ELIO
It's been a whirlwind six months for Toronto-based pop singer ELIO; she released her debut single "My Friends Online" in March and followed that with her debut EP 'u and me, but mostly me' in July. However, she's far from finished, as she just dropped her latest single "Jackie Onassis" on Friday and is hard at work on yet another EP. She came into the New Afternoon Show and talked all about her new music, the transition from a college student to a pop singer, Gilmore Girls, and much more. After the interview, she took over as guest DJ; you can find her playlist linked below!
INTERVIEW
Interview by Bridgette
September 30, 2020
Today I’m joined by a very special guest: ELIO is here all the way from Toronto! Welcome!
Hi! How’s it going?
I’m great, thanks! How are you?
(Laughs) I’m good!
First off I want to congratulate you on an incredible six months! You dropped your debut single in March and then the EP in July, and you just released your latest single “Jackie Onassis” on Friday. That’s awesome: congratulations!
Thank you, thank you!
There’s so much happening for you!
Yeah, it’s been wild. All of that and then a pandemic has been a big life change. (Laughs)
On top of the pandemic, you’ve been getting some great attention right out the gate for your music! How does it feel combined with what’s going on?
Yeah I mean, my life even in January was completely different from my life the year before. I feel like the past two years have been just a rollercoaster of experiences (laughs) to say the least. Yeah, it’s been really nice for the most part. The pandemic definitely has its ups and downs for me, but to be able to release music and still connect with people has really been a saving grace in all of this.
You’ve had a lot of music coming out; were you always planning on doing it like this? Or how did this fall into place?
Actually no— I used to be in a band in high school so I was always doing music and then I went to university for Art History and I was like I’m going to be an art professor; this is what I’m going to do! I just spent most of my time writing pop songs (laughs) instead of essays and I decided — I was like 21 at the time — you know what? I’m just going to do it. Get on a plane, go to LA, and figure something out. (Laughs)
Well I could definitely see how going to university versus now is a huge change, so we can appreciate that.
(Laughs)
So “Jackie”, I’d love to talk about that track. That’s your newest single. I’m curious, were you first inspired by her to write it, or did you first have the idea and then decide you were going to go the direction of talking about her and her life?
Kind of both. I mean, I actually learned a lot about Jackie Onassis in art school because there was this one artist that painted a bunch of socialite paintings of significant spaces. So I definitely knew a good amount about her, but honestly any socialite/fashionable woman of the 60s would’ve done. But yeah, I think she's definitely very iconic especially with her fashion choices. She’s just an all around cool-but-fashionable-but-smart-but-political woman which definitely inspired the song to an extent. I think I took it a little bit of a different direction. But no, I didn’t have an intention of writing a song about Jackie Onassis. (Laughs)
That’s funny that you say she’s cool and fashionable but political, because that’s kind of how I feel the song is. It’s definitely cool — depicting that lifestyle — but there also is a social message behind it. How important do you think it was for you to incorporate more of a social message in a song?
It was definitely very important. There are parts of the song that are reflective of my personal life, mostly the verses, and then I wrote this chorus that was like “We can go to dinner in Paris! We can drive your car…” and it’s so dramatic and so extreme. So I decided that that kind of energy needs a… but let’s not go to dinner in Paris and fly back because, you know, the world is dying. Let’s not ignore all of our problems. I know you feel like that, but… I feel like a lot of those songs are missing that. It’s definitely not a new idea to write a song about wanting to run away, but I feel like a lot of those songs are very idealistic and they don’t actually stop and go, “well no, you can’t do that because you work a full-time job.”
Right, the consequences don’t matter. But you’re toeing the line between the realistic and romanticized.
(Laughs) yeah.
I love that. So I know you moved around a lot going back and forth from Toronto and Los Angeles. Would you call Toronto home right now?
Yeah. Last year I spent a lot of time in LA; even the beginning of this year I spent three months there until I had to come back. But yeah, Toronto definitely is home. I know the most about where I am — and the people and restaurants and culture and stuff like that — when I’m in Toronto. It’s definitely my home base.
What kind of impact has that moving around had on your creative process?
