CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS 136: EVA RUNDLE WALKS US THROUGH HER JOURNEY OF FINDING HER FAMILIAR PLACE

Interview by Brooke Gibbs.

Adelaide’s Indie-Pop Singer/Songwriter Eva Rundle, has released A Familiar Place, a relatable track about the growth that comes with moving around.

FMM: This is an exciting time because you've got new music out. How does it feel and what's the reaction been like?

Eva: It's honestly been such a mix of emotions, to be honest. I've been working on this song for over a year now with different people. Now that it's finally been released in the world, it's like, wow, it’s finally here for everybody to listen to and enjoy. It's just been a mix of emotions, but really good ones as well. I think it would just be continuing to go up and down for the next few weeks or so until I start working on the next thing. It's just been an incredible journey to get it out there and having people listen to it and enjoy it and yeah, it's been all so new to me. This is my first song that's been released, well properly anyway, that I've been working on and doing all these promo things, having so many people work alongside me and really help. I've just been so grateful that everyone's been so passionate, enthusiastic and really motivated and wanting to make this happen.

It plays a big part in my life, this whole song and the lyrics and everything. It's a little bit of a vulnerable song, releasing it to the world, but I'm just glad that it's out there and hopefully people can relate to it, feel something and also dance. It's been an incredible journey.

FMM: Yeah, it sounds incredible and it sounds like you have such a great support network around.

Eva: Thank you. I worked with Joseph Cheek from Island Studios and he has been incredible. He's pretty much just read my mind with everything that I wanted to do with the song. I wanted it to be quite nostalgic and also have a space feeling as well as adding some synthesisers and just some fun instruments. He made all of that happen and he's just been amazing.

FMM: It's such an incredible outcome because it's very poppy, which I love. I was listening to it while I was getting ready this morning. The lyrics are great and it's very upbeat. They kind of put a smile on your face.

Eva: Oh, I'm glad it gave you a smile on your face while you were getting ready. I hope it's just one of those songs that you can listen to whilst you're getting ready and makes you feel good, brings you on a little roller coaster and also makes you feel hopeful.

FMM: It's such a milestone for you, so how did you celebrate when it came out?

Eva: So I guess I didn't. I took the day off of work and I just went out with some friends and it was nice. We went out for dinner and just being with some close people was really nice to celebrate with and dance with them and just have a good time. It was really, really special.

FMM: Yeah, incredible. It’s great that you were able to have the day off. It's like a pop star moment being like, hey, I need the day off because my new song comes out today.

Eva: Definitely. My Mum's my boss, so it's pretty flexible in that way. Obviously, they're very supportive as well of what you're doing. They are super supportive. I had a gig last night at the district and I was fortunate enough to perform my song. Even though it's quite an electronic kind of song, I had a go at playing it live, just me and my guitar, and that was fun as well because I got to try another version of it and it was just nice being able to perform it live. It was, yeah, really special.

I'm looking forward to future and making new songs and this whole experience with talking with you and meeting other people and collaborating with others as well. I think it's just such an amazing journey after releasing your first song. It just makes you realise all this, all this excitement that can come afterwards, like, what's going to be next and what can we do afterwards? It's really, really fun. It’s just incredible. I'm so grateful that so many people have been able to help me and I'm so thankful that you've even come on board with me as well to make this happen. It's been so nice.

FMM: It's so good to hear you're still so excited because you see some artists, especially when it takes a year or more to record it, they release it, and sometimes you hear they get sick by the time it’s come out. But, I'm glad to hear that hasn't happened for you and you're still so passionate and excited.

Eva: Yeah, I'm just more motivated. It just makes me like, oh, I’m just gonna get onto the next song right now. It's very motivating.

FMM: What I love about this song is the meaning, because it's very relatable about leaving a place where you're so familiar and then having to grow because that can be quite scary. Can you share your experience and how that shaped this release?

