Q&A: Eliza Elliott Talks “Let’s Try This Again,” Her Love-Hate Relationship With TikTok & Dream Collabs
SHE MAY RELEASE SONGS UNDER THE INDIE POP UMBRELLA — but Brooklyn-based artist Eliza Elliott truly cannot be pinned down. Influences from the worlds of R&B, electronic, synth-pop, and more are woven into the fabric of her music, making each new track she puts out a delightful surprise. The through line of all of her releases, however, is her earnest, insightful lyricism. When Elliott sings, it somehow feels as though she is reading a note written especially for you.
This remains true in her most recent release, “Let’s Try This Again,” a whimsical ode to the vulnerability of new beginnings, perhaps with someone from a past relationship. Since its release in January, “Let’s Try This Again” has boasted 75K streams and climbing, as well as coveted promotional spots on several Spotify-curated playlists.
We sat down with Elliott over Zoom to talk about the evolution of her career, sound, and influences. Read below for her reflections on the success of “Let’s Try This Again,” her love for her creative collaborators, and the pressure for artists to perform online in the TikTok age.
LUNA: You started your career in Nashville but relocated to Brooklyn after the release of your first EP, Out of the Blue. How have you found New York City since you’ve moved there?
ELLIOTT: I feel like I've definitely found my people here. I think it’s still a process, of course, especially with COVID — things closed up and then opened up again. So I’m still always meeting new people, you know? But early on I met my producer and friend William Smith IV, who has recorded all of my music since I've moved here. I met him at a show, and after that we just started making music together and meeting other people and writing with them, too. So it's been pretty organic here, and it's kind of cool to be in a creative scene where people aren't just only doing music. I felt like in Nashville I would be looking around at the bar, and [everyone was] a musician. In Brooklyn, people do film, people do photography… Overall, there’s a nice variation of creative types.
LUNA: Walk me through the cycle of your creative process these days.
ELLIOTT: I write most of my songs on my own, typically. My creative process is very lyric-heavy — I’ve been a big journaler ever since I was a kid, and even now I’m always just writing down parts of my day because I want my lyrics to really feel like storytelling. And then my producer has a shared studio space in my same neighborhood, so after I get to a point with certain songs, I'm like, “Okay, this feels like I have enough structure to demo it out.” We’ll typically run up a demo in his studio, which is just five or so blocks from me. I feel like, for the past two years, that’s kind of been our collaborative process.
LUNA: Who else would you say is part of your creative network?
ELLIOTT: One of my favorite parts of making songs — and I think the hardest part — is creating visuals. As a musician, I'm not a photographer, I'm not a graphic designer. But something that’s really inspired me recently was having my friend Emily Battaglini shoot the photos for “Let's Try This Again.” She’s a medium-format photographer in Canada, and I've been a big fan of her work online for a long time. Even just getting to have her shoot the cover felt like a really intimate and beautiful thing because she often shoots inside people's homes as a way of looking inside their hearts and finding who they really are. To have her shoot the cover for the song was really, really exciting for me, but I also feel like that collaboration in general has been a fun part of my process. Instead of having the pressure of trying to do everything myself, I’m asking, “How can I have people that I love help me put this project out into the world?”
LUNA: Currently, your most-streamed song is your 2019 single “Strangers.” How has it felt to watch that track in particular catch on? What do you think you captured there?
ELLIOTT: I think the funny thing about that song is that it was very much a slow burn … it was not an immediate response. I think it's hard to not have the desire for people to immediately love it. But it took a while! And then randomly people just began to really relate and respond to that song, which has obviously been really nice for me and my collaborator, Leuca. We recorded that track on Long Island in the studio in his home. That was definitely a song that pushed me outside of my typical creative process, and it's not something that I think we could even quite recreate. It just feels like this really special moment that we shared. And then to watch people connect to it, it’s become really meaningful. I’m very grateful for the response to it.
