Q&A: Erin Hephzibah

Erin Hephzibah is a musician, artist, and events manager based in Scotland. Beginning at the age of thirteen, Erin’s musical career has seen her support talents like Paolo Nutini, Martin Stephenson, Jill Jackson, and James Grant. She has performed all over Scotland. From community music festivals like Prestfest and FrewFest to iconic Glasgow venues like, King Tuts, St Luke’s, and Oran Mor. In 2017, her musical prowess saw Erin cross the pond to perform at Tartan Week in New York City. 

With a career spanning over a decade, Erin finally released her debut EP ‘Harebrained’ last week and we could not be more excited over a release. We caught up with Erin to find out more about her songwriting, debut EP life, and dream collaborations.

Tell us how you started out creating music and about any projects you are currently working on.

Music has always been a part of my life, my mum noticed from early on that I was writing songs and constantly singing so one year Santa got me a guitar and the rest is history. My step dad, Drew McCormack, was very active in the Renfrewshire & Ayrshire music scenes which meant I’ve met and performed alongside some amazing artists and songwriters from a young age, I’ve been very blessed. Currently, I’ve just released my debut EP Harebrained - which features 3 original songs that are very close to my heart. I had the wonderful opportunity to record with British music legend Martin Stephenson and work alongside multi-instrumentalist Craig Goodwin. I also perform in other bands and projects, including Johnny Barr, Frank’s House and I recently began writing with students from DJ Trevor Reilly’s ‘Digital Hereos’. I have some other exciting projects in the works but I’ll keep quiet about that for now.

Your debut EP 'Harebrained' is almost a week old, how has the reception been? What was it like writing and bringing this EP to life?

Harebrained has been approximately 8 years in the making. I wrote these songs when I was 17/18 but at the time there was a lot going on. My sister had began to get seriously unwell, I was involved in other musical pursuits and had started at Glasgow School of Art - so my own material had a pin stuck in it. After the pandemic, when art school and other projects had ended it gave me the chance to focus on this material again and these songs felt like a good place to start. After holding onto them for so long it feels amazing to have finally released them and people seem to genuinely be enjoying my music so I couldn’t ask for more.

Can you walk us through the meaning of the three tracks on the EP, 'Raggedy Ann', 'Destroying Dandelions', and 'Year Walking'?

The first track ‘Raggedy Ann’ is a Co-Write with my younger sister, poet and disability activist Georgia Francis. Georgia has multiple chronic health conditions but back when we wrote the song the only diagnosis she had at that point was M.E or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. A magazine called M.E. “Raggedy Ann Syndrome” in the mid 1980s to highlight the fatigue and loss of muscle power. Georgia was inspired by that and looked into the character of Raggedy Ann more. She discovered the creator of Raggedy Ann, Johnny Gruelle, had an ill daughter, Marcella, who died at 13. Many of Gruelle’s stories about Raggedy Ann were inspired by watching Marcella play with dolls. Georgia wrote a poem, They Call Me Raggedy Ann, exploring her own experiences with illness through the personification of the doll. Together, we turned the first draft of that poem into a song. Destroying Dandelions is a very personal song that explores difficulties within relationships that although personal I’m sure many people can relate to. Year Walking is based on an archaic form of divination in Scandinavian folklore called Arsgang that loosely translates to Year Walk. From first learning about it I became fascinated with this story as it played into imagery and narrative that inspires me like mythological creatures, magic and the supernatural.

Tell us your three desert island albums.

Hozier’s debut self titled album, as a 14 year old it was on repeat so really brings back to that age when I worried less about what others thought of my songwriting. The The - Soul Mining. I love this album beyond words and could listen on repeat. Etta James - At Last. The entire album is pure art but I could listen to ‘A Sunday kind of Love’ forever without getting sick of it.

If you could collaborate with anyone on future music, who would it be?

In the Glasgow scene at the moment there are many amazing artists I would love to collaborate with but the first one that comes to mind would be Becca Starr. Her music is inspiring and her drive is infectious. On a larger scale I would love to duet with Hozier. His song ‘In a Week’ is one of my absolute favourites and definitely inspired my songwriting.

What advice would you give to aspiring musicians who are looking to establish themselves in the Scottish music industry? 

My advice is to be authentic and generous. The creative industries have been hit hard after the pandemic and cost of living crisis so it’s good to get out there, meet and work with other artists and build up our creative communities.

Lastly, what can we expect to see from Erin Hephzibah this year?

