Interview: Elizabeth Liddle

North-East singer-songwriter Elizabeth Liddle drops her brand new single Waiting On The Next One, a heartfelt and finely crafted, piano driven number with harmonious vocals, satiny guitar and smooth production. It’s a track you can get lost in but still has plenty going on to keep your interest piqued.

We chat with Elizabeth to find out more about herself and the song…

Who were your musical influences?
I have so many influences, I  listen to a range of styles and this really helps the songwriting process but my main influences would be classic 70s female singer songwriters such as Carole King, Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell and the list goes on! 

I would have to say Carole King has been my biggest influence, when I was 16 I saw her perform ‘Tapestry’ at Hyde Park in London and that really changed the way I looked at writing songs and made me want to pursue this as a career. Further back than that, Taylor Swift was actually the reason I got into writing and playing the piano in the first place, so I’d say she was a big influence too. I could go on forever about so many different artists who I find incredible and who have definitely inspired me in my own writing.

You’re also a member of Middlesbrough funk outfit Moon Wax. What do you like about being part of a band? And how does your solo project stand apart from this?
The guys in MoonWax are honestly so talented. I love being a part of the band and think it’s good to surround yourself with such brilliant musicians and to step out of your own comfort zone. I think my confidence has grown a lot since I began performing with them and an added bonus is that we all get along so well and always have a laugh together! 

My own material I guess is totally different from Moon Wax and I think by doing both it has helped me to develop and grow as an artist. My original songs are my own baby as they are my own truth and showcase who I am as an artist. People are used to seeing me perform acoustically with myself and the piano, and I think that working with MoonWax has really helped me in the process of working with my own incredibly talented band to develop my original songs. We performed live for the first time at Independent Sunderland for my first ever headline show and this has made me really excited about the EP coming out and also performing more regularly with my band in the future.

What inspires your songs? Briefly tell us about your songwriting process.
My songwriting process isn’t always the same but the majority of time I find that some of my best songs almost come out of nowhere. Sometimes the chords come first then the melody and lyrics follow, other times the melody and lyrics come suddenly together and I fit the music around this and then the main way it happens for me,  is all three come at once and it feels like the song has written itself, as though it’s an outer body experience haha! Even as I was writing this I suddenly had a new song idea and sprung to the piano to get it down as quickly as I could before I forgot it! 

I find that my inspirations when writing vary, I tend to write about either my own personal experiences or friends and family experiences, one word or a line that someone says can inspire an entire song, I always find it quite funny when I think about songs I have written about friends and their experiences and think that songwriting can be quite a sadistic thing, drawing from other people’s heartache and pain. Then other times when writing I don’t actually know what I am writing about until after the event and again this could be inspired by something I have seen or something someone has said or something that has happened to myself. 

Tell us more about your new single, Waiting On The Next One.
I am honestly so excited for this release, it will be available on all streaming platforms on the 10th of December and I just can’t wait for everyone to hear it ! Waiting on The Next One was one of the many songs I actually wrote during the first COVID-19 lockdown last year, since then it’s been developed a lot. Originally I couldn’t decide whether I loved the song but I took this into Ginger Music Company to demo and worked with Dee Dowling on producing this and it soon became one of my favourites ( and one of my mams haha !). Dee allowed my vision for the track to become a reality and then when the band got involved it just brought the song to life and I think the instrumentation within the song has a real 70s sound. This song is about a breakup but about nobody specifically, it was created through a mix of different people’s experiences and I tried to embody how someone may feel going through this. 

Your debut EP comes out next year, is there anything more you can tell us about that?
I am so excited about the release of my debut EP, it is something myself, Dee and the team at Ginger as well as my band have been working on for a while and are very proud of, I can’t wait for everyone to hear ! The whole EP is certainly inspired by the sound of the 70s. It is something that myself and Dee tried to embody within all of the tracks and I hope it delivers and people love it as much as we do!