Eloise Viola is a singer, songwriter and vocal powerhouse from London, whose debut album, Glasshouse, will be released next month. Her songs share messages of self-love, self-empowerment and hard-won strength that shines through in both her lyrics and energy.
As an independent artist, Eloise has already achieved some incredible things. With millions of streams across a handful of singles and Eps to date, and a growing fanbase hooked on her uplifting music and unforgettable live shows, Eloise will be supporting Rebecca Ferguson in her upcoming tour.
I was absolutely thrilled to sit down and chat with Eloise and in this Disgraceful Interview, we cover self-love and confidence, what it takes to be vulnerable and her very impressive music career to date.
Hi Eloise. Thank you so much for joining me. Can you start at the beginning and introduce yourself to our readers?
I’ve always had a big voice, but I didn’t think that doing singing as a career was really a viable option. But when Adele’s 21 album came out when I was about 16 or 17, I loved it so much that I taught myself to play the piano. And it has all completely started from there. As I learnt more on the piano, I started writing songs, and I found that I really liked writing big love songs.
However, then I went to university, put music on hold, and got a graduate job that I absolutely hated. But after a while, I decided there was more to life than feeling miserable at work, so I made the decision to quit, give myself a year and give music a real go.
I met a producer that year and I flew to LA to write an EP with him, which was amazing. He pulled me in the pop direction, which although at the time I didn’t really want to do, he was totally right, and now I get to perform really high-energy songs that are positive and make people feel good. Ever since then, I’ve been an independent artist and along the way, I started to infuse my songs with the lessons I’ve learnt about body positivity and self-love.
That’s such an exciting journey. Can you tell me who or what your biggest inspiration is?
I’ve always loved psychology. I think one of the reasons I can write songs is I am always asking what motivates people’s thought patterns and their behaviours. I especially apply this to myself when I am going through a tough time mentally and feeling down, and I think the counselling I have had in the past has taught me to be really observant of my own thoughts and behaviour. I think the times I feel most inspired are when people have that “ah-ha” moment and make breakthroughs with their own struggles and what they are going through.
And you mentioned self-love is a big driving force behind many of your songs, why is self-love so important to you?
Self-love has really become a movement, I think this is because it has been so lacking in our education – I don’t really mean just in schools, but generally in our teaching as we grow up; we’re taught to treat others with kindness, but the way we think about and treat ourselves seems to have taken a bit of a backseat. I feel really lucky to have had counselling before my own body image and thoughts around food and my appearance became a serious problem, and I feel what I learnt is not only helpful but imperative, in helping everyone equip themselves with the tools to be a bit more resilient and most importantly, truly confident in their unique offering to the world.
And what does self-love mean to you?
Someone once explained to me that the best way to speak to yourself is to talk to yourself like you would your child: constructive but kind. I think this is self-love. It doesn’t mean always allowing yourself to do whatever you want. It’s being aware of the way you treat yourself and process the world so that you empower your own thinking to achieve the goals that you want. Although beauty companies may think otherwise, I don’t feel like slapping on a face mask is always quite going to cut it.
How does this influence your songwriting?
Because I think that the lessons I learnt in counselling are so crucial to helping everybody, I wanted to shout them from the rooftops and somewhere along the way, this became the focus of the messaging in my songs. It’s become so important to who I am and my brand, that it’s now the main topic for my writing. I am now constantly taking down what people say or intrusive thoughts I have into the notes app, so I can turn them into songs. This sometimes takes the form of a bigger idea, or it could be a line or combination of words, and I’ll take this into the studio, and we’ll usually start from there.
You had to have had a lot of courage to step out on your own and give yourself a real shot with your music career. Where did you find that confidence to trust yourself and your ability to succeed?
When I was 21, my friend’s mum, who is a really successful businesswoman, said to us: “You girls think you’re going to come out of uni and find a job and you’ll just stay in that for years; that that’s your calling and your career. But that’s not how it works. You work at something, and then you might fail at it. You work at something else, and you might hate it. Then you might find something you like, but it’s not 100% right. But then you find an open door to something completely different, and it turns out to be amazing.”
She said that we often have this belief that the things we learn at university or college will lead exactly to where we want to go, but really you have to experience life and everything it has to offer, to figure out what you’re good at.
So, I think for me, I ended up teaching myself a load of skills – from video editing and Photoshop to marketing – because I didn’t have the financial backing of a label. I knew I had to learn things in order to give myself a good chance. But I also knew that these exciting things wouldn’t happen without just jumping in and giving it a good go. The thing is, nobody really knows what you’re doing, and even if you do make mistakes, there will always be an important lesson we needed to have learnt in the process. You’ve just got to try.
Tell us a little about the new album – Glasshouse – what was the main inspiration for it?
The Glasshouse songs are the most vulnerable I’ve ever written and reflect how I have felt throughout the past few years. Looking back I can see how each of these songs is a lesson I’ve learnt, what happened in my life to provoke writing each song, and the record now feels like it tells the story of my twenties. The overarching understanding I have now is that it is not only okay to be open about feeling low, but actually, it’s an essential part of the healing and learning process. Without bringing problems to light, there is no understanding and therefore no overcoming them. There is strength in being open with what you’re going through and that’s why it’s called Glasshouse; glass is fragile and transparent, but it is strong. Your body and mind are your home, your ‘house’ and I have learnt to treat them as such.
What do you want your audience to feel when they listen to your music?
I want audiences to hear the struggle and the stories of being low and know that they can, and will, get through whatever it is they are going through. I hope the understanding I’ve come to on my journey helps empower them to empower themselves.
What has been your proudest achievement so far?
Honestly, I think this album. Sometimes it’s hard to write songs about self-love because the line of potentially writing cheesy lyrics is very thin! I really wanted to create a project that is authentic, but also really demonstrates the struggle with both my mental health and with my career. We live in a world which feels mostly contrived and disingenuous, and I hope the vulnerability in my lyrics helps to shed light on what life is really like. I am really so proud of these songs, and more importantly how I have pulled myself out of some dark times and I hope that this album soundtracks the self-empowerment of whoever hears it, however that may look to them.
If you had one piece of advice for new artists today, what would it be?
Just start. When artists are signed, they usually have a couple of years to develop and experiment and find out what sort of artist, or songwriter they want to become. I haven’t really had that luxury so I’ve released songs and posted content on social media that I now look back and feel doesn’t best represent me and what I want to say on socials and with my music. It takes a long time to build your brand, and what I’ve found is you can be the most organised, diligent and prepared person in the world, but getting out there and just doing it is where you truly grow, find out what you’re good at and what makes you unique, so just get going!
You can pre-save Eloise’s debut album, Glasshouse, on all streaming platforms.
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