Eloise
Talarico
For anyone who's heard the mesmerising vocals of Eloise Talarico, you'll know that every time she sings it feels like little sparkling butterflies of joy are flurrying through your veins.
Now she is here with her first major release; a mini album entitled Mr. Davidson, and trust me when I say that you need to hear it. Get your headphones and a cup of tea ready as you delve into the world of Miss Talarico.
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How are you feeling coming up to the release?
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Overall I'm just quite relieved and excited coming up to the release. It feels like it's been a long time coming so it's just nice to finally get to that point. I think within the context of the world at the moment it feels both bad and good timing; bad timing because I just don’t feel like I'll be able to celebrate it as best as I could've, but good timing I think because the album is a live recorded album and really captures the outdoor essence, and I think that's really needed at the moment because everyone's indoors.
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Why record the project live outdoors rather than in a studio?
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A couple of reasons, the first being integrity. It was an idea I had when I wrote the first song and I was like, nah that’s unrealistic and I wasn’t sure how the sound quality would be so I kinda just put it on the shelf. But as the recording date approached closer I was hesitant to record it in studio; I felt like it would be too black and white for an album that I wanted to be more alive and I thought if not now then when ever would I do it? I thought it would be cool and I wanted to capture natural sounds. I didn’t want to just have samples of birds and stuff, I actually wanted it to be real and raw. The whole theme of this album is real and raw the whole way through. Every single song is live, one take just with myself and my guitarist Steve… he's just the greatest human.
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So you posted a video on your YouTube in August last year saying you were starting to work on a very exciting new project… was this foreshadowing the Mr. Davidson album?
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Well a year ago I posted the first performance of Keep the Hope, but the song had actually been written a year before that. August was when I had written the last song and had all the demos ready and was liaising with my producer to work out where we were gonna go from there. Naturally in the music world all the timelines get stretched and everything gets pushed back because you just encounter so many more hurdles than you think you would. So back in August I think I was planning to release it in November but we only ended up recording it in January, so then we needed more time. I'm kinda happy with the timing though.
How long has the album been in the works?
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Two of the songs were written two years ago but they weren't really written with the intention to go towards a project. I've been consciously working on the project for about a year though.
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Why the title Mr. Davidson?
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Mr. Davidson was my first music teacher back in primary school… he taught me to play clarinet which is completely unrelated to the album. But the one thing that stuck around for me was his passion and his love for music and you could see it in the way he played his instruments and the way he taught his kids. Our friendship actually retained when I moved to high school, and I would spend every Friday setting up the band room with him. Last year while I was writing the last song I found out that he had passed away, and so it was just this realisation that one of the most important people I wanted to hear this would never. He always had so much faith in everyone and I knew that he believed in me and so I wanted to release the album and I wanted to name it after him because he just played such a big role in making me the person I am.
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Wow. What a special dedication. You dropped some lyrics for "Keep the Hope" which as you wrote on your Instagram is the first of seven songs on the album. I just have to say they're breathtakingly beautiful and real.
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Aw, thank you.
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What can listeners expect from the album lyric and melody wise?
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In terms of lyrics, a lot.
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Both: [Laughter]
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All the songs are very wordy and intricate and I wanted that to be highlighted because I wanted to really portray a message of self growth throughout the whole project. Each song tackles certain elements of self growth and certain realisations that I have, so I wanted to create that imagery as in depth as possible for the listener.
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Yeah, for sure. And then melodically?
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It's acoustic so it's quite raw, very unfiltered. It's just real.
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And it's got your voice on it, so that's really it. Can't get more soothing than that.
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[Laughter] Aww.
Without giving too much away pre-release, do you have a favourite song on the album?
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It fluctuates, but today my favourite song is Steady. It’s the third of seven songs on the album, and it's the first love song I ever wrote, and from there it graduated to an album! So that's both scary and very exciting.
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Who are some of your favourite artists right now that inspire your music that people should be listening to?
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A lot of people influence my sound. I think specifically for this record my greatest inspirations were Tori Kelly's first EP's, I was listening to them non-stop, Alessia Cara's latest album which was also at the top of my playlist at the time. Also Finneas, I absolutely love his work and vocal style. Um, who else… you know when you ask someone what their favourite song is and they forget every song ever?
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Haha, yeah!
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Oh! Oh my goodness, John Mayer! Right at the top. I don't even know how that skipped my mind. Really, I would say that the trio were John Mayer, Alessia Cara and Tori Kelly for when I was writing this album.
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Yeah. And you can definitely hear that in your music wow. Is there anything else you want people to know before the album comes out? Should they make a cup of tea while listening to it for the first time?
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Yeah. This is the kind of album where I just want you to put on your headphones and lye back on your bed and just close your eyes, listen to it and really absorb everything, if that's not too much to ask of people's busy lives.
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I'll be doing that for sure. Also, it's not like anyone has much else to do right now!
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[Laughter] Yeah. My favourite way to listen to a new piece of work is to just stop everything and listen to it, I think that would be really nice. Especially because it's just so wordy and I'm not sure that the message of the songs will be fully portrayed if not listened to in their entirety. Just get some headphones and have a lye down, relax and enjoy the natural sounds. Have a little escape.
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Awesome. I'm super excited to hear it. How can people listen to it?
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Thank you. It will be on every streaming service; Spotify, Apple Music and more.
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Amazing. You said before you recorded all the songs raw and live in the outdoors. Will there be any video footage of the recordings? I can already picture it!
Yeah, absolutely. Most if not all of the songs will be accompanied by the visual element that we recorded on the day, so you'll get that on my YouTube and some behind the scenes and stuff later. All to come later, I've gotta keep you guys waiting.
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[Laughter] Yeah, of course! I'll be sharing those of course as well. Thank you so much for talking to me about the album!
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Thank you for featuring me! Super exciting times.
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