There’s a sense of the romantic about ‘The Good Life’. The song, taken from Elizabeth Rose’s self-titled EP (due for release in the new year), is all about chasing your dreams – moving out of home, making your own way, and trying to find the best that life has to offer. When Rose wrote it on an old Yamaha DX21 keyboard purchased from a friend, she had no idea just how much of an impact it would have. ‘The Good Life’ was the most played track on triple j for the month of September this year, a fact that definitely took Rose by surprise. “I wasn’t expecting anything like that!” she laughs. “Initially, I didn’t even know if it was the right track to release from the EP. If people like ‘The Good Life’, they’ll definitely like the next single.”
If ‘The Good Life’ is about moving out of home, then the Elizabeth Rose EP itself is all about the thrill of new discoveries. “I have been listening to a whole heap of new music these last few months,” Rose says, “most of it electronic and slightly unconventional. I’m a big fan of Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and Disclosure, I love the beats they make, but likewise, when I wrote the songs for this EP I really wanted to make sure they had rich harmonic and melodic components. Another influence that I really wanted to make clear in the tracks was my R&B vocal melodies – I grew up listening to and obsessed with late ’90s R&B and pop, and I just loved writing with that influence in mind.”
Rose’s next single, ‘Sensibility’, will be officially released early next year. It’s a lithe synthpop song that takes these R&B influences even further. “I grew up listening to a lot of Aaliyah, Brandy, Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera. I loved Missy as well, and I was a big fan of Destiny’s Child. That was my first concert that I went to when I was ten – I cried because it was so overwhelming! [Laughs] I love bringing those influences into my songs. It’s there in the electronic instrumentation, but I guess the biggest place it comes through is the vocal melodies. I try to channel those influences through my voice.”
Rose worked on her EP with Cameron Parkin, the producer otherwise known as Shazam, who helped give it that distinctively slick electronic edge. “I was originally going to work with Styalz Fuego, who’s Melbourne-based,” says Rose. “It didn’t work out in terms of time, but he recommended Cam, who he’d worked with on some projects.” The two met on Skype and bonded over common influences and ideas. “He flew into Melbourne from Perth, and we had seven days at Styalz’s studio. Styalz popped in and out for the first few days to give his input, and Cam and I worked together until 3am every night that week to get it done. It was really good – I’m definitely working with him again.”
In the weeks to come, Rose will be touring her EP around the country, and I ask what we can expect from those shows. “The biggest change is I have a new keyboardist playing with me,” she says. “That’s exciting, because it frees me up to dance a lot more now! I’ll be playing an all-new set, with new costumes by a wonderful designer from Helsinki.” When it’s all done, Rose plans to start work on a debut album, and may even move to London or New York to write it. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but they’re the things I’m thinking about at the moment.”
BY ALASDAIR DUNCAN
Elizabeth Rose plays Goodgod Small Club on Friday November 8.
