A record that gets richer with every listen…
The merging of genres is a delicate practice that takes endless time and patience. It’s an art that can’t at all be rushed, but is well worth the resulting creations it births into the world. Tumbarumba-born Esmé is part of the new generation’s efforts to push the bounds of genre and limit, mixing musical periods, voices and fingerprints to build upon the greats who came before. But of course, she still manages to pay homage in the most sincere of fashions, helping to bolster the legacies of titans like Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Nina Simone and more with her signature brand of honesty and vision.
Her debut EP Brooklyn sees the singer-songwriter merge the worlds of jazz, EDM, trap and pop, coming through with a mad mixture of lush sonics and compositional vibrance. The various layers perfectly set the tone for her multi-dimensional exploration of love. From her sultry vocals that radiate pure heart to those gorgeous lyrics that just invite you in so honestly, the EP as a whole is the perfect embodiment of old-school purity and new-wave ingenuity, and it’s an absolute treat to dive into.
We caught up with Esmé to get deep on the record, suss her creative fingerprint and get the deets on her journey so far. Warning: You’ll be falling head over heels for her by the time you’ve finished reading.
Check it below.
Doing prep for this I did a lowkey stalk of your Instagram. Reading all your posts for the EP was so wholesome. It’s obvious this is a huge project for you and you really feel the love for it. What’s it been like for you watching this go from a studio in Brooklyn to being out in the world?
It’s been so crazy because when I went to Brooklyn, all the songs were just iPhone voice memos, and they were really soft jazz, guitar, super mellow-type songs. So, the first thing was seeing them evolve, and having to let them go, and having to let my whole style change.
So that was the first big thing. And then, after all the songs were done, I was so excited and I loved them so much. But we just had to wait to get them out. I’ve been sitting on them for two years now. Now, to finally have them out… the whole time everyone knew me as this more quiet, jazz-style artist. So, to come out as a fully electronic artist fusing jazz, pop, EDM and trap is pretty cool. I feel like it’s still a small start and I have a way to go, but I’m happy to take it slow and start small as well.
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Has releasing it changed anything for you? Just in terms of how you view the record or even your musical journey up to this point?
Yeah, it feels a little bit more like, “This is your actual sound and this is the way that it’s going.” And I feel a bit more committed to the project, because I was the only person who was hearing it and listening to it. So, now that it’s out, I have to just let it either be accepted or rejected, and it doesn’t have anything to do with me anymore. It’s all up to the listener.
Now, congrats on ‘Brooklyn’! This record listens like you’ve captured the totality of your heart. There are so many emotions, so many feelings. If there was one overall feeling that encompassed the EP, what would it be?
I think it would be, I don’t know if this is an actual feeling, but all the songs explore the complexity of love, and that like, “Why is it so hard for us to receive love? And sometimes give it back?” And I think all the songs touch on wanting to be unattached and wanting to be protected and not give too much of yourself away. But at the same time, also feeling like something is missing. So, I think at the time I was really exploring that. But not just romantically, I was exploring that musically and like, “Where do I want to live? Who do I want to be?” Like, “I want a constant thrill, but then I get burned out.” So, I feel like the songs are really exploring that in myself, which is just restlessness, I guess.
Now to dip into the tracklisting. It’s so fitting that you start the project with the Ella Fitzgerald nod in ‘Ella’. You can hear her influence as well as the other jazz greats throughout the EP so nicely. What have they done for you as an artist?
I grew up listening to jazz predominantly, and that’s mostly because I was homeschooled. I have seven siblings and we grew up in a really tiny little town called Tumbarumba, and we were homeschooled. And my dad, at the time, was pretty strict. And we just didn’t have access to a lot of mainstream things. But we had a shelf of CDs, and it was Nat King Cole, and three different compilations of Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone. It was just all of the jazz greats, Miles Davis. And I just got obsessed with listening to mostly Ella, but also Nat King Cole and Chet Baker, because they were the only singers that I heard that didn’t belt. And they had really interesting melodies.
Technically, they’re not regarded as great singers, but they just had so much feeling. And I just learned from listening to them and copying them. And I loved Ella because her voice was so breathy and my voice was breathy too. So, I just latched on to her. So, yeah. Definitely got a lot of inspiration from all those jazz artists growing up.
You really embody the influence of those jazz greats through the way you use your voice and in terms of song composition, but you still have your own distinct style. What’s it been like getting that balance down?
That was the best thing that I’ve been through, musically, and the hardest thing as well. Because at the start when I first got to Brooklyn, the producers that I were working with, they’ve all worked extensively in the electronic world. And they could see something in me that I wasn’t yet seeing. And so, they were really gently, but firmly, pushing me to let go of the jazz thing a bit. Because it’s like, “That’s not my era. That’s not my time. And I need to bring things from it into the now, and see who I am with the sounds of my own era.” And it just so happened that when I let go, I actually felt really drawn to EDM more, and really electronic-singy stuff like FKA twigs, and things like that. I really loved that more hard electronic music.
So, then we were like, “Well, how can we combine the two?” And, ‘Ella’, was actually the first song that we did. So, that set the tone for everything else. And then, like you said before, we literally pulled her into it. And it’s not just that high note, the actual keys have her voice sampled into them as well. So, it’s just completely full of Ella.
