Eloise Viola is an exciting, rare talent from London. The singer/songwriter swapped a career in psychology to pursue her dream of making music and her brand new single ‘For My Eyes’ is set to put her on the map.
Here we speak exclusively to Eloise Viola to discuss her new single, moving into music from psychology, future plans and more:
Can you tell us a little about the inspiration behind your new single?
I love dreams and have always been interested in how the mind and consciousness work. I really find it fascinating that we don’t really understand this yet. I had a dream that completely changed the way I felt about someone, and gave me a different perspective on the situation. I thought it was really almost magical that it was as if someone else had been telling me, but it actually came from a deeper part of me. I think dreams are the closest thing we have to magic…
What was the writing process like for this new track?
This song is really special to me as it’s really the first song I wrote that I feIt could actually show people! It was a concept I really liked and really resonated with me. I didn’t start writing straight away, as I wanted the entire picture to build slowly. I created a separate note on my phone and was constantly thinking about the concept and I wrote ANYTHING down that I thought was relevant. It then came together quite quickly, and I was desperate to write it all out fully. I still have the note on my phone as well as the voice note of (terrible singing) the main chorus line while I was standing by some very busy traffic lights in London trying not to let anyone hear so they wouldn’t think I was a weirdo… I think it’s really cool that somehow I have the full process documented, from start to finish.
You work a lot between London and LA, how do you feel the two musical worlds collide to make your sound?
When I first travelled to LA with my songs, I had just started to build my songwriting confidence. Brandon [Friesen, The Kooks] and the writing team in LA were instrumental in helping me refine my sound by helping me to organise my ideas and from their experience, helped pick out what works and what doesn’t. They also heard my songs completely differently than I originally had, which really helped me to pinpoint my sound and inspired me to write more.
Your music has been likened to Dua Lipa, how does that make you feel?
I don’t think there could be a higher compliment. Dua Lipa is amazing, I’ve followed her career from quite early on and I’ve seen how her hard work has really paid off to make her as successful as she is now and I really admire her commitment and tenacity towards her career. I think her success has been due a lot to the quality of her songs, her entire debut album has been brilliantly written and produced and you can’t not love them. I definitely aspire for my songwriting to be as powerful, catchy and important as hers.
Your journey to music is a little out there, you walked away from a career in psychology, how did that come about?
I always wished to pursue a music career but I didn’t think it was realistic, so I went to university and loved studying psychology. At this point I was looking forward to a career using my degree. I entered into a grad job, which to be fair I did rush into, and felt very out of place, lost and uninspired. I was very fortunate in that when I expressed that I wanted to quit, my parents said, “We wanted you commit to music anyway. You have to share your gift.” – whose parents say that?! So I gave myself a year, and I met Brandon in March of that year. I don’t believe in fate or destiny, but looking back it is difficult not to see how events lined up to lead me to where I am now…. I couldn’t be more excited and inspired to start my career. This is it now: no plan B.
Make sure you follow Eloise on Twitter @EloiseViola to keep up to date with all her latest music and tour news!
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