I think a lot. I was born in the UK and then I moved from the UK to Toronto. Sometimes when I sing — I do it in my everyday life, too — the things that I say are very British. So they’re very British phrases coming out of a North American accent, who also grew up in Toronto and has that influence. It’s definitely a bit all over the place. And then, the time that I’ve spent in LA: I love LA but it definitely has this bubble feel to it. So I love being able to come back here and analyze that when you’ve returned and you’re like I can’t believe that happened. I just showed up to this party and met this person. Whatever, whatever. I think that definitely finds its way into the music a little bit.
I love that visual of being in one place, and then coming back to the other place to analyze what you did there. I also wanted to ask you about your debut single “My Friends Online”. As I understand, it wasn’t necessarily written about the pandemic, but it inadvertently became a lot of people’s lockdown anthem— including myself.
Yeah. (Laughs)
Were you already planning to release the track before COVID-19 was a thing, or did you just feel like that was the best time? How did that line up so perfectly? (Laughs)
Honestly, I wrote it last November and it was just about me being in LA and spending a lot of time on my phone, having all my friends and family be in a different spot, whether it was the UK or Toronto. I felt like I was just constantly on my phone talking to my friends, but not necessarily engaging in the world around me when I was there. So we set the release and picked the date in November, right after I wrote it. And then a week before we were set to release and I was like, “Can we release this?? Because I feel like the messaging is— it’s not just like “ooh, my friends online”, it’s like “I just want my friends online to be around me when I die.” I was like, “This is too close to home.” I could not have predicted this.
Wow, that’s crazy. (Laughs) I guess it was meant to me. I think it worked out well.
Yeah and it’s very nice that people kind of added their own context and it’s become a whole other meaning. That’s really cool and I definitely could not have seen that coming. (Laughs)
That’s the cool thing about music! You put it out in the world and it can kind of do anything in the minds of people. So I think that’s pretty special that it came out at a time when people could really apply it to their own lives, especially when it’s such a shared experience.
Yeah.
That’s super cool! So your debut EP u and me, but mostly me was out in July, which was also really exciting. I know it’s an impossible question, but do you have a favorite track?
(Sighs) probably either “sunday :)” or “Waste of Emotion” I think. They were the two— I mean I wrote “sunday :)” two or three years before I dropped the EP, but we didn’t really work on the production until a couple months before, and same with “Waste of Emotion”. I actually wrote that one in January, and then we worked on the production a month or so before we actually dropped the EP. So I feel like they’re still new and fresh in a way. I think I like those the most right now, but it changes. Sometimes it’s those, sometimes it’s “LA in Two” or “Haircut (Reputation)”: depends on the mood.
I love “Haircut (Reputation)”, if it matters at all. (Laughs) Your moniker ELIO was inspired by Call Me By Your Name, which is amazing. Are there any other pieces of art or pop culture that have influenced you and your music?
Oh my God, the first thing that popped into my mind was Gilmore Girls (laughs) that is so pathetic. (Laughs) Yeah, I mean, I’m one of those people that walks out of the movie theater and thinks their life is transformed and they’re the main character. I get so invested and feel all of the emotion; I’m so sucked into that kind of stuff. So yeah, I could watch any movie and probably write a song about it because I get so emotionally attached. (Laughs)
I feel like that’s good songwriting: feeling a story! (Laughs) Gilmore Girls. I love how it was Call Me By Your Name and then Gilmore Girls.
(Laughs) two very different things.
Those are the two takeaways right there (laughs) that’s funny. Well, thank you so much for hanging out with me! Before we wrap it up, do you have anything coming up that you’d like to share with everyone listening?
Yeah! I think we’re going to release another EP at some point within the coming months. I don’t have a date for it, but singles and stuff will be coming, which is really exciting! Keep an eye out for that. Hopefully music videos but who knows with the state of the world today. I’m trying.
Hopefully. Awesome, that’s a lot to look forward to! Thank you so much for sitting down with me today!
Thank you!
This interview originally aired on WNYU Radio with Bridgette Kontner on September 30, 2020 on The New Afternoon Show at https://wnyu.org/archives/2020-10-07-the-new-afternoon-show