Track By Track: Elizabeth Rose

Sydney’s fast-rising electro-pop singer-producer ELIZABETH ROSE shares the various influences and origins of the five tracks on her second EP.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

I have been listening to a whole heap of new music this last eight months or so – mostly electronic and slightly unconventional – and subconsciously it really left an imprint on me in the way that I approached my songwriting for this next EP. I was more focused on writing richer harmony and melody components for each track, and I took attention to detail with the production, using new sounds and samples that I had never done before, like saxophones and percussive sounds from an overwhelmingly huge, ethnic drum-sample library. Another influence that I really wanted to make clear in the tracks was my R&B vocal melodies: I grew up listening to and obsessed with late-’90s/early-’00s R&B pop and I just loved writing with that influence in mind.

‘The Good Life’

I bought an old Yamaha DX21 FM synthesiser off a friend for $70 last year and never touched it until this track came along ... the chorus chord progression was the first thing I put down and I became obsessed with it and wrote the track around it. The meaning behind the lyrics in this track isn’t about a relationship with a lover; this song is really about me moving out of home and finding my way, my ‘good life’. I’ve repeated that lyric in another track too; it’s a bit of a recurring theme.

‘Out of Step’

I really like this track – I had been wanting to release a dance track but hadn’t quite found a sound that fits in with the rest of my work. But once I made a start on ‘Out of Step’ I really loved the sounds in it and decided to run with it. This is also the first time that I’ve ever written a chorus that isn’t me speaking in first-person too! I really love The Knife’s new album [2013’s Shaking the Habitual] – it inspired some of the percussive sounds for sure.

‘Is it Love?’

This was one of the first tracks I wrote for the EP, back in a relaxing writing retreat up in Byron at the start of this year. I was listening to a lot of Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs at the time and that inspired the sound of the rhythmic synth chords that play in the verses. It has developed a lot since the early demo stage, with the chorus being completely rewritten as I morphed into the R&B diva that had been brewing under the surface for sometime now, ha ha!

‘Sensibility’

This track was another one of the early demos that I wrote for the release. I was quite unsure of the chorus when I wrote it but I really love it now. I’ve gotta embrace that ’90s R&B vibe! I worked with Styalz Fuego on this track, as we had a bit of trouble writing a strong vocal melody for the verses to match the strength of the chorus. Styalz nailed the melody of the verses and it really tied everything together. Can’t wait to play this one live!

‘Only Me’ (feat. VCS)

I was surfing the net one evening, specifically Bandcamp, and came across a Sydney artist called VCS who released an album [2013’s Awake] out of the blue. A few friends of mine had worked on it so I decided to hit play and I was blown away! I had already written this track at that stage and was thinking of having a male vocalist feature on one of the EP tracks, so I contacted VCS (Vinay Seeth) and we met up, put his vocals down on the track and that was it! Vinay has a fantastic soulful voice; he also writes R&B jams, which made him a perfect fit for the song!

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Elizabeth Rose’s self-titled EP comes out today (Jan 17) digitally through Inertia Access. National tour dates below, with tickets on sale here.

Fri, Feb 28 – Manning Bar, Sydney, NSW
Sat, March 1 – Secret Garden Festival, Camden, NSW
Fri, March 7 – Bleach Festival, Gold Coast, QLD
Sat, March 8 – Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane, QLD [w/Safia + Fishing]
Thurs, March 13 – Wollongong Uni, Wollongong, NSW
Sat, March 15 – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, VIC [w/Safia + Fishing]
Sat, March 22 – Pirie Social Club, Adelaide, SA [w/Safia + Fishing]
Fri, April 4 – King Street Hotel Supperclub, Newcastle, NSW [w/Safia + Fishing]
Fri, April 11 – Amplifier, Perth, WA [w/Safia + Fishing]
Sat, April 12 – Mojo’s, Fremantle, WA [w/Safia + Fishing]