Eloise on Love, Vulnerability and Finding Her Voice

UK singer-songwriter Eloise has gone from posting covers on YouTube to performing alongside Bruno Mars in a very short space of time.

Combining jazz with pop flourishes and her alluring vocals, Eloise has released two acclaimed albums, Drunk on a Flight (2023) and My Man & Me (2026), and won fans across the globe with her vulnerable storytelling.

As she prepares for her Australian return this month, Eloise chatted with The Note about making her new album, what love means to her and what her favourite Jamiroquai song is.

You've had a pretty remarkable journey from posting covers of songs on YouTube to playing with Damon Albarn, touring with Bruno Mars and now releasing your sophomore album, My Man & Me. What have those experiences taught you about finding your own identity as an artist?

While working with people like Bruno Major and Damon Albarn, it teaches you is how to tap into your individuality as an artist. So it was unavoidable, me coming out learning that. I think I went in thinking that I would be able to write down some recipes. And actually, when you get there, you realise there is no recipe. There is just the fact that they are following their own personal North Star. And if you use the stars as your compass, you will find your own individuality. So it's taught me a great deal.

You traded the classroom for stages across the globe, performing with Bruno for three years. It must have been quite eye-opening to see what performing and touring is really like at such a young age. How important was that education on the road, and did it help you understand what is required to become a full-time artist?

It was completely important to go on the road and see it from that perspective. I think what was really important, or coincidentally brilliant, is that because I was supporting Bruno and in his band, I sort of got to go on my first ever tour blissfully unaware of what it takes to [get there], be that finances, be that deals and visas and everything. So what it meant was my attitude became the attitude of someone who doesn't see any hurdles in the way. So when it came to me touring, I was like, "We'll just do what we need to do to get to that point", 'cause it is so important. It completely changed my career. And, um, I guess it taught me what it's like to be a full-time artist, but what it really did was excite me for my future. I just felt like I was in the right place for the first time, even though you're never in one place on tour.

Your debut EP, 2019's This Thing Called Living, received not only critical acclaim, but also had people like Billie Eilish giving you two thumbs up. When other artists appreciate what you are doing, does that give you the confidence to know that you are on the right track?

It’s always amazing when someone like that, someone who you feel is light years away from you, notices the art that you're making and likes it. It definitely gave me confidence. It also changed my career a little bit, because a lot of people were sort of pushed in my direction because of [her] shouting me out. What it made me excited about was that one day I would get to meet her, as I now have, and I would have things in common with her, because to like my music is to like me. And vice versa, I love her music, and so I knew I would like her. It's a magical connection you have, and it was also, of course, incredibly helpful and so generous. Because she has such loyal fans, they will do what she says. And if she says, "Listen to this person", they will. And they did. 

Your music has always had a strong jazz influence, but there's also a very contemporary intimacy to your songwriting. How has your sound evolved since This Thing Called Living and your first album, Drunk on a Flight?

I think more than anything, my style of songwriting has sort of evolved. Sonically, the soundscape is broader than it used to be, and it's continued to get broader. Well, there's brass and strings and things like that. But lyrically, I think when I wrote TTCLL, there was a very strong sort of jazz-standard base to what I was writing, maybe like a Disney formula. And then it got more folky and looser in the songwriting, and more vague. And I think I've made this amalgamation of all the different eras that I've gone through. But the soundscape still sort of sounds like how I've always sounded, just a bit more grown up. I think it's mainly the songwriting that has shifted, hopefully for the better.

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The songs on My Man & Me are quite vulnerable. Do you ever find it hard to be so honest and open when writing, or is it just part of the process of being a songwriter – wearing your heart on your sleeve?

I very rarely find it hard to be vulnerable and open and honest in my songwriting. I mean, there are anomalies where I have found myself writing a song that I don't feel emotionally ready to venture into, which is just a form of avoidance. It's like if you know you want to break up with someone and someone keeps saying, "Are you gonna do it?" and you’re like, "Oh, I don't want to talk about that right now". It's a version of that. But generally speaking, I find it probably the easiest thing in my life to do. It's the thing that comes most naturally to me. Call it narcissism, or call it being incredibly dramatic and overly emotional; either way, it comes very naturally to me. The only time, other than when I'm feeling avoidant, that it's really hard is actually when I write with other people. I can only write with a select few people, because a lot of the time you’re going in with a stranger, and I find it quite difficult to be interpersonally vulnerable in that way when I don't know someone. Call me old-fashioned.

The album explores love in all its forms, from the joy of a new relationship to the heartache of breaking up. When it comes to love, what have you discovered about yourself and what love means to you?

Well, I have discovered things about myself through love. I have discovered flaws in myself through being in or out of love with someone and how I've handled it. I have also discovered boundaries. I have discovered what I like and what I don't, what I tell myself I like and don't, and vice versa, and the dances we do to make people happy. The most important thing I think I've learned is when to leave. I just think a lot of the time everyone is guilty of staying too long. I do believe once a seed of doubt is planted, it's very hard to come back from that, because when you've loved someone very deeply, where you thought there could never be any doubt, if there is then room for doubt, something huge has shifted. So that's a big thing I've learnt. But in terms of what love means to me, love means the most to me. I've always been incredibly fascinated by it. I've always been in and out of love. I've always fancied people. When I was a child, I was running around chasing boys and kissing them. That's always just been my thing that I speak fluently, and I'm passionate about. I find the tiniest moments in and out of love fascinating and rich. And that's why we'll never stop writing about it, because there are always tiny little corners, pockets of magic.

