Eliza & The Delusionals are back with their newest single "Give You Everything" and their soon to be released and most anticipated debut album Now And Then. They are currently on tour in Australia and will make their triumph return to the US for Bottle Rock festival in May, Eliza and I go to chatting about all the things music and more.
Hello! Thanks so much for letting me interview you! How are you?
Of course, thank you for having me! I’m doing well, we’ve been back on tour around Australia (finally!) so it’s nice to be feeling like our lives are somewhat going back to normal.
You guys just recently released your newest single “Give You Everything” what was the inspiration behind this track?
When we were writing the song, we were getting to know Sarah as it was the first time we had met her. Somehow we had gotten into conversation about our early days in the industry, and working with people who easily took advantage of our naivety and trust. We had experienced really similar situations, and I think that was where we found something that we could all connect with lyrically and emotionally. That’s how the idea of not giving everything to someone and keeping some for yourself came about.
What was the creative and writing process like for “Give You Everything”?
It was really unique for us, as it was the first time Kurt and I had experienced a co-writing session outside of collaborating between ourselves. We spent two days with Sarah Aarons and John Hill at his studio in LA writing, and it was such an incredible experience to have so many interesting ideas and to have two amazing musical minds also coming up with ideas for our song. When we had come back to Australia and started to demo the track, we had fleshed out the bridge and some of the lead synth and guitar lines to really bring the song to life. It was pretty much an instant favorite between us as a band and our team Was there any difference between creating and writing “Nothing Yet” then there was with “Give You Everything”?
For sure, quite a lot actually. As I mentioned earlier we had written GYE in LA with Sarah Aarons and John Hill whilst we were on tour, so we were in a completely different headspace at the time. It was also just before COVID shut the world down, so we were on an absolute high from touring and all of these crazy opportunities that were coming our way. ‘Nothing Yet’ was written in the peak of the lock downs and pandemic, when we weren’t allowed to really leave our homes. We were searching for inspiration throughout our experiences of growing up and falling in love, and when everyone else around you is falling in love and you’re wondering why you don’t feel the same way and it’s not happening to you. ‘Nothing Yet’ was also written by Kurt and I in our home studio in Pottsville back home in Australia. I think the vibe of GYE musically and structurally definitely had an influence on the way that NY was written, though.
One of my favorite things about this track is the lyrics! In most of your songs, you guys always have such a big surrounding sense of vulnerability and honesty in the lyrics. How do you go about portraying that while writing? I feel like it takes a lot to really be able to put your whole being out like that! Thank you, we put a lot of work into the lyrics. Kurt and I both always talk about how they can be the most important aspect of a song, it’s what people are connecting with really. For me personally, I’ve always used lyric writing as a way to search deep inside myself and find out how I’m actually feeling, or use it as a way to say something that I couldn’t really say out loud directly. It was interesting going from writing on my own to constantly collaborating with Kurt, because you kind of have to be vulnerable and just put your ideas out there - but instead of going into a notebook, you’re speaking about it to someone else fresh out of your mind and explaining your thought process behind it. It was really hard for me to get used to, but now it’s second nature. I feel like for us as songwriters, sometimes we’ll be humming and mumbling words when something stands out and we both connect with it. That’s sort of the point where we develop the context and idea of the song and realize what it’s about and what it means to us. A small amount of times we will go in with a clear idea and vision of what we’re writing about. Your debut album Now And Then is coming out in May which is so exciting! What was the process like in creating it like? What’s it like to finally be able to have your debut album come out after such a long time?