LUNA: That brings us to your latest release, “Let’s Try This Again.” Tell me a little bit about where that song is coming from and what you hope people will take from it.
ELLIOTT: I feel that with a lot of songs that I've written, I'll write them out and only later realize entirely what I meant by them. It's almost like backwards writing — I think in your subconscious, you're always thinking and processing things and then you're like, “Wait, was I thinking about that the whole time?” “Let's Try This Again,” for me, doesn’t necessarily have to do with a person or an actual specific relationship but just how vulnerable it is to try something again, even just in terms of being a creative person. I mean, I made my first EP seven years ago in Nashville and put it out, and then to still be in a place where I'm independently releasing music can sometimes feel really vulnerable. I'm not this huge artist — I'm still just this person making songs in my room and putting them out. There's a level of humility with that. In the moment it's not always super satisfying, but the core behind “Let's Try This Again” is me pushing myself to continue being vulnerable and allowing myself to go after what I want.
LUNA: From the R&B influence of “Strangers” to the swingy synth sound of “Go Outside!” you’ve experimented a lot sonically. Where do you think “Let’s Try This Again” fits into this range, and where do you think your sound is heading?
ELLIOTT: It's cool because in the progression of my music, I've done a lot of experimentation — I’ll try to make a really alternative song or a more R&B-style song like “Strangers.” That’s been really fun for me, instead of committing early to one sonic identity and only putting out tracks in one style. “Let's Try This Again” feels kind of like going back to the roots of having a full band and some more organic elements, as opposed to being a more experimental song, if that makes sense. I think that it’s a good expression of the sound I’m aiming for with the rest of the tracks that will be on this upcoming EP. That will be coming out in the spring, so I’ve been wrapping up some of those songs over the past few weeks and months. It’s been a ton of fun to experiment and play and be creative and not feel committed to a certain identity through all of that. Now after bouncing around, I kind of have this collection of songs that all really go together and feel like my voice, at least right now in 2023. I don’t know what I’ll sound like in five years, of course, but at the moment I’m pretty self-assured.
I'm sometimes jealous of people that start their music career and only really have one distinct sound because I'm like, “Oh, that must be really easy, because you just know what you want to do.” But at the same time, I feel like it's more fun to just be open to experimentation. I love asking, you know, “Would it sound cool if I did a bunch of crazy autotune effects? Or would it be better if it was just really stripped and acoustic?” I don’t know, I just think it’s important to remember that music is supposed to be fun.
LUNA: Within all of this variety, what’s one thing you can never create without?
ELLIOTT: I might be lying when I say this, but I think it's true. I think on every song we use OP–1, which is a synth production device. It can create really random electronic sounds, and even if it's a more acoustic song I think for every track on this project we use it at least somewhere. So that's definitely something that's been fun to play around with — different devices and different sound makers. But that one is essential for me right now.
LUNA: The better part of the last decade has really seen a big revival of the synth-pop sound. What draws you to synthesizers in your music?
ELLIOTT: I feel like there's certain emotions that only certain instruments can have. Like, acoustic and electric guitars always have a certain feeling to them, and I actually think the same can be applied to different synths. Take Phoebe Bridgers’ music — “Demi Moore” has a very interesting electronic synth part that's being played and I think it kind of evokes a particular emotion of nostalgic melancholy. It’s kind of like you can feel that the sound has a retro origin, but it's being applied to current releases so it's a modern take. I think that makes it a cool production element, and a lot of people are using it to create that specific sort of feeling. I always like it as a layer.
LUNA: One of the other major phenomena I’ve been seeing in music recently is artists experimenting with remixes — especially pitching and speeding up their tracks in line with TikTok trends. Have you ever considered this sort of experimentation with your music?
