I just want to make sounds that feel nice in my ears.” “The less I think in that way, the better. “I don’t really think in genres at all”, Eliza explains. I think ‘demoitis’ is actually a great thing, because the minute you move away from the moment that spark of creation happened, and try to recreate it, you’ve lost something.” Hit single “Wasn’t Looking” is a highlight, while previously unheard songs such as “Loveable” and “Putting Out Fires” display an impressive ability to exist on a track with minimal instrumental support, and still produce something enchantingly intricate and listenable. This is enhanced by the fact that “most of the songs on the album are demos, they’re not re-works or anything like that, they’re all from the first day I did it. “Putting Out Fires” starts with someone asking “did I bring a jumper? Am I gonna need one?”, these snippets of quotidian urban life smattered throughout the project and bolstering its authenticity. Though the album doesn’t act as an ode to the city – it’s so much more than that – it is fair to say that it is characterised by London, its moodiness, diversity and DIY attitude all clear to hear. “I see people come from other places and they’re culturally overwhelmed by London”, she explains, “it’s addictive, it’s a special special city and nothing can replace it.” This is nine songs of smoky R’n’B performed in the basement of a Camden bar, of jazzy beats and blurry vocals, a patchwork collage of living and loving in London, the city where Eliza was born and bred. The truth behind Eliza’s insistence that she is better off now is clear to see in her music, the proof being very much in the pudding with her new album, A Real Romantic. Eliza agrees: “It’s been an amazing experience – I’ve been driving the ship, and I’m really glad for all the things I’ve learned from that”. This is an interesting position, and one that bears some resonance in an age where some of the highest profile artists in the world, such as Chance The Rapper, are not only forging their own paths but being vocal about their resistance of record labels and the possibilities independence can give you. But if they care about music at all, which I’d like to think that they do, then there should be some real rethinking with regards to working with true artists and helping them do what they do best, without getting involved in it too much.” It’s not like they can’t be useful – they’ve got money, they’ve got teams of people, global reach…yes, they are businesses, so I get why they’re churning out crap stuff, one hit wonders or whatever. “I’d recommend that labels shift the way they’re doing things. This meant parting ways with her label, a decision that Eliza deems “the way forward”, but also feels shouldn’t necessarily be the only way. Having made a name for herself in 2010 under the moniker ‘Eliza Doolittle’ with radio-friendly hits such as “Pack Up”, she made the decision to eschew what had become a significant and successful project in favour of a new name and, importantly, a new sound. Do you want some nuts?”Įliza’s story is relatively unique, and rather interesting. It was like being in a band, and then waking up and actually becoming a solo artist. But I always felt that there was something else I had to be doing. “I’m still super proud of the old stuff – I think I tapped into a side of me that I didn’t even know was there, and I’m really glad for it. I’m sitting with Eliza Caird (fka Doolittle, now just Eliza) in the restaurant of the Covent Garden Hotel, as she explains her transition from fresh-faced pop singer to the artist behind one of the rawest, smoothest albums of 2018. In the end it wasn’t for me, I’m too controlling, and I want to be able to make music the way I want to do it.” But, I always found myself coming head to head with them, and feeling like I wasn’t being true to myself in one way or another. It was really fun and exciting, you know we were hustling, we were doing this pop thing. “I was 17 when I got signed and swooped up into the industry side of things.

Eliza bleu