Eliza Doolittle Interview

Is this the first time you’ve played here in Leicester?

Actually I played here at a Uni thing about four years ago, I came up with Jessica’s brother who played guitar. A friend of ours who went to uni just said ‘can you come up and sing at my night?’ because he was putting on a club night, and that’s the last time I was here.

Are you quite excited about playing at Summer Sundae this weekend?

Absolutely, yeah – really excited. I’ve been moved to a bigger stage too, so I’m really excited about that.

And are you going to be sticking around for the rest of the weekend?

Unfortunately I’ve got to go back to London, which is a bit of a shame.

Are you a festival person?

I am, that’s the problem! It’s actually quite a new thing to me. The first festival I went to was about two years ago, but since then I’ve always loved going and it’s really annoying because this is the first year where I haven’t been able to hang around and stay – I have to run off pretty much straight after the gig, which is a bit annoying. I’m not allowed to be a festival child like I want to be!

Were you always interested in listening to music and going to gigs as you were growing up, before you got into it as a career?

Yeah, that was got me into music – listening to Destiny’s Child and Lauren Hill, stuff like that, and basically singing along and trying to be like them.

Do you think that’s rubbed off on your style now?

Definitely – it must have in some way, even if it’s just a subconscious thing.

I heard that you used to quite like Craig David…

Yes, I did - I had posters of him on my wall… it’s quite embarrassing. Didn’t you? (laughs)

If you met him now do you think you’d find it quite embarrassing?

I actually did meet him a couple of weeks ago and I told him that I had posters on my wall, and he was like ‘what do you mean HAD? Why aren’t they still on your wall?’. Ummm… I had to… redecorate! Just had to think something up on the spot. I think I’ll always love his first album, no matter what; it meant a lot to me growing up, it’s just a whole era to me.

Since the late 90s/ early 2000s the music has changed quite radically. Went went through the whole indie era and now there are a lot of new genres emerging. Do you think it’s an exciting time to be in the music industry, especially with all the female singer/songwriters at the moment?

Definitely! I think it’s quite exciting because we’re in the ‘teenies’ or whatever we’re calling it.. I think it’s the teenies, is that right? What will this decade bring us? It’s always exciting to see and hope for some legends and some amazing music, something we can look back on in 30 years and really respect.

There’s been quite a revival, definitely on the Leicester scene, of the ska genre. Your music has been described as quite ska-ish in places, do you think that’s the case or have you got your own word to describe what you do?

I don’t even know ska music at all so I’m not sure about that. There’s maybe a little bit of a reggae feel in one of the songs but I wouldn’t say ska because ska’s.. like rock-reggae isn’t it? No, definitely not! (laughs). I get lots of that all the time – people just say random genres, which kind of makes me happy because that means it’s obviously come across differently everywhere, and it’s not just one genre. I like the idea of that.

Have you found it amazing having to deal with having a number three album and suddenly being all over the music channels and having the success all at once?

I’m quite shocked by it all. I was keeping my fingers crossed for a top ten, so when it went to number three it was like ‘Whaaaat?!?’. I still am shocked actually – every time I’m asked that question I get a reprise of all the feelings I felt the first time I heard.

Now that more people know of you, are you hoping to do a big tour of the album?

Yes, I’m supporting Paloma Faith in November and at the same time I’m going to do some dates of my own in and out of the tour with her… if I go to, say, Edinburgh with her I might go to Glasgow on my own tour, and try to get to everywhere either with Paloma or on my own.

Do you think you’ve got a lot to be thankful for, growing up in the industry with parents involved in the showbiz scene?

The thing I can be thankful for is that being around it more when I was young made me feel it was something that was normal, something that’s a possibility and the idea of being a singer wasn’t so far fetched. But I didn’t really see what they did as anything to do with what I wanted to do because I always compared myself to people like Beyonce.. well, not compared myself, but looked up to her. When I was much younger and really wanted to start out as a singer, I’d look at my mum and my grandma and all of that kind of stuff and just think ‘I don’t really want to do that’ – that’s their thing, and I just want to do my thing. I wouldn’t say I have anything to thank them for in that respect, but of course I thank them for being my family just like anyone else would.

Finally, are there any artists around at the moment you’re really enjoying, and that you’d be interested in collaborating with?

Absolutely – I really love Janelle Monae. She’s this girl from America, and she’s just running things basically she’s amazing. Vampire weekend I’m really into.. The XX I really like as well. I’d love to collaborate with tons of people, I love the Gorillaz, so you never know!

Many thanks to Eliza, Jim Carmichael and Emily & Arwen at ATC Management