1.Growing Up
I grew up in the Blue Mountains, which is a pretty creative community. My mum played classical guitar and piano when I was growing up and my parents would play records at dinner time pretty much every night. My key childhood music memory would be playing the piano as a child, making up melodies and songs and trying to learn ‘A Thousand Miles’ by Vanessa Carlton like every other kid my age.
2.Inspirations
My parents started taking me to jazz and world music festivals from the age of five, so I listen to a lot of music within these genres. When I was a teenager I started listening to a lot of African blues, particularly Ali Farka Touré, Tinariwen and Toumani Diabaté. Right now I’m really enjoying listening to Margaret Glaspy, Bon Iver, FKA Twigs and Frank Ocean. Dave [Hammer] and I also share a love of J-pop and K-pop and artists like Sophie and Kero Kero Bonito.
3.Your Crew
I’m lucky to be part of a strong and diverse music community in Sydney. I have a couple of other projects, one under my own name Elizabeth Hughes and I also play guitar in Phantastic Ferniture. Dave’s a full-time producer but I still work a day job. My job is really flexible and super supportive but I am looking forward to the day when I can put all my energy into music.
4.The Music You Make And Play
I really like the freedom of Vypes. As both a guitarist and singer I usually craft an entire song including vocals and instrumentation. Because I can focus entirely on vocals within Vypes, it lets me have a lot of freedom with melody, rhythm and style and it has allowed me to experiment with different vocal techniques to create a different sound that I otherwise might not have found.
5.Music, Right Here, Right Now
I think there’s a lot happening in the Sydney music scene at the moment. There are still so many obstacles musicians have to overcome, but I guess a lot of these aren’t unique to music, they are struggles a lot of people experience just trying to achieve a sense of balance within their lives. I’ve overcome enough musical setbacks now to know that I’m resilient enough to handle more if they come my way. The most inspiring local artists I’ve seen lately include Suiix and Middle Kids.
‘One Dimensional’ by Vypes is out now. For more go tofacebook.com/vypesss
