Eloise captures snapshots of the female psyche

Eloise’s journey with music and emotion began in her formative years. I discover that her ease with communicating emotion stems from early childhood, where she enjoyed idyllic, carefree times in Normandy and London. Being raised bi-lingual set her free to immerse herself in the complexity of two cultures: the liberal mindset of northern France in contrast with the brusque realism of London life, and she clearly understood how to make the most of both worlds.

She shares dream-like memories of her time in rural France, depicting a portrayal of wondrous living which is essentially about being close to what is pure and untarnished, “It was the best possible upbringing I can imagine,” she tells me. France is a country she associates with “loads of room to be whoever you wanted to be.” Yet, I can’t help but notice the extent to which the person in front of me seems so removed from these portrayals of freedom and innocence. She is not at all devoid of inner worries, something that shows in her carefully controlled and often unrevealing answers.

But to Eloise - full name Eloise Alexandra Lamb - the honesty and openness cultivated in her childhood created an innocence that inspired her and has become an integral part of her character, especially as a songwriter. She believes that it is essential to stay as naïve and innocent as possible as “it leaves you completely open to whatever comes out naturally,” even when that sense of purity is difficult to maintain later in life.

“It becomes harder and harder to stay innocent as you become affected by structure,” she continues. “But it really informed my inner workings because the innocence enabled me to create the individual sound that is mine. If I hadn’t had that innocence for so long, I wouldn’t have been able to hone it the way that I have.”

Raised by actor parents - Larry Lamb and Clare Burt - Eloise benefitted from plenty of support and understanding. At her mother’s desire, she learnt to play the piano from the age of four and continued to play where the chance arose. However, it was getting a guitar from her brother on her thirteenth birthday that really changed her music trajectory.

Unlike the piano, to which she had limited access when she visited friends and acquaintances, the guitar was a mobile instrument she could pick up and play whenever and wherever she chose, either for pleasure or as a way of dealing with social anxiety. Never aspiring to reach virtuoso levels, her aim was just to know enough. Watching the YouTube videos of songs that she loved, she would zoom in on the hands of musicians, emulate their movements and listen. She laughs, saying that she is, in fact, “just a bluffer, who is good at fitting her sound.”

But there is no bluffing involved when it comes to her voice and songwriting. Again, her childhood played a big part. Having had no internet access until the age of eleven, her ability to self-motivate and be entirely self-reliant would come in handy later in life.

First and foremost, Eloise looked to her mother for inspiration. She also admired Judy Garland and Barbara Streisand who helped define her aspirations to pursue her musical inclinations more seriously. She always wanted to sing like them, when in truth she just didn’t sound like anybody else. “I’d copy singers such as Whitney Houston, but I actually grew up listening to instrumental music and a lot of male singers. When I realised that, I thought, I’m just going to do my own thing, and try to be as good as Barbara Streisand.”

"Because I had grown up with theatre parents, there was a base level understanding of how to communicate a feeling with influence."

Listening to Eloise’s songs makes it clear that lofty ambitions are at stake and will have been for a vast amount of time. By the age of ten, she had written a couple of songs. “They were the worst songs you’ll ever hear, but because I had grown up with theatre parents, there was a base level understanding of how to communicate a feeling with influence.” Things quickly developed, and she understood that she was onto something good.

Eloise’s acting heritage came to be a more prominent influence when she moved back to London with her family. While at secondary school she was cast in Rufus Norris’ coming-of-age drama “Broken” as the 11-year-old Skunk, playing alongside Tim Roth and Cillian Murphy. She looks shy and appears to feel uncomfortable when I bring up the subject of getting cast and the acting experience as a whole. Shooting the film meant dropping out of school for six months, and in May 2012 she attended the Cannes Film Festival. “It was an intense year and a half of this crazy thing. Having just moved back to London from rural France I thought this was the wildest thing ever. There were never plans to be an actress, but I accidentally became one.”

She was now about to enter the next key chapter in her career, and Eloise needed a strategy ahead of the final part of her studies at the Brit School in Croydon. Keen to be organised and have in place a plan of action she considered her options carefully, and she knew that she wanted to cover Bruno Major’s song “Second Time”.

Having created an Instagram profile, Eloise kept uploading content, including the Major cover (her fourth post), which he liked and within 24 hours messaged her, inviting her to come and perform at his gig the coming Friday. This in turn would lead to joining his North American and European tours as support and backing vocals/keyboard player. Fast forward, Major was the preferred choice of producer for her releases.

Somewhere in Between is a leap forward, it explores the boundaries of Eloise’s musical skillset, setting her free to experiment and define her artistic identity. If her debut EP This Thing Called Living is an introduction to her sound, it has planted a few seeds to mainstream popularity, following cheers, praise and playlist inclusion for “Left Side” from megastar Billie Ellish.

While the new record goes much further in validating the currency of her sound, it plays with tradition and modernity in equal measure, cleverly incorporating components of folk, pop and jazz.

We talk about creativity in more general terms before moving on to how processes can unfold. Eloise describes how lockdown played its part in her most recent work. In July last year, after quarantining in the countryside, she decided to go back to London. Determined to “ride the wave”, she was keen to build momentum and get as much recording work done as possible.

“I tend not to write much for a long period of time,” she tells me. “This is not ideal for anyone who’s waiting for new music. But for the first time, I just wrote loads and loads. The songs were coming all at once, at a key point in my life, and within a month, I had finished them all. That’s why it seemed obvious to make them part of one body of work, they are all part of the same train of thought.”

Bruno Major was always going to be a pivotal part of this recording project. Eloise talks passionately about the working relationship with Major, telling me that it has been going from strength to strength. “It just makes sense. I’ve found someone in him that people take a very long time to find, a special kind of relationship with someone – personally and work-wise. When those two things gel you shouldn’t ignore them but take advantage of them. He’s the only person who could create the sound as I hear it in my head. He’s my musical soul.”

As an emotionally mature, young woman, she is still old enough to have experienced the “overriding feeling that love means different things and changes form as you get older”, so part of the album theme is growing pains and letting go of someone from the past, and letting go of the past itself.

She mentions the hideous feeling of knowing that you have blown it all away. “It’s like shit happens, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You miss loves, then you watch them go by, and there’s always one that got away, it’s about those things, it’s about realising that love just got busy.”

Right now, things are moving at a fast pace for Eloise, she realises there is a need to stop and reflect on everything that is unfolding, she understands that better than most. Whether it relates to her musical performances, or life in more general terms, she has learnt that silence, or pausing, is not the enemy. The idea of never fearing silence, and always taking the time needed appeals, it inspires her. And she sees a need for a keep breathing part too.