Interview: Ella Roze

Ella Roze is a young woman rising into the music industry, living here in Barcelona. In anticipation of her third EP In Love Like the Movies, we caught up with the singer songwriter to shed some light on her work and creative process.

How would you define the genre or your music?

Vocally, I’m a neo-soul artist, but my EP contains a mix of a few different genres. I would say it’s got R&B and soul in there, but also with a few electronic elements to it as well. I don’t really like being put into a box—I enjoy just being free to do anything—but yeah, my voice is definitely neo-soul.

Tell us about your first single; how did it feel to release that into the world?

It’s Got to Be You was the first track I released alone, and it was my baby—I’d been working on it for two years! I remember it came out at midnight with everyone on a zoom chat, saying things like “Oh, my God, it’s coming out!”. Quite a lot of my family members had already heard it, because there were a lot of different versions of the song that I was going to bring out previously. But once I decided I wanted it to be an EP, I had to wait a long time for it to be ready… so even my family and friends who knew the song already were like “it’s finally out!”. I was so happy, but it was a bit nerve-wracking because I sing a lot about my relationships, so obviously that’s something quite personal to put out into the world.

How does it feel to know that people are listening to something so personal to you?

I think the lyrics that I write at the moment are quite personal, but I sort of remove myself and make things a bit more dramatic—or I incorporate someone else’s experience too. So whilst I have probably experienced everything that I sing about, I don’t concentrate too hard on making sure that the lyrics are all from my own point of view. It is nerve-wracking, knowing that people are listening to exactly what is going through my head, but then I guess everyone goes through the same thing. So that’s what I keep on telling myself—everyone goes through the same thing. 

Could you tell us a bit about your recent releases?

There are three singles that I’m releasing over the next few months: It’s Got to Be You is already out; then See Through Me came out on December 11 and In Love Like the Movies is coming out on January 8. That one has a music video too, produced by HetHeaven, so for me that’s the big one! Then in March 2021, I’m releasing the EP with those three tracks, plus another three. Calmtree Music have been my producers, and they’re wonderful.

The reason I chose to release It’s Got to Be You first is just because it was the first one I wrote, and then it naturally rolled into the other songs—because I wanted there to be a relationship between them all. To be honest, when I write a song, I write the music first and then I sing along and see what happens. Eventually I sing a word or a phrase which ends up being the theme of the song. I’m not a poet, I just use whatever comes to mind and feels right when I’m playing music. In terms of the process, I think I make it up a little bit.

Is your work inspired by any other artists?

For sure, I definitely take a lot of inspiration from other artists. I would say that my biggest idols are Amy Winehouse, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu and Sade, but day-to-day I listen to so many soul and R&B artists. I take a lot of what they sing and use it as inspiration, both musically and lyrically. In fact, when I was writing my first song, I wanted to write something inspired by Etta Bond—and it completely didn’t happen! That song ended up being It’s Got to Be You, which sounds nothing like I’d planned, but I think my own style came out in the end. So yeah, I’d say that I use inspiration from other artists to build my own style and my own music.

Being from the UK and living in Barcelona, how have the two locations impacted your music?

I moved here [Barcelona] with my mum when I was three, but I’m actually moving back to London in January—for good, I think. Living here has been amazing and I’m from Liverpool, so I still get to go back there a lot. I went to university in Barcelona and studied music production and creation, which was a huge part of my growth—I mean, I could barely sing on stage before I went there! It really helped me a lot. Also, the music scene here isn’t as big as somewhere like London, so I felt like a slightly bigger fish in a smaller pond. It was a lot easier to meet people and make contacts, so I’m very grateful to have been able to grow as an artist in Barcelona.

To be honest, I don’t think that the two locations have a massive influence on what I sing about at the moment. I would like my next EP to include some of the relationships I have with family back in England though, maybe incorporating that into my lyrics.

How did the pandemic affect your work?

It made me rethink a lot of my songs. Actually, one of the songs I wrote during lockdown just happened very spontaneously. The title is In Love Like the Movies and it literally grew from watching a rom-com movie with my boyfriend, then suddenly jumping up and saying “I’ve got to go write this song!” Also, the fact that I had so much time to myself meant that there were no excuses—I had no choice but to go and get things done.

Plus, I still managed to work with so many artists and meet lots of people who wanted to collaborate. In fact, there’s an artist I’m working with on the side—Ketchum—who I worked with almost every day during lockdown, because we both had so much free time. It was perfect, really. He’s a producer who started out about three years ago, and he’s incredible. We met two years ago and started working together pretty much straight away. He does the production and I tend to work on the melody and lyrics, although recently he’s started writing lyrics too—which has been really cool, I’m always so excited about the work I do with him.

I do miss performing and doing live gigs. When I finished uni, I started performing some of my own songs. But I was also part of a cover band, and we would perform together wherever we could. It’s very difficult to get paid here and it was hard to keep the morale up and the band together… but it is one thing that I really miss a lot, even just going to open mic nights.

Lastly, how does it feel to be a young woman rising into the music industry?

The pandemic has made things more difficult, because I’m not the biggest fan of technology and I find it hard to do all the videos of myself on Instagram, talking to the camera, but I guess if things are going to be like this for a while, then I’ll have to get used to it. In terms of being a woman, I think that Barcelona has been a great place to get started. Female artists seem very on par with male artists here and everything is very professional, regardless of gender. Obviously, I’m not sure what London will be like, but out here I’ve only ever worked with genuinely good, supportive people and had positive experiences.”

You can check out Ella Roze's work on Spotify, or catch her on Instagram at @ellabellacustard or Facebook at @ellabellacustard.