Eva: Well it is definitely a vulnerable. I guess the meaning behind this song was I had moved from my home when I was living with my partner and having that separation because my parents had moved to a small country town called Normanville. It's not like a complete country town, but it's country enough to be away from the suburbs and the city. You're pretty much next to all these animals, which is lovely, and it's really homely, but I was also forced into this life where it was completely new for me. I lived there for over a year, so just being away from my friends and the life that I was used to and trying to adapt to this new change kind of made me change myself and become almost like a country girl.

I was never a country girl until I moved to the Normanville and I started writing and working with people who wrote country music. I kind of got into that style of music as well, for a while. That was an amazing experience because I got to work with people who, in Myponga was really into country music, and that was amazing. And I guess when I first moved there, it was a lot of different feelings, and I was trying to adapt to that, and I almost felt a little bit out of place. I didn't know where I was to fit in and where I was to belong. It was just a complete flip of a switch. I was just moved on to another universe, almost.

I wrote that song and it kind of a hopeful song that I was trying to find my footing and my grounding. I guess for it to be related to other people, it's finding your place in this world. With our age and everything, you know, it's just such a hard time, and there's always going to be times where we're not feeling like ourselves. Even though we're in this familiar place and we're always going to be this familiar place, we just won't always feel like we are.

FMM: I love that you've taken that outlook, that it's a hopeful message, not just one that's vulnerable. There's hope at the end of it and you can get through it. And I think that's what makes relatable to other people because we all go through it, whether it's moving house, relationships, work, school, like everyone goes through change.

Eva: Definitely. I think so, and I think that's why people can hopefully relate to it in their own way and it be an anchor through something that they're dealing with and that they can feel hope from the song, move forward and find their place and be back onto Earth.

And, you know, we all go into space sometimes and then we'll always come back down and it's just that cycle of life.

FMM: Do you find the move has shaped your sound? Because listening to your previous release, The Sun Comes Up, I really love the acoustic sound to that, but then I also love the new sound of your latest track. Do you think you'll have a mix in the future or is there a particular sound you're more drawn to?

Eva: I definitely do think there's going to be a country twang. I feel like that's just going to in there. Just maybe my vocal or like, you know, the guitar, because I love playing guitar. I think it will still have a bit of a folky style in it, but then I do really want to bring more dance music into my work. I've always had a big passion of early 2000’s dance hits and 80’s dance and synthesisers. After making that song, I just want to make more of that and hopefully be able to bring some home from when I was in the country into it as well and bring that part of life into it to have meaning.

FMM: Do you have any particular artists or albums that shape your sound? I don't know if you know Kelsea Ballerini, but that's the kind of vibes that I get when I listen to your music.

Eva: No, I’ll have to check her out. Oh, it's kind of tricky, actually. I think I've always had an obsession with Lana del Rey. She's always been one of my favourite artists. CHVRCHES as well. CHVRCHES are that kind of synthesising style that I would love to go make more music like that and Daft Punk and then they're all like synthesiser music. But, then I do love First Aid Kit, who are also quite folky and country and have that country twang in their vocals as well.

I'm the only one from Australia. My whole family are from Ireland, so I think I have been told that I've got, like, Irish twang in my voice or something, but, yeah, I don't know whether that's more country. I think it's fun playing with sounds and seeing what works and being inspired by different singers and bands and merging them together in a way and fit them all in their little places and have their own little spots in there to make it your own.

FMM: A very diverse mix!

Eva: Yeah, I love it. It's great being able to listen to some amazing and talented singers, even just locally, and the ones that live here, too, and just being inspired by them and their style of music. It's just amazing what people can do with their music and how diverse it can be in their songs, of course.

FMM: I've seen so many great things come out of the Adelaide music scene recently, so I feel like you're in the right place to be releasing this and having those connections.

Eva: Oh, thank you. Yeah, it's lovely meeting other people and their stories and everything with their releases and how they work with it and how they release things, and just getting that inspiration as well as.

