For Lizzie Esau, influences are everywhere and inspiration can strike at any time.
“I’ve got 2,378 voice recordings on my phone… I’m constantly collecting stuff throughout the day or week, or on a tour or whatever I’m doing,” she enthuses. “If something comes into my head, I just record it on my phone.”
Although a prolific music listener too (current playlist Blondshell, Theo Bleak, Ethel Cain), Esau likes to avoid any direct, conscious ‘influences’ from other artists.
“I think subconsciously I’m influenced by everything I listen to, all the time… But I don’t ever sit down to write a song and think, ‘I want to do it just like that’ because then it takes away the freedom of it.”
“The harder I find it to put a reference track to something I’ve done, the better job I feel like I’ve done!” she adds.
That comment says a lot about Esau and her fierce sense of independence. Now almost 25, Esau (her PR people are keen for everyone to know this is pronounced “eeh-saw”) has being making music for as long as she can remember, and can’t see herself doing anything else. For the singer-songwriter, who is based in northeast England, music is a passion and a life-calling – in her words, “all I think about and all I do.”
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Esau is the kind of artist who is both passionate about her vocation and meticulous in the way she goes about it. Clearly excited about the point she’s reached and what may come next, her focus remains – almost obsessively – on enjoying each step of the journey.
“I think that’s a big part of it – just enjoy actually making the music. It’s so easy to let that be the smallest part of everything because it’s the part that really no one sees …” Esau pauses to think. “To artists it can feel like all the rest is more important because it’s what the public are going to see, but I feel like I need to remind myself that actually, the bit where it all starts is writing songs. You’ve got to keep enjoying that, because if you don’t, everything else is going to just fall apart.”
The metaphor of treating making music like a relationship comes naturally here.
“The problem that I’m guessing a lot of people face is having the time for it, when all this other stuff (making sure I’ve got a video, and a record sleeve, and touring…) takes up a lot of time,” Esau muses. “To fully love something – I don’t know if I’m going to sound really profound here – you’ve got to give it time.”
“You can’t just say, ‘oh well, I love it’, because that’s not enough. You’ve got to give it time,” she repeats.
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Esau’s song-writing approach reflects her carefully disciplined yet deeply creative mindset She makes a point of putting aside specific times to write, drawing on that bank of memos and voice notes – her musical sketchbook – she’s constantly building.
“You’ve been on tour for weeks, your friends want to see you, your family wants to see you, your boyfriend wants to see you… But you’ve got to be like, ‘This date night’s for me and my guitar.’ You’ve got to schedule it in!”
Firmly orbiting in the alternative world, Esau has found her own unique space (let’s call it alt-rock with alt-pop tendencies), and is more than happy to be there. Reaching this place is a result of Esau’s relentless focus on sticking to her gut.
“I wasn’t too worried about where we were going to fit in,” she explains. “I don’t think we ever did anything on purpose to get there. I just made the music I wanted to make, and then we ended up settling somewhere we’re meant to be.”
That use of ‘we’ is telling: Esau is obviously thrilled with the supportive team she has around her, and credits them at every opportunity. Together, she says, they’ve built strong foundations, making industry connections and using those connections to slowly but surely get more people on their side.
“We’ve built this industry buzz, and it’s about getting it out into the world. That feels like a really good place to start from,” Esau says. “There’s a lot of things that make me feel very reassured in what we’re doing – the people who want to work with us, the artists who want to take us on tour, bands who want to tour with us. It’s really reassuring to know we’re sitting in a place where I love everyone we’re working with and I love all the bands that support us as well. I feel like we’ve done it in the right way.”
Her team’s hard work has so far produced three EPs, each one “bigger and bolder and more fierce.” Music from her earlier records is standing the test of time: 2022’s ‘Bleak Sublime’ is not only Esau’s most streamed song but was also played last month on a primetime BBC radio show (another experience Esau describes as “reassuring”). Meanwhile, her latest EP, ‘Spilling Out The Truth’, was released in early October, receiving plenty of early recognition. But asked about whether she’s working towards an album, Esau returns to the theme of doing things her way.
“There will be music coming early in the next year that leads on nicely from the EP, but it’s not going to be an album. You only get to do a debut album once and I’ve been doing this – making songs – since I was five. So there’s no way I’m going to do [an album] when it’s not going to be absolutely right,” she says, emphatically.
“When the debut album comes, it has to be huge and the biggest thing I’ve ever done… And it will happen – just you wait!”
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Words: Phil Taylor
Photo Credit: Storm Hudspith Walker
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