You made My Man & Me with your longtime collaborator Slim Gabriel. What is it about that creative relationship that allows the two of you to make music together so naturally?

The simple answer is that he's my best friend in the world. He's a friend I met later on; I met him when I was 17. Neither of us remembers a time when we weren't friends. We don't remember the moment we became friends. There was just no time before. And when you're that close to someone, and the relationship is based on the friendship, and then you bring your own personal work into it and the work quest that you share, you’re in this safe space. I find it quite difficult to communicate very clearly what I want and what I don't want. I have a deep fear of embarrassment, and you don't have that with your best friend. So it gave me space to voice any bad ideas I had, just to make sure we tried them, and that made me brave enough to say something kind of wacky that ended up being the perfect idea. I never felt like an idiot, and neither did he. It's his first time producing for someone else, so it also helped knowing that we were in the same boat in some way. But the friendship is what made it so natural

When it comes to your songwriting process, I read an interview where you said you don't write down lyrics but use voice memos you are constantly recording to help create songs. Can you expand on this and explain your approach to creating a song and why this works for you?

I don't write down lyrics for a few reasons. I find that it slows me down, and when I'm forced to slow down in a songwriting process, I end up overthinking and overworking lyrics. There are so many lyrics you'll hear out and about that, if you wrote them down, you'd say, "That's not really a perfect rhyme", or "That word doesn’t really fit", but when you hear it, it completely works. So when I write things down where I'm cutting the beginning of a word off or whatever, it makes me want to be too technical and fix it and rework it and find the perfect thing, which is often wrong. That's the first reason. The second reason I don't write it down is that I believe if you get the feeling right and they’re the right words (and the same goes for the melody), you should be able to wake up the next day and remember it. That's not to say it needs to be catchy. I'm not even talking about pop structure. There are weird, sort of avant-garde Joni Mitchell songs that you can wake up still singing because they were correct. She got her feeling right, and so everyone else connected with it. So that’s how I feel about songwriting: if I was completely in flow with the exact feeling and I got it right, I'll wake up tomorrow singing it.

I also read that Jamiroquai is your favourite band. What is it about the band that you love? How have they influenced you? Do you have a favourite Jamiroquai song?

Jamiroquai… yeah, they are absolutely my favourite band. When I first got a little iPod Nano, my mum put a Jamiroquai album on there. I think it was actually High Times, but an extended version of it, and I would go to sleep listening to it and wake up and put it on in my earphones. I went on a school trip and they took my iPod away from me when I was trying to go to sleep, and I got so stressed out because the sound of that record just made me feel so comforted. Obviously my music doesn't really sound anything like Jamiroquai, but there's a lot of warmth in the production, and in the way the vocal is recorded and the effects on the vocal. It's pretty dry sometimes, and I'm really drawn to that. My favourite Jamiroquai song… oh my god, I just don't know. I love 'Seven Days in Sunny June'. I love 'Corner of the Earth'. I love 'Love Foolosophy', 'Little L'… I bet I'm literally going to list all of them. I just adore Jamiroquai, every day.

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You're returning to Australia for the first time in three years, and this time you're opening your global tour here. What are your memories of playing in Australia?

Well, I have a few memories of playing in Australia. I went to Australia when I was 15 to visit a friend and stay with her for a couple of weeks. She herself is a singer-songwriter, and she was doing a gig and asked me to come up and sing a little song. So that was really the first gig I ever did in Australia. But in terms of three years ago, my memories are of how generous of spirit the audiences were. I really felt the appreciation. Of course, it's such a long way to go, and it's just beautiful to arrive so far away and be greeted with so much gratitude and love, with open arms, ears and hearts. My other memory is that I decided to stay on UK time the whole time. So when everyone in the crowd was sort of drunk, swaying and having a cry, I'd just had a coffee and a pastry. Because it was such a short stay, I thought, what's the point of getting jet-lagged? The answer is so you don't go mad, as I did.

This is your biggest Australian run yet, including your first shows in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Is there anything you're particularly excited about experiencing on this trip?

I'm just excited. It's been a really long time since I've been able to see a fanbase in a place I've never been. So I'm seeing new faces and learning a different type of crowd, and seeing how my music has made some people feel good all the way across the other side of the planet. So I'm excited to go to the places I have been and the places I haven't been in Australia. It's all still new. I've never been long enough for it to stop feeling new. I'm over the moon to be coming back. 

When Australian audiences walk away from one of these shows, what do you hope they understand about Eloise and My Man & Me that they might not get simply from listening to the album?

When people leave my show, I hope that they see the side of me that is still this little girl who loves theatre and loves jazz and loves music and loves drama. I hope that people feel seen. I hope it makes people feel like kids, completely free of any constructions they've got in the way of their feelings. I hope that I set them free for that little bit of time. I think there’s something really cathartic about live music. I think it's never been more important than it is now. I really hope that people feel connected to the deepest, most lovely, pure child in themselves, and in me. I can’t wait.

Catch Eloise performing at Lion Arts Factory on Sunday 25 October. Tickets on sale now at handsometours.com.