CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS 124: LIZZIE HOSKING ON USING AUTISM AS A SUPERPOWER AND BREAKING OUT OF HER BUBBLE

Interview by Brooke Gibbs.

Adelaide Singer, Lizzie Hosking, is a powerhouse vocalist with catchy melodies and fun story-telling. At a young age, Lizzie was diagnosed with ASD. Lizzie navigates the world with resilience despite the challenges she faces in social interactions and societal misconceptions. Through her love for music and determination, she uses her platform to advocate for understanding and acceptance of autism, inspiring others to embrace their diagnosis as a superpower and pursue their dreams with confidence.

Futuremag Music caught up with Lizzie following the release of her new single, Bubble.

FMM: Thanks for joining me. It's great to have you back again with another great single. How do you feel to have it out there and what's the reaction been like?

Lizzie: I'm really excited to have it out. I've been working on this song for a really long time. So far, the reaction's been really great. We've landed some editorial stuff and it's had a great reaction from Apple Music and Spotify and streaming stuff. People have been loving it and really enjoying it. I’m so, so happy with how it's been going. It's been really fun as well.

FMM: It’s great to hear that it's getting lots of attention because we caught up with you last year and it sounds like you've made a lot of great progress since then. One of the main things being, you had your festival debut earlier this year. How did that opportunity come about and how did it feel?

Lizzie: I've been talking to Bianca from Renegade. She's been getting my name out there, which has been super amazing. I've been talking to her about how much I've been really keen on performing and I would love to do a festival, and she booked that for me and I was so, so, so, so excited. Just getting that opportunity and that day was just the most amazing thing that I've ever done. It was so much fun. It was a stinking hot day, but it was just the best experience to be up there and just be performing with some of my favourite artists as well. Getting an opportunity that a lot of big artists have had in the past, I just felt so honoured and so excited. I was really overwhelmed and I just loved the experience. It was just amazing.

FMM: Being your first festival opportunity, now that you've had that experience, is there anything that you would have done differently or anything that you'll try again if you get similar opportunities?

Lizzie: I'm workshopping a different sort of band lineup because at the festival, I had planned to have my band on stage, but with logistics, it didn't quite work out. So, I was going to perform with a DJ, then that also fell through. It was a bit of last minute trying to pull something together to make it work with things breaking down. But, it all came together and it was all wonderful. I think for future festivals and performances, I just want to have my full lineup behind me. I’ve also got some dances I'm gonna have for future performances as well. It's gonna be a whole performance and a whole show. It's gonna be really exciting and I feel like that performance and that whole experience really opened my eyes to what I can do differently, what I can add and how I can make it more interesting because that's always something to be thinking about when you're on stage. How can you engage the audience a little bit more?

FMM: We're so happy to hear that you've had that opportunity and that you've obviously got dances planned and more stuff in the works.

Lizzie: Yeah, I'm super excited. My best friend who's in Sydney is going to be one of my dancers. The song, Skye, that I wrote is about her, so I'm really excited that I'm going to potentially be able to share the stage with her at some point, which is going to be awesome.

FMM: Sounds exciting. Bubbles has been out for about for some time now and so people have had a chance to listen to it. Can you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind it and what this release means for you?

Lizzie: I think I wanted to write a song that was just a bit more happy and uplifting. I feel like a lot of my previous songs have had a full on story behind it or a deep message. As wonderful as that is, and I love writing songs about that, I just wanted to do something that was a little bit more light and happy and bubbly and uplifting. I think that's where the inspiration came from and I wanted to write something that was a bit lyrically interesting. Some of the lyrics in Bubble, I think, are a bit more fun and a bit more well-thought than perhaps some of my older songs. This song musically, was really inspired by some of my favourite artists at the moment, like Olivia Dean and Remi Wolf. I think they have really cool style and really smart writing at the moment. That sort of vibe is what I was going for and I love that. I went from this pretty, fun sound to this glitchy, rocky almost sound in the bridge. I thought that was really fun and I don't feel like people mesh genres together very often, so I thought that'd be like a fun way to make the song a bit more interesting. It was weird because the bridge was also supposed to be the chorus at one point, so we were just trying to work out how everything was going to get pieced together, and it was one of those songs. It was like, I had this concept and I really want to make this a song, but, like, this isn't quite working, ;et's try something else. But, I think that's good because I used to get quite bogged down if I couldn't think of a way to make the song work, I'd just throw it away. I'd be like, nah, this song's not going to work anymore, but I really had a lot of hope in the song and and the concept, so I wanted to push it through. I think that what we came up with at the end was definitely the best it could have been, the best version of the song, so I'm really happy with it.

FMM: I like what you mentioned about merging the different genres, because that's what gives it the uniqueness. How did you balance mixing the two different genres together?

Lizzie: I think the fact the bridge is stuff that I've done maybe, like, a year ago, and then the rest of the song is very like my recent sort of stuff. So, it's definitely not stuff that my audience hasn't heard before, but I think it's different enough that it's interesting and it brings a uniqueness to the song, but it's also not too far that it just doesn't make sense. I think it sort of blends nicely into the last chorus where they sort of get meshed together. I really like it. My favourite part of the song was my feature poem, but I also knew that I couldn't use the bridge to promote the song, because if I use the bridge to promote the song, then you listen to the side of the song and you're like, this is the same song? But, the bridge is definitely my favourite part.

