Freedom, Love and New Beginnings: Inside ELIZA’s New Era And Single 'Anyone Else'

When ELIZA joins New Wave Magazine for a chat, she’s sitting in the studio, with her “creative hat” firmly on, with her writing partner only a few feet away, lost in his headphones. She lowers her voice playfully, unsure whether he can hear her, offering a fitting image for the moment she’s in: the quiet pause between creation and the anticipated upcoming release for her latest offering, 'Anyone Else'.

After holding the track close to her heart for years, through finishing a new body of work and becoming a mother, ELIZA is finally ready to let it go.

“I’m really relieved that it’s coming out,” she says days before 'Anyone Else' officially drops. “It’s been written for a long time. Maybe three years?

"I went and had a baby, and the music was actually finished before he was born. I just took ages getting my act together to share it. I feel like I’ve been sitting on it forever.”

That sense of pent-up energy, equal parts relief and excitement, signals that 'Anyone Else' isn’t just another release, it’s a turning point.

The first thing you notice about 'Anyone Else' is its brightness. It feels like sunlight breaking through a clear sky with warm guitar chords, an easy, catchy rhythm and a hook that beams with devotion.

“It’s very joyful,” ELIZA says. “It’s the first real love song I’ve written. A kind of deep realisation and openness of my heart. More than I’ve really felt before,” she smiles, “I hope that feeling translates and that others feel that open-hearted feeling I had when I wrote it.”

For an artist known for her subtle, sometimes shadowed textures, the song feels like stepping into a lighter, airy era of her as an artist. 'Anyone Else' doesn’t abandon the ELIZA listeners adore. Instead, it reframes her, widening the lens beyond the moody, atmospheric palette of her 2022 album A Sky Without Stars.

Where tacks like the neo-soul leaning 'Heat of the Moon' traced the early sparks of falling in love, 'Anyone Else' demonstrates what happens once this love has settled, deepened and brightened.

“It felt exciting when we made it,” she adds. “It honestly felt like a new adventure, sonically, but also what I was singing about. That usually gets me excited about a song - feeling like I haven’t been there before. So yes, it’s a bit of a departure from previous music, but there’s always something I can’t escape from myself, a thread that ties everything together.”

“Seeing D’Angelo on Music TV, Destiny’s Child, Janet Jackson and the Spice Girls... that was huge for me,” she recalls when describing how her musical roots stretch wide across ‘90s and early 2000s pop and R&B.

Deeper in her foundation are Bowie, Prince, Stevie Wonder, and Minnie Riperton, artists whose emotional and creative depth shaped how she learned to listen and learned how to write.

Today, inspiration comes more from perspective shifts and observations than from specific artists, though she still keeps her ears open, most recently collaborating with Lex Amor, whom she is a big fan of, on '1000 TEARS' from Amor’s 2024 album Forward Ever.

Her upcoming project, which 'Anyone Else' introduces, is close on the horizon. “The album is very colourful,” she says.”It has a lot of different tones, whereas A Sky Without Stars was moodier and had that one-of-a-kind feeling.

"This is a bit of a mix, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. There are elements of my previous sound creeping in, but then it drifts into a new place, going to ones I’ve never been to before.”

If she had to summarise the whole project with one word, it would be “Free.” It’s a word we return to often, a feeling that has shaped both the album and the making of 'Anyone Else'.

“I chose to be a bit less precious with decisions and just go with the flow more. It had a free vibe about it,” she says. Not carelessness, but trusting her gut and finding the joy of making rather than overthinking.

To her own surprise, 'Anyone Else' won’t have a music video or visualiser: “It’s the first time, I’m not doing one,” she says. “I think it’s a sign of the times, people aren’t tuning into long-form as much. It’s not that I wouldn’t have liked to do it. But I’m trying to prioritise my time and promote my music in new, creative ways.”

She agrees when asked whether she misses them. “There is a sadness to it. Music videos tell the story better. We all still love seeing a great film, for example. But you also don’t want to waste loads of money right now, especially in the times we’re living in. It doesn’t feel right. I’ve realised there are other ways to be creative without spending a lot.”

Her pre-show routine is simple: warm throat tea, a small kit bag. No diva-style rider tests like “blue M&Ms only” that musicians tend to use to see if their promoters are paying attention.

“I try not to do too much,” she laughs. Her dream performance? The answer is instant. “Glastonbury. The sunset. That’s my dream. I’ve played there before, but I want to keep playing there.”

Camping, however, is another story, she laughs, “I’m definitely more of a glamper. I like a nice loo. I’d enjoy proper camping outside of a festival, where it’s more about nature than those queues.”

This year marks fifteen years since ELIZA released her album under her past artist name, Eliza Doolittle, an anniversary that has prompted reflection, reconciliation and clarity.

“I’ve been catching up with old colleagues and thinking back a lot,” she says. “Trying to understand what really went right, what went a bit wrong,” she says. “One of the big things I realised, especially after leaving my label, was that I needed to drive my own project. To be the leader.”

Her advice for young artists is as follows: “I hope they feel strong enough to lead their own projects. I didn’t have that confidence back then, but I want them to know they can.”

In an era where many artists release singles and EPs, Eliza remains passionate and devout about albums as an art form. She said, “I’m happy people are still making albums. It’s important. It shows your creative depth and lets you go deep into a concept.”

Realising the shift from singles to LPs, from The Beatles to Pink Floyd, changed her understanding of the form.“I used to think an album was just a collection of your best songs. But the LP changed that. Suddenly, you could have 10 songs, and that’s when conceptual albums were born. I wanted to continue that tradition.”

However, the visual identity of the new project is still forming, but the method remains the same: concept first; image second.

“With A Sky Without Stars", she begins to explain, "the idea came before anything else. I took a picture of the London sky, and that became the cover. It was about the realisation that we can’t see the stars anymore and how messed up that is.”

The next cover, she says, will follow a similar logic. “I could just put a picture of my face on it at some point,” she jokes. “But I always want the image to reflect the meaning.”

While many artists would be glued to their screens on release day, refreshing streaming numbers and social media mentions, Eliza plans the opposite and will be spending quality time with her family.

“We’re going for a week. I feel like all the work will be done by then, and we can just enjoy it being shared with the world. That feels right.”

If 'Anyone Else' reveals anything, it’s that ELIZA is standing in a new kind of light, not reinvented but innovated and liberated. A love song that was a labour of love and an album shaped by colour, trust and creativity. A career now guided by her own compass.

Free. The word feels like both her destination and her beginning, and as 'Anyone Else' finally steps into the music sphere, ELIZA is with it, open-hearted and excited for what is coming next and the lead up to the release of the album.

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