I’ve got a lot on at the moment and plenty to come. I briefly mentioned above what’s going on currently and there are some future projects that I can’t divulge yet as it’s in early stages but hopefully you’ll be seeing a lot more of me - including more releases, some exciting collaborations and more! I have an April tour coming up to promote the release of Harebrained! I’ll be joining Martin Stephenson & The Daintees in England for three dates and then it’s back up to Scotland for a gig in Venue38 in Ayr, then The Poetry Club at SWG3 in Glasgow. Tickets available now!

For tickets and more, follow Erin here.

Q&A: PELOWSKA

Music producer, singer, and lyricist Aneshka is the powerful frontwoman of electro pop outfit PELOWSKA, after joining forces with David Tynan, the duo have become best known for channeling their passion of songwriting and creating sounds that delve into topics such as identity and mental health.

We caught up with Aneshka and Dave for a chat about all things PELOWSKA, their upcoming debut live show, and dream collaborations.

Hey Aneshka and Dave! Tell us how you started out creating music as PELOWSKA.

Dave and I have known each other for a long time. I was a part of a circle of friends that used to participate in co-organised by Dave so called Quiet Parties (as you can imagine said parties were far from quiet). We admired each other's separate music journeys in other bands for years. One evening we met at then still existing basement of the Red Dog music shop in Edinburgh Dave used to manage, to show each other music we wrote... It turned out that we have a very similar taste and love for sounds, and soon it became apparent that there's real synergy going on - the rest is history!

As PELOWSKA you only have 5 singles online, how has it felt to receive the reception you have, being played (and praised on) BBC Music Introducing Scotland, and being made Artist of The Week by The Scotsman?

We are very grateful for all the support we have received, and appreciate every outlet and a person that spends their time listening to our music, let alone talking or writing about it. Hearing our songs on the radio with such an amazing commentary gave us plenty of motivation to carry on, especially when things were tough, complicated and taking us what it felt like ages. Leaving my country and coming to the UK I knew literally no one from the industry... Not a single person. I had to start everything I built up in Poland from ground zero. It was very encouraging that despite all that our songs still managed to get through to people with the much appreciated help of the amazing crew at BBC Music Introducing, and that we have been given the chance of media coverage by Olaf Furniss and Derick MacKinnon (amongst others).

What was your favourite musical highlight of the last year? Any "pinch me" moments? How are you feeling about your DEBUT at Sneaky Pete's on the 4th April?

Musical highlights (Dave): headlining with my rock covers band on the Second stage at FyneFest in the picturesque west coast of Scotland on a rare roasting summer evening. Wonderful atmosphere that even the midges couldn’t spoil.

Musical highlights (Aneshka): tears in RAYE's eyes whilst she was talking about survivors of sexual abuse during her amazing gig I saw last year (I had tears in my eyes too). 

Watching Primal Scream perform, they are legends. I could feel the crowd becoming one in unity that music brings.

Pinch me moments:

- Accidently coming across a post of someone unknown to the band saying that our song helped them battle depression.

- Seeing our band's name printed out in The Scotsman felt pretty nice! It happened to fall on the very same day that people of Poland (my home country) voted themselves out of their law breaking right-wing government which made that day particularly special.

- My first ever royalties paid out on the day that Wide Days conference was happening. I was hesitant if I should buy the Pass in order to go to the conference... I got it shortly after reading the email from PRS, I went to the conference alone and had the best day talking to many people.

- Realising that our latest single 'Safety' was in Amazing Radio's rotation nearly every single day for eight consecutive weeks.

- Resonate Conference 2023: meeting Phoebe I-H in person for the first time, finally seeing Neverfine perform, meeting so many amazing musicians and people from the industry - I've learnt so much!

- Rehearsing PELOWSKA's songs and discovering a new vibrant approach to our songwriting. Those moments when we literally read each other's thoughts are goosebumps inducing!

Debut Gig: part wild excitement, part white knuckle fear.
The perfectionist (or control freak?  ) in us needs to master all the technical details and then somehow relearn the songs… But every rehearsal gets us closer and leaves us beaming with smiles.

Tell us your three desert island albums.

Aneshka:

Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile

Alice in Chains - Unplugged

Nirvana - Nevermind

Dave:

Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden

Radiohead - In Rainbows

Tool - Lateralus

If you could collaborate with anyone on future music, who would it be?

Poison Ivory, Skeler, Sølv, Gefahrgeist, Francis Novotny, Tep No.

What advice would you give to aspiring musicians who are looking to establish themselves in the Scottish music industry?

I would encourage them to attend music conferences like Resonate and Wide Days. Events that facilitate learning useful skills, meeting like-minded musicians and people from the industry. Plenty of good vibes and motivation from there.