FMM: Yeah, you don't want to give too much away, but I get what you mean, because I've heard when people have released the bridges before, which is a completely different sound, then they release the first verse and it's like, how does that then turn into this?

Lizzie: Yeah, exactly.

FMM: My understanding is that you're also using this release to share that you have an ASD diagnosis, and I understand that you hide that for a while. Tell me a bit about that and why you feel now's the right time to share that with your fans.

Lizzie: I think I wanted to make a bit of a resolution to myself this year to not hide who I am. I think I wanted to use ASD as more of a superpower instead of something that should be feared and whatever. I feel like I have a really good group of close people who don't judge me, and I think they've really pulled me out of my shell. They are understanding, and they're kind. I think that's really helped me, but I think if I was to grow as a musician and it came out that I had ASD and I've had ASD this whole time, I wouldn't want people to think that I was ever hiding it. I think now is a good time to just make people aware, make sure people are understanding that it's not something that needs to be hidden. I think there's a bit of a stigma around ASD, so just showing that there's different sides of how people deal with it, there's different sides of how it may look and just being a bit of a voice for it and just enlightening people. Hopefully, if someone else has ASD and wants to be a musician, they can relate to me and then be inspired and see that there are things that can come from it. There are successes that can come from it. You can still be a musician and do all those sort of things. I'm trying to inspire and show people not to hide their diagnosis.

FMM: That's great, and by doing that, it shows other musicians that might also have the diagnosis, that it’s okay. They don't have to hide it. You mentioned that you want to a the voice for it, and you do a lot of advocating. What are some ways you connect with other musicians with ASD?

Lizzie: I think just making people aware without shoving it down anyone's throat, because I still want to be me. I think that was the fear of making people aware of it, was that I didn't want people to put me in a box. I think just showing people, now that they have my personality and they know that who I am and then, oh, she's also has ASD. I think that's the best way that I could have gone about it. I just want to still be me and have ASD and just make people aware of the fact that I have that. Perhaps down the road, I can talk more deeply about how I cope with things, how things affect me in different ways. But, I think right now, the step of just telling people and making people aware is probably the best thing I could do for my audience and for people who might also be struggling with ASD. I know I've had a few messages from people saying they’ve also got ASD, and it was just really nice to hear because I've spoken about it in the last couple of days. They said it was nice to hear about my story and situation. Just having people's stories that aren't necessarily, like, the harder side of ASD or the high needs side of ASD and just having the whole circle of what it could be and just making people aware of the whole circle that it could be, I think, is a really good thing to be doing to enlighten people.

FMM: It’s so nice to hear people have reached out and resonated with your strength by sharing your story. I’ve got a couple of friends that have ASD, and with what you mentioned before about using it as a superpower, they really hone into that superpower to use it to be creative. Obviously, you're creative, so how does it shape your songwriting?

Lizzie: I think with my ASD, I tend to hyper fixate on things, and that can be a bad thing sometimes, but I love when I've got an idea, and I tend to write songs in a day or two. Then, if it's not exactly what I want, normally, I'll just kick it to the curb or I'll stick with it, but I think my superpower is just being super driven to get something done. I can be insanely focused on it in that moment. Musically, I can be more creative. I don't know, I might be still creative if I hadn't had ASD, but I think from what I've seen, people with ASD tend to have that extra little creativity box that they can dip into. I feel very deeply when I hear music that resonates with me, so when I make music that resonates with me, it's just a really, really good feeling for me, so that's my superpower, I think.Yeah.

FMM: Looking ahead of the rest of the year, what do you have planned? Do you have any more music coming out? Do you have any live performances? How can people support you?

Lizzie: I do. I have some more singles coming out, which I'm really excited for. I've just finished recording another single and I'm obsessed. I really, really love this song that I'm working on at the moment. I have some gigs lined up before, so I'm planning on leaving to go to London for a while for about a year, just to continue my career and work on stuff. Then, I'll come back to Australia whenever opportunities present themselves. I was gonna say I won't be too far away, but I will be the furthest away I can probably be for a little while. Ive got some gigs lined up before we go there in August and then I'm just going to keep pushing music over there and see how things go and then we'll see where I am this time next year.

FMM: I think you're about the third person I've heard that's making the move from Australia to London, so why London? What’s there for all the musicians at the moment?

Lizzie: There's a lot of opportunities. From what I've seen, music wise, the gig scene looks really cool. As amazing as it is in Adelaide, it's just like an elevated version. I'm also planning on teaching over there because I'm now a fully qualified teacher, which was what I was studying last year, so I’m finished that and I’m just going to be just seeing what opportunities are over there. I also want to travel because I missed out on a lot of that because of COVID, so I want to make sure that I get a chance to do that while I'm still youngish.

FMM: Sounds like a great opportunity for more inspiration and new music because London is so different to Australia. Wishing you all the best for London and we look forward to seeing what you get up to and hearing what comes out of the newfound inspiration.