Getting Candid with Lizzie Esau [INTERVIEW]

We’re Getting Candid in our interview with Newcastle based Lizzie Esau,

Lizzie started out playing open mic nights in early 2020. During the pandemic she honed in her sound and songwriting – emerging with a full band and lively grunge rock music.

This summer Lizzie has been on several tours across the UK and is headlining her own shows in England this November. Her debut EP Deepest Blue came out earlier this summer.

In our interview with Lizzie Esau, we talk about how she found her sound at a time without live music, her desire to write music that makes people feel something, and how England’s history of rock music & culture continues to shape today’s artists.

You can find a transcribed excerpt of our interview with Lizzie below.

Name 3 Songs: The UK has such a strong and supportive alternative/indie rock scene. And historically there’s a lot of rock movements that have come from England – The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, to name a few. Have you been influenced and inspired by  such a rich music culture?

Lizzie Esau: Definitely, 100%. I think it’s a big thing in the UK, it’s huge. But also in my family, it’s huge. My dad is still in a band, and was in a band growing up. He’s iconic, really. And my mom’s an artist, an art teacher, a painter. So creativity was always around me, but in general music is just a huge thing. Especially the history of this genre of music that we’re in is incredible. Listening back to The Beatles and old stuff my dad would show me like Radiohead – I really love going back and reminding myself of those songs. 

Sometimes music nowadays, I love music nowadays, but sometimes it’s kind of another agenda trying to get on the radio or whatever. And there’s so much good music out there and so many people who probably don’t even care about any of that, but it’s easy as an artist to only think about that. So it’s nice to go back and remind myself of the songs that got me into music when I was a kid and remind myself of that feeling.

Has your idea of what a rock star was when you first started playing music to now has changed?

Yeah, it is different. When you think of a rock star – I think of Debbie Harry. I think of this full image, but then the deeper I get into music myself, the more I realize, it is literally just an image. What I’m thinking of is probably one iconic photo shoot. it’s one second of their lives. And the real thing is them in the studio for days on end or them slogging across the country on tour. The more I’m in it, the more I realize they probably had to do all these hours and it’s probably not as glamorous as I thought it was.

Have you met fans who told you they had a specific song that resonated with them? And have any of those songs been one that felt too personal, but the fan compliment validated the fact that you did give it to the people?

Roadkill, that song is very dark, to be honest. And even when I was writing it, I was like, wow, am I gonna say that? And I just did it and sent it in a batch of demos and people liked it as a song.

But then people will come up to me [at shows] and be like, “I really like Roadkill, I relate with that one.” It’s got quite strong chorus lyrics that I thought were way too cheesy. But I guess it caught on. I did that song in the studio and I was like, “I’m not gonna change the lyrics.” But that’s what I was feeling at the time, you know? It’s about someone being a user and you’re just shouting “you’re such a user” and literally, word for word, and I hear people shout it back, and I’m glad I put this out, because we’re feeling this anger together.

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