It was definitely an interesting process, and not really how I would have envisioned writing our debut album. Even though we had done a few co-writing sessions when we were in LA in 2020, I don’t think we had even thought about the fact that these songs were going to be pieces of the debut album puzzle. When everything went down, and we had to come home, all we could do was write music and use it as a form of escapism from what was actually going on in the real world. It was really depressing at times, but having each other to lean on and float ideas with really helped. Throughout the year, we had written and recorded probably 50 demos for the album, so it was kind of hard to put the track listing together. We really cut it down to what was fitting the theme and what we wanted the new era of Eliza & the Delusionals to sound like. I think we also changed the release plans and single choices for the record at least 5 or 6 times. It was really difficult navigating lock downs and border closures, we really just had to get stuff done when we could and hope for the best. But now that life is looking a little closer to the pre-pandemic normal, we’re feeling really excited about ‘Now And Then’ finally coming out, and we can’t wait for everyone to listen and see the songs at a live show in 2022.
From releasing your EP A State Of Living In An Objective Reality to releasing your debut album Now And Then, do you think the way you make music, and write lyrics has changed at all?Yeah, it definitely has in a few different ways. I was in an entirely different headspace whilst writing A State Of Living. I was feeling things around my relationship at the time that was coming to an end, and writing those songs was kind of my way of dealing with it and coming to terms with what was happening. When we started working on new songs after that EP had been recorded, Kurt and I had decided to try writing together instead of just myself creating the songs and ideas. This inherently changed the sound, especially when it came to chords and structural things because Kurt has such a different way of thinking about that compared to me. It was so nice having someone to constantly bounce ideas off of, and a lot of Kurt’s ideas were in different tunings which was something new for us musically as well. I really loved working with him on the songs, and that’s definitely what shaped and defined the new era of Eliza & the Delusionals. Not to mention we had a few other collaborations and co-writes with Sarah Aarons, John Hill and Keith Harris for a few of the songs on the record. Who are your current music influences that inspired your newest single “Give You Everything”? For this song, we really wanted it to sound nostalgic sonically. We were more inspired by a lot of Y2K/90’s songs and production ideas rather than newer songs. I can’t really pinpoint some exact influences for this, but I guess we wanted it to sound like it could have been in the soundtrack for ‘Clueless’ or ‘10 Things I Hate About You’. Did you guys listen to anything during the creative process for inspiration?
I feel like we were inspired by a lot of different music - new and old - but to make it easy we actually made a Spotify playlist that you can find here to see what was inspiring our writing process!
When writing lyrics, do you write for yourself or for a certain audience?
I think it’s easy to get caught up in thinking about what other people want you to sound like, and it can definitely feel scary or uncomfortable releasing something that sounds a bit different to your back catalog. I think it’s important to stay true to how you’re feeling and what you’re wanting to produce. If it feels good, then it’s going to work out. I think you have to have that deep connection with your songwriting for others to have it too, no matter what the song sounds like sonically. So I guess to answer your question, we have always written songs that we connect with, and hope that our fans will connect with it too.
Is there a certain method you follow at all when creating music?
Not particularly, I think we naturally have a process of songs coming to life, but we don’t have a method that we use every time. I think it’s cool to try different things and processes, so we kind of just let ideas come out in all different ways.
Does being from Australia inspire you guys as musicians at all?
I think it depends - I don’t think we’re inspired directly by our landscapes and things like that, but of course growing up and traveling across Australia countless times has definitely had an impact on our perception of things and how we feel. For me personally, having that feeling of being outside of my comfort zone has always made me feel inspired because it’s something new that I haven’t experienced before - whether that be in Australia or internationally.
We’re all about supporting our local DIY scenes here at Underground Zine! Were you guys ever involved in yours? Did it ever inspire you guys individually, or as a band at all?I
feel like a lot of elements to ‘Now And Then’ have been pretty DIY! In our pre order bundles you can get the album zine that we hand designed with stickers and printed photos, a lot of the visualisers have been done in our home studio by Kurt as well. We also created the album artwork in our garage at home, so I feel like DIY is definitely a big part of our DNA as a band!
Last question, who should we be listening to right now?
or me, I’ve really been loving the new album from The War On Drugs, the new singles from MUNA and the latest Holly Humberstone EP!
Words by Melody
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