FMM: It's amazing to have that community around you, for sure. You mentioned that this took about a year to record and work through, so I would love to hear your creative process to get the final product out there.

Eva: Um, I was procrastinating a little bit on the lyrics, I guess. I think, because it was such a vulnerable kind of song that I'm getting out there, I was like, oh, I don't know, is it too much? Is it too deep? Should it be more light-hearted? And then I think because I was trying to find my style of music, whether I wanted it to be country or a bit more poppy, it was just playing around in my head continuously, trying to find that style that I wanted to go for. Then, it’s finding synthesisers to be such an important part that. I love just trying to make it all work together and working with my producer, who had been so amazing because he had just been going back and forth and he's just been so incredible and motivated, and he just knew exactly what I was thinking and experienced it on a level that just was so relatable.

He knew exactly how I was feeling, and he made it come to life by adding all the aspects of things that I really loved and the instruments and the production of it all. I think it's just been amazing that it's just taken this long, but it’s also probably the biggest thing that I've ever done. I'm speechless. I can't describe how much it has taken and the process of it all has just been amazing.

FMM: I'm a perfectionist. I find if I have projects that take a year, I never finish them. It's always like, I can do more, I can do more, so how did you know you were ready?

Eva: I think I was just like, I'm not going to touch anything else. I don't think we should do anything else because it was like, I think if we do too much, we'll just get carried away because there's so many different ideas that we had. And I was like, oh, we could do this, we could do that. We could just do this and that and this. And then we're like, we're gonna stop and just let it out and then see what happens maybe on the next one.

But, there was this really interesting part. I don't know if you noticed, it was like a sh. Like a wishing sound that came near to the end and at the very end as well. That was one point that I was thinking it's either a make it or break it point, whether it was just not going to be in there at all or it was going to stay in there. The sound of it was, I guess, an astronaut being in like a rocket ship talking in like a walkie talkie sort of thing. It just made that little bit of a difference having that in there. I think that will go towards my music video, which will be coming out in the next two months, so it will be more related to that aspect. But, again, I think I might be a little bit of a perfectionist as well.

For my first proper release. I just wanted it to be special and something really meaningful.

FMM: You mentioned the music video, which I'm excited about because we've seen little snippets on Instagram, so tell me more about that and what we can expect from the full video.

Eva: Well, that was something I worked on back in March with an amazing crew, Ashley Pollard and his crew that he works with. Again, he read my mind. He's a writer as well. He wrote the whole story of it when I gave him the gist of the song and the meaning towards it, and we came across this idea where we wanted the spaceman, this astronaut, to be like my guardian, kind of telling me which way to go. And at the end it's me. I'm the astronaut. I'm my guiding light, and I'm bringing myself back to ground.

I think the best part of the video was that we had this astronaut suit, which was a real astronaut suit that we got from the military in Sydney. And I think it was just really cool and fun to play with and have this astronaut in it, and then it just became this whole space aspect and it’s so exciting. I can't wait to show it with everyone. It's gonna be fun and I hope everyone enjoys it, too.

FMM: It sounds so fun and I can’t wait to see it. Do you have any upcoming gigs or how can people continue to support you and your music from here?

Eva: I do cover gigs on weekends. I am trying to build up a repertoire of original music to be able to do original gigs, but I think I'll just continue making original songs to be able to do gigs. My next cover gig I have coming up is in the Adelaide Showgrounds on the last Saturday of August.

I will hopefully be able to bring my original songs involved and be able to play A Familiar Place as well like I did last night. That’s something to look forward to.

FMM: And other than that, what are your plans for the rest of the year? Are you writing more music? We’d definitely love to here more from you in the future!

Eva: Oh, thank you. Yeah, I’m keen. Like, as soon as I had come out on Friday, I'm like, right. Next week, get this new song happening. I think either I just want to get right into it and get ready on a new song, something fun and a taste of what A Familiar Place was and just merge that into something new and bolder and just get ready onto it.