And then, working around the trap beats, the real heavy beats were the thing that really pulled it all together and gave it that electro sound. But it was definitely emotional at the start. Because I was like, “Who am I? Why do I have to let this old Esmé go?” But it was necessary to grow a little bit, musically.
I also wanna mention this really cool ethereal influence you’ve got in spades. It really seems like you feed off the natural world when creating. What inspiration do you get from it?
Well, I grew up in the real country, and like I told you before, we were homeschooled. So, I spent most of my day in the paddocks, really not doing much schoolwork. I still can’t do math [laughs]. I spent the whole time just in the paddocks, and just being amongst nature on my own a lot as a child. I don’t know, I just get a lot of drive from it, I think.
And in the music there are certain sounds and things that we use. It’s not technical, which is the other nice thing about being in Brooklyn. No one was like, “That chord doesn’t work. Or “We need to make something that sounds like this.” It was just like, “What sounds feel organic for this song? Let’s put them in.” Like on ‘For The Thrill’, the flute player, who’s played a lot for this jazz pianist Robert Glasper, was in the studio. And she knew one of the producers and he was like, “Hey, do you want to play on this track? Because the music is really carefree and aloof, but the lyrics are quite heavy, and we wanted to disguise the lyrics. So, can you do some playful stuff on it with the flute, and the wind or whatever?” So definitely. You’re onto something there with the nature being an influence.
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You’ve said that ‘For The Thrill’ is a sort of self confession regarding your ability to love properly. Is it a confession on your faults when loving, the opposite or just noticing your patterns?
I think noticing my patterns is a good way of thinking of it. I never thought of it like that. But it’s not just romantically. I feel like songs just come… The meaning of what you’re thinking or feeling comes out better if you tell it in a love story setting. But I’m very restless. I’m not a sure person. I never know if I’m doing the right thing or making a good decision. I’m just like, “This could go really bad. It could go really good. I don’t know.” And a part of that is because I like the adventure of things. I like not knowing. I like that in love, and I like that in life.
But the problem is you can really get burned by yourself. You burn yourself out and you can hurt other people as well, because you’re just like, “Go, go, go, go. What’s the next thing?” Like, “I don’t want to get bored. I don’t want to be still.” So, ‘For The Thrill’ is really all about that. I think you can often be a person like that, because you’ve been hurt in a way that you never want to deal with. So, you just keep going.
The closing track is titled ‘We’re Looking For A Lot Of love’. Who’s the ‘We’? And are you still looking?
So that’s not my song. That’s by Hot Chip. And I really, really love that song. And I love that band. They’re really clever and their lyrics are really elusive. You’re not sure what they’re saying, but it’s really capturing. And one thing that I always wanted to do, and I’ll do this when I do an album, is to cover a song. Because I just feel like I’ve gotten so much from other artists and musicians. I always want to carry that with me. I want to honor artists that I’ve loved. So, I chose that song, and I really was caught by the last part. When you get to the end, the melody completely changes. And it’s like, “Underneath the burning tree, that’s where she left me.” That’s the part that really captivated me. But I’m not going to attempt to fully explain their lyrics [laughs]. I’m still trying to figure out those lyrics, which is why I chose that song. I’m still so intrigued. I think it’s about something unattainable, and it’s told in this really ambiguous way. But I don’t want to try and explain it [laughs].
I saw you did your first interview the other day, what was it like? Was it everything you thought it’d be?
Yeah it was so nice because I got sent the questions in advance. So, I got to sit with them and think about them for a bit. It’s nice to know that people want to know things. And it’s nice for me to explore my own music in this way, and to also be like, “Yeah, wow, I’m really doing this.” Like, “It’s happening.” I’m definitely not tired from it. I’m excited. Yeah.
How does talking about the EP like we are now shift things for you?
It helps me accept it more just for what it is. It makes it feel like the music is out there doing its own thing, and affecting people in its own way. And it doesn’t have anything to do with me anymore. So, I’ve just let it go. In that I have to accept it, and accept myself, and who I am as an artist, and where I’m at right now. And let it be questioned, and let people not like it, or let people love it. So, it’s like a big acceptance thing for me having it out now. I can’t keep it secret and control how it’s perceived anymore. It’s just gone from me. It’s free.
Lastly, you said when you finally embraced yourself as Esmé the artist, you were then able to write your own songs. What power does that name give you?
So my real name is Erin, but when I was growing up, my sisters and brother all called me Esmé, my whole life. All my friends call me Ez. So, I get called Esmé, or Ez more than I actually get called Erin. And there’s something about it in that if you call me Esmé, or Ez, you know me really well. So, that’s the first part of the confidence thing in choosing Esmé, as an artist name and feeling accepted in it. But then, I was in France a couple years ago with my little sister, Olivia, and we discovered this really beautiful way to spell it. I think this was 2015. We discovered this really beautiful way to spell Esmé with a hyphen. And we found out what it means, and it means to be loved, or be loved. And I just feel like that’s music to me. I just love it. So, I chose it. And then… I just felt a little bit braver. I didn’t have to be Erin. I can be a little bit more myself, a little bit more Esmé, and my music can just go under that umbrella.
Esme’s new EP ‘Brooklyn’ is out now. Be sure to keep up with here on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on all of her latest projects.
