In Conversation With #280 - Eliza & The Delusionals
Australian indie rock trio Eliza & The Delusionals have just released their sophomore album ‘Make It Feel Like The Garden’ – via Cooking Vinyl Australia.
Crafted as a sanctuary amidst life's complexities, Make It Feel Like The Garden features a collection of songs that blend catchy hooks, driving rhythms, and introspective lyricism. The album follows the success of acclaimed singles "Falling For You," "Make It Feel Like The Garden," and "Somebody," which have garnered attention for their evocative melodies and emotive storytelling.
Make It Feel Like The Garden was conceptualised on the road during their North American tour in 2022, with guitarist Kurt tinkering on an old acoustic guitar while recording voice memos. Diverging from past creative processes, Kurt and Eliza wrote the majority of the album at their DIY studio in Napa, California, before heading back home and recording with visionary producer Oscar Dawson (Holy Holy, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, CLEWS, Amy Shark) at his studio in Rye, Victoria.
Describing the process, Eliza says “It was interesting to see how working in a different part of the world, outside of the comfort of our home studio and Australia in general, has influenced our writing and the process of demoing the songs. Recording the album with Oscar Dawson was an incredibly collaborative experience. He continued to push us out of our comfort zones which lead us to feeling really free creatively. I think this also made us write in our most honest and genuine form.”
They took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Eliza & The Delusionals, how are you? So your album is out now – how does it feel to have it out there?.
We're doing good, thank you! It's weird because we've had the record finished for over 12 months, so there's been a lot of different emotions. Overall we are excited and really happy that it's finally out in the world, along with a sense of relief as we've been holding onto it for such a long time. We're really proud of this record and we all have a strong connection to it, and can't wait for everyone to hear it.
It is called ‘Make It Feel Like The Garden’ – what is the meaning behind that?
The idea behind the title is 'The Garden' being a representation of euphoria for the listener. It could be your fondest memories, a place, a feeling - somewhere that you can transport yourself outside of reality and exist in your own utopia. For us, we felt that a garden was the perfect representation of this concept as we grew up in a small town and we'd always be playing and spending time in our neighbours gardens as kids, and to us that's a memory of happiness and euphoria. I feel that gardens in general are usually something people enjoy to tend and create their own utopia, so this felt like the perfect way to bring our concept of imagination into reality.
Where was it recorded? Any behind-the-scenes stories you are willing to share with us?
Kurt and I wrote a large portion of the songs whilst we were on tour in America in 2022. We had some downtime between tours, and we spent a lot of time in our friend's basement in Napa, California doing demos and writing songs. We were lucky enough to make a bit of a makeshift studio to work on the record, and the whole experience staying there was amazing. After the tour, we headed back to Australia and finished the songwriting process with Oscar Dawson in his studio in Rye, just a few hours outside of Melbourne. We spent a few months there with Oscar, and had a really lovely time recording and bringing the record to life. The process was really inspired and creative, and we experimented with a lot of processes of creativity that were a little out of our comfort zone, which I believe resulted in some of the best songs we've written and created. Most of the mornings we'd actually go to the golf driving range near Oscar's place and hit some golf balls, and then we'd go to the studio and record, and then in the evening Kurt would cook really nice dinners for us. So it kind of felt like being at home and was quite a relaxed studio experience. I think this helped us go into each day or session with a clear mind and were able to make the most out of every idea that we wanted to explore.
What are the key influences behind the album?
This is kind of a hard question to answer. Firstly because a lot of the songs were written so long ago now I've forgotten a lot of the feelings that were attached to each idea and I now connect with a lot of them in different ways. But I think we wanted to just write songs that we'd like to hear. We were influenced by a lot of different artists, songs and even movies so it's hard to pinpoint one. We just were inspired by what we were loving at the time and what felt like the most authentic version of our band at the time.
If the album could be a soundtrack to any film – which one and why?
Adam Sandler's cult classic film 'Click'
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
I think Kurt, Ruby and I would all have vastly different answers to this question! And it's hard to choose just one. But right now, the line that connects the most deeply to me is from the song 'Everything That Isn't Mine' and it's the second verse. 'Do I miss you or do I miss the feeling? Everything that isn't mine is what I've always needed'. I feel like this has a lot of weight, as I'm always wishing for the things in life that others have or that I want instead of being present and enjoying what's mine. It's a very 'grass is greener' concept and sometimes it's difficult to get out of that thinking, but also serves as a reminder to be grateful for what you have, what you've worked for and what you've achieved.
Now the album is out there – what next for you?
We're excited to be taking the record on tour around Australia in August. We're playing the entire album in full every night for this tour, which is something we haven't done before. We're also making plans to tour internationally, so we're really excited for all of that as well.
