Eska

Sit down with Eska and you feel filled with unstoppable inspiration. She's a woman of great talent, humility and spirit. Her debut album 'ESKA' won Mercury Prize 2015 Album of the Year, with music that weaves together a diverse tapestry of folk, soul, psychedelia and electronica, creating catchy and stirring songs, burning with passion. I interviewed her at Larmer Tree Festival 2016, for Saffron Records and The World is Listening, two organisations changing the way women are perceived in the music industry.

How has it been since the success of your debut?

It's been life changing in many ways, learning how much I enjoy being an artist and collaborating as a musician with so many, for many years, but stepping into this new space and taking ownership of my ideas and learning to accept who I am creatively and as a woman as well. It's a big part of it I think, the transformation that comes with the birth of this record, and motherhood in other ways as well, with the birth of my daughter who will be two next week.

Wow, is the juggling going okay?

I have no idea if it’s going okay! I take one day at a time, a week at the MOST. Beyond that there is no world or life beyond a week (laughing). I’m thankful for motherhood because it’s actually helped me to be better at letting go of things, in terms of having to think what is the most important thing to do in any given moment before Wonder (my daughter) completely flips the script on me.

"The less people I worked with the more my confidence grew, because actually the person I needed to confront was myself."

How do you have so much confidence? Is it something that developed over time the more people you worked with?

No actually the less people I worked with the more my confidence grew (laughter), because actually the person I needed to confront was myself. The more I became comfortable in my own skin, the more I spent more time with myself. Because I’m quite the extrovert, so it tends to mean I hide, I take a lot of solace in company. Actually learning to find solace in my own company to find out what my ears enjoy, to develop my own sense of aesthetic, taking ownership of my own ideas, is a really big part of a new found confidence. Definitely.

Do you feel you’ve changed a lot?

I think there is a bit of transformation that has come about in realising - I love creative people, I love people who are finding themselves in whatever work they do, and it could be absolutely anything, but people that approach whatever work they do creatively and they go the extra mile and they think it through. I realised more and more how attractive that is, as a quality in a human being, people who aren’t confined and restrained, the ‘upstream swimmers’ I call them, they’re definitely my crew.

"Sometimes rhythm... that for me carries a much stronger intention than intonation... it’s overrated being in tune!"

You played violin in a conservatoire when you were younger, do you still play?

Barring one tune I did all the string arranging, violin and cello, on my album. I just laid it down, my itchy and scratchy playing. It was important for me to return to my first love. Throughout my teens other things took over, and I put the instrument down, and I carried a lot of sadness around that because with string playing it takes long enough just to get a decent stroke out of it. So when I met Julian (band member), who is literally the happiest string player I’d ever met in my life, he filled me with so much encouragement to take it up again. I think I’d started associating my violin playing with exams, and I tried to let go of that. He reminded me that you can just play for fun, no agenda. My string playing is terrible really! It's a long way off what it used to be, but again it's not about that. It's about engaging with the sound for the pure joy of it. I think that's really important in my musicianship, and its something that keeps me really humble.

Sometimes rhythm... that for me carries a much stronger intention than intonation... it’s overrated being in tune! And particularly as a vocalist, I’m very much interested in the voice beyond it being an instrument. That we can all employ words, suddenly it just changes what sound does when you can communicate a message a narrative. So that’s what I’m excited about.

"I felt by the end of the process it wasn’t about me, it was about others asking themselves, how naked am I? How naked could I be?"

Our theme for Saffron Records this year is the idea of ‘vulnerable courage’. Do you think this is relevant for you, and if so how?

Ah vulnerability... and courage (thinking and smiling)...yeah definitely. I’ve just spent 2 days being naked, being filmed. It’s been...let’s put it this way...by the end of day two the director was naked.

This was for the visuals at our finale at Roundhouse. Over these 2 days of the show there was an environment created of safety. I think with me being exposed walking around, running around naked, and people having to witness that and confront this naked woman, confront themselves...I felt by the end of the process it wasn’t about me, it was about others asking themselves, how naked am I? How naked could I be? And what would it take to be that naked... and suddenly we found this place where the art director and the film director took their kit of with me and we were performing in this space. And it wasn’t lurid, it was for the process, everyone just felt there was a safety, and it was sincere. They could have crushed me walking on, they could have laughed, they could have done something that could have changed the atmosphere to be really very wrong. A look could just knock the whole temperature of the room out.

I think the director feeling ‘oh my god I really have this woman’s trust, she trusts me, she trusts me to look at her through this this camera, and, instruct. That’s a very precious thing I’m holding, that we’re all holding and experiencing in this room’.

I started to think about the images I want to keep and frame for my daughter to see. To share that with her. To say to her in my creative way, don’t ever be afraid of yourself, do not ever be scared of who you are, don’t be ashamed, be empowered in all your womanhood, celebrate that, be outmost creative, have intention in your life, whatever you do. My daughter can be strong and be vulnerable at the same time... and, you can change people.

"I started to think about the images I want to keep and frame for my daughter to see. To say to her, in my creative way, don’t ever be afraid of yourself, do not ever be scared of who you are, don’t be ashamed, be empowered in all your womanhood."

Saffron Spotlights @ Larmer Tree Festival

Saffron Records are on a mission to change the way women are perceived in the music industry, one empowered woman at a time. With Saffron Spotlights we highlight incredible female talent, asking about their music & methods. We increase their visibility and create a community of role models for future generations.