ELLIOTT: I’ve been thinking about that too. I’ve been noticing how it’s been a big trend on TikTok to speed up or slow down songs, and now artists are just releasing those versions outright. I feel like you have to release your song and then, like, the Alvin and the Chipmunks version of it. I think it's fun, though. It is kind of cool to see certain songs do really well if they're sped up or slowed down, or even if they're a remixed version. I haven't ever really done an actual remix of any of my own songs or had someone else remix them, but I'd definitely be open to trying it. I think it would be interesting to see how other people interpret your own songs.
LUNA: Speaking of TikTok, I feel like these days artists are often expected to not only create music but have a thriving social media presence and online persona. How do you feel about that, and do you engage with your listeners online?
ELLIOTT: Yeah, that's a good question. I think that TikTok is not for everyone. I've definitely gone through phases of enjoying watching TikTok and putting my own videos up, but I've never had any huge amount of viral sensation on the app. I think I have, like, 500 followers. The most popular video I have is me talking about wanting to make a cake but feeling lazy — it has absolutely nothing to do with music. But it’s also really great to see a community of people songwriting and having ideas together online. It can be cool to get inspiration from, but there’s definitely the double-edged sword of feeling a lot of pressure to perform online and draw in numbers. You see certain indie artists do really well on TikTok and you're like, “Wait, why isn't my song doing well? Why don’t I have a viral audio?” It can be a bad place for comparison.
On the other hand, at the end of the day, getting two views on your video isn’t the worst thing that could happen. And I don’t think it can ever hurt to try. I’ve had, like, four people follow me and message me saying, “I love ‘Let's Try This Again.’” Even if just a handful of people found the song, that's cool! Maybe they wouldn’t have found it if I had never put it out at all.
LUNA: Recently, “Let’s Try This Again” was added to a few of Spotify’s curated playlists, such as Fresh Finds, Fresh Finds Indie and All New Indie. How does it feel to watch this song get some love on these streaming platforms that seem to be dominating the industry right now?
ELLIOTT: I was very, very excited by that. Like I was saying about “Strangers” or “Go Outside” or other songs that I've put out, there’s been a lot of slow burn recognition — slowly hitting certain numbers over time. And right now with “Let’s Try This Again,” the streams we’re seeing with it not even having been out for very long are really promising. It makes me feel super optimistic for the songs that I'm putting out in this upcoming release. The numbers aren’t everything, of course, but to be hitting some of those milestones earlier and to be added to those playlists is really exciting.
LUNA: Since “Let’s Try This Again” is kicking off a brand new release cycle for you, what can you share about what’s coming next?
ELLIOTT: I don't have any specific things that I can share right now, but I will say that it’s definitely my best work yet. I feel extremely proud of the songs that are gonna come out in the spring, and I’m just so excited to have this part of me be out in the world after so much time spent writing it, crafting it, and producing it. I can’t wait to see how people react to the next few single releases, too. I'm really proud of “Let's Try This Again,” I think it's a really good first song that sets the tone for the EP, but I’m also hyped to show you all the next ones too.
I also love that all of these songs have been written within the past year or so. It's not something that has been in the vault, you know — it feels very fresh and very close to home. I've noticed a lot of writers that I admire, like Samia and Indigo De Souza and other women around my age, are good at writing multiple songs about the same situation. And I feel like that does take place in this EP, looking at a story from one angle and then standing at the opposite end of the room, giving you the same experience from a different perspective. That’s something that I’ve definitely channeled in writing recently, and I'm excited for it to be heard.
LUNA: Finally, speaking of songwriters you admire, what’s a dream collaboration for you?
ELLIOTT: Like I said, I’m definitely a huge fan of Samia — I think she's a really excellent writer. And Noah Weinman from Runnner — I would love to co-write a song with him. I feel like I always want to mention people [who] are smaller artists who I could feasibly DM and be like, “Hey, would you write with me?” rather than, like, Taylor Swift.
LUNA: Well, hey, who’s to say that Taylor Swift will never come knocking?
ELLIOTT: I mean, that would be beyond cool. I would never turn down that opportunity.
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