Music Spotlight: Elba Rose

Jul 2

Jul 2 Music Spotlight: Elba Rose

Indie pop artist Elba Rose recently released her latest single Silhouette along with a beautifully hypnotizing self-produced music video. Silhouette is the perfect feel-good soundtrack to our quarantine daydreams with its folk flair, dreamy vocals + romantic lyricism. We caught up with Elba to chat about the story behind the track, quarantine + what she’s been listening to on vinyl. Plus, a Silhouette remix by producer MACAQ is set to release next week on July 9th, and we’re counting down the days!

Asymmetric Magazine: Congrats on your latest release! Can you tell us the story behind Silhouette?
Elba Rose: Silhouette is a track that’s about learning to trust in a relationship. The idea for the track came from pillow talk—that time that you’re at your most vulnerable with someone. I remember having an image in my mind of two people laying in bed with light spilling through the curtains, and that’s where the first line came from: ’Skin to skin we lay, heartbeats pulse in the morning rays’.

AM: Do you have a favorite lyric from the track?
ER: Probably 'Your blistering hands are like scorch marks, In your warmth, I fall apart.” Just because of the juxtaposition—the first part is all about how raw it can feel to be open with someone ‘blistering hands’, and the second part ‘in your warmth’—for me—resembles how opening up to someone, whilst hard, can also be liberating.

AM: Are there any consistent themes you typically pursue through your music?
ER: Not typically specific themes, but my lyric writing tends to always be metaphorical. I always like the idea of writing songs that are open to interpretation so that they mean one thing for me and another thing for you.

AM: For first time listeners, how do you like to describe your sound?
ER: I always find this question so hard, but I’d say electronic indie pop with folk melodies.

AM: During this pandemic, time of quarantine and current climate, what's been keeping you grounded?
ER: It’s been a very strange time for everyone, and sometimes the days just feel like they slip by. But for me, keeping creative every day and making sure I go out for walks and keeping in touch with friends and family is what is keeping me sane.

AM: What is something that inspires you outside of music?
ER: Outside of music, I think it's just people, the relationships that people build and people taking on life in general. I don’t always write about things I have experienced. A lot of the time, I look to other people and things they have gone through to inspire my writing.

AM: Where is one place that you feel completely in touch with your creative self and your music?
ER: I think that can honestly be anywhere. Sometimes I feel most inspired on the train when traveling too and from somewhere. I’d definitely say home though, which is a small village in the UK in the middle of nowhere. That’s where music began for me, and it’s always great to go back there and write and just breathe away from the hustle and bustle of the every day.

AM: What other musicians have you been listening to in quarantine?
ER: One thing that’s been great about being at home a lot during quarantine has been playing all of my vinyls. I’ve been loving the new Christine and the Queens’ EP La vita nuova and also Hayley Williams’ new album Petals for Armor but also listening to Wildwood Kin, a band I’m loving at the moment and listening to on repeat. I’ve also been listening to some classics. I recently got Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours on vinyl, which is such a good album.

AM: What can we expect to hear from you next?
ER: I’ve got a remix of Silhouette by a producer called MACAQ coming out on the 9th July on Spotify which I’m really excited to share. And then in next few months, I’ll be releasing two new singles, one of which is complete and I’m just working on the music video for, and the other I’m currently working remotely on with my producer SOMA. And then I’ll soon be starting to work on my debut EP, which I’ll be releasing next year all things going well.