience how personal they are. On stage you’re making yourself quite emotionally vulnerable. It’s quite emotional for me, that’s what I love, I love getting on stage and just really letting loose and enjoying it and I think it makes it a much better show.
HC: Your new song that’s is out now ‘Don’t Love Me Lightly’ what is that back story to it?
Eliza: It’s actually about the fear of death, I wrote it about feeling quite overwhelmed by the thought of dying and the people around me dying. The idea of the song was that when I feel like that, the thing that does make me feel better is thinking about people in love and the connections you have in life. It’s easy to spiral and you have to ground yourself, not go down a rabbit hole in your head. A line in the song ‘don’t hold back because I can deal with the weight’ it’s saying I want you to love me with your whole being.
HC: ‘Don’t Love Me Lightly’ is the third track release off your second album, which is going to be released on 23rd May – are there going to be more singles coming out before the album?
Eliza: No, this is the last single before the album comes out. It’s slightly DIY with a release date, it’s not guaranteed because of the streaming platforms.
HC: The second album, called ‘Feast’ will be released 23rd May, can you tell me about it as a whole?
Eliza: There was definitely a little bit of a shift in sound with this album because it was recorded in a more live way so it was real people playing instruments pretty much in its entirety and there’s an energy to recording in that way which was captured really well by Adam.
The songs themselves do range so much, I’m not one for really confessional song writing so even when a song is about me I don’t want it to be, so it’s quite layered up with imagery and metaphor to keep people guessing.
HC: What are your musical plans for this year?
Eliza: We’re really quite busy now with gigs for the next couple of months.
The Portland Arms, Cambridge – May 29th
Norwich Arts Centre – June 25th – official album launch
And plenty of exciting stuff, lots of festivals and I think we will just come to the end of the year and hopefully we’ve had an amazing summer playing loads and loads of live music which is really what I wanted from this year. More dates can be found here.
HC: What do you enjoy most about being a musician?
Eliza: It’s the performing, I love recording but there’s something, that energy you get from being on stage. You do you get a real high afterwards but actually for me it’s when you get to the end of the middle bit while having a really great time. People are enjoying themselves in front of you, you’re having a great time on stage and I look around the band are looking happy and then I can just relax and enjoy it.
HC: How would you describe your fans?
Eliza: I would describe them as dedicated because we’re not a massive band (yet) but the people who come across the music I’m always so blown away by how much they love it. It just gives me such a boost because it’s not easy, it’s a bit relentless sometimes trying to get your music out there and when people give feedback it’s nice to have a little bit of a boost.
HC: What hobbies do you enjoy?
Eliza: I love reading. I spend a lot of time with my partner, going for walks and he’s really good at cooking so my hobby is eating.
HC: Do you have any special skill outside of music that we don’t know about?
Eliza: I really love history. I’ve got a surprising amount of knowledge about Queen Victoria.
Thank you for your time, it’s been a great interview.
Upcoming Gigs:
https://elizadelf.com/live-dates
Eliza on social media:
Website
Spotify
YouTube
Facebook
Instagram
Apple Music
X
Photo Credits: Owain Delf