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| Photo by Flore Diamant |
Each time you press play on Eliza Shaddad's music we guarantee that you'll be covered in goosebumps. Exploring themes of withdrawal and isolation, her confessional and poignant songwriting is on full display across Sept ~ Dec. To celebrate the release of her new EP and its final piece 'Same As You', she takes us through what inspired her the most when creating it.
Home recording
I had a lot of time to think and process and experiment with this EP. With Mr BJ Jackson at the helm, we tried so many different things with the songs, some got pushed into entirely new spaces and others we tried a bunch of things only to revert to the initial super simple version. It was a really nice way of working, less time and finance pressure than usual — and I think it worked well for the songs…they mostly have a lot of space to breathe in.
The 90s
This decade has a big hold on me. Grunge, pop/rock, singer-songwriter stuff, there’s so many great lyrics and such amazing moods. Tori Amos, Hole, Jewel, Skunk Anansie. Insanely good.
Humans
These songs are all about relationships, friendships, love, lust. Without all these weird situations in my life, I would have nothing to write about. I’m overly emotional a lot but I think it works out for the songwriting.
Mussels
Our studio was in a small bungalow in Cornwall right by the sea and sometimes when the tide was out we could go and collect our dinner of mussels from the rocks by the ocean. It was a very chilled way to have lunch and helped us destress from the recording process. Also, they tasted so wonderful and being able to look at the sea is always beneficial to recording I think.
Gordon Smith Guitars
This record was written on a Gordon Smith guitar, each song in a different tuning, and it very much defines the sound of it. I have a new guitar now, also a GS but a very different sounding one, which I prefer to play in standard tuning. Gear is always a massive influence on songwriting and sound so let’s see how the next record turns out :)
Listen to Sept ~ Dec below:
'Same As You':
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