Interview: Eliza Delf talks about her inspirations & why women are discouraged from the industry

Eliza Delf is an up and coming eighteen-year-old chamber folk artist from Norfolk. Myself and Kayleigh got the pleasure to talk to her a few days ago to learn more about her musical career so far as well as her plans for the future. With a stunning voice and clever lyrics, her music is unique and powerful; I was hooked from the first video I watched of Eliza singing.

Eliza has been singing since she was little, always really loving it, before deciding to take piano lessons. She explained that "for one of the piano exercises, we had to sing for some reason, and she (Eliza's piano teacher) pretty much said 'you should take singing lessons instead' and that's how I started out." She told us that the lessons she took were in classical singing, which she described as 'different', and she began to write songs when taking music as a subject at school. Eliza mentioned that she still uses her piano skills with her music today, explaining that knowing how to play the piano really helps when writing, as she already understood chords and other musical elements that aid the songwriting process when starting out. In terms of her song-writing, Eliza told us her inspirations. Kate Bush is one of her main inspirations, as the two of them share a high-pitched voice, Eliza mentioning that "it's really nice to hear someone who sings like that and think 'oh I'm not the only one!'" She also told us she receives a lot of comparisons to artists like Joni Mitchell and other folk artists. Other inspirations for her music include Alanis Morisette, as her songs really inspire Eliza's songwriting, as they're a little bit more 'punchy' than classic folk songs.

The three of us decided to discuss the gender inequality we see in the industry, specifically the reasons women may get discouraged from starting a musical career. Eliza spoke about sociology within this topic, saying "I wonder if some of the structures that are in place in music just aren't designed to help women out, not boosting women in the same way they boost men." She told us that as a singer just starting out in her live career, she's been lucky in terms of inequality. We discussed Paloma Faith's recent interview with The Radio Times, Eliza mentioning that Paloma talked about noticing that lot's of the background people in music are men, which has an effect on other parts of the industry. Eliza pointed out that because the background is so male-heavy, women may be lead to think they are only being represented at the front by performers and not in other areas of the industry. Eliza commented that not seeing women in the background "isn't really helpful, you want to be able to see women in all of it." We also discussed what all members of the industry can do to support women in the scene, rather than discouraging them. Eliza told us that we should be "making an effort to be self-aware, recognising that there is a problem." She added that "we need to trust women in music that if they say there's a problem there, we should be listening to them." She really supported what we try to do here at Hot Pink Music, giving women in the industry a spotlight so that they have an opportunity to be heard.

Only song-writing for two years, Eliza has already come a long way. She explained that recently she's overhauled her songwriting style and has begun thinking quite deeply about it as a proper process. Eliza revealed her favourite songs she's written are her two newest: Howl and Penance. She described Howl as being her most lyrically strong song, and Penance as her most emotive, loving when her songs gain a reaction out of the audience. Even though her performance plans have been put on hold, we asked Eliza for her number one piece of advice when it comes to making music. She said, "my main advice would be, based on my own experiences, to firstly be okay if what you're doing is a little bit different, as if you look you will find someone you can relate to, so don't be put off, and also to acknowledge that you need to give yourself time to grow." We discussed that with things like song-writing, even if you're naturally gifted, you still need time to work on it, whether that's research or thinking about it differently. She said that lately, she's been thinking in a lot of detail about specific things within her music, even just how a certain word sounds, so there's always a reason to keep working on your craft.

In the near future, Eliza has some exciting things coming up! After a productive lockdown, she has two new songs coming out by mid-August as well as a remaster of an already released song. She's been using a site called Kompose to collaborate with people all over the world on her songs, which she describes as "crazy and so fun." Eliza has also got a music video coming out soon too! Lot's of really exciting stuff coming in the near future, so make sure you give Eliza a follow using the link below so you don't miss out. It was lovely getting to know Eliza Delf and her art better!

Ruby x

Links:

Eliza: https://www.instagram.com/elizadelf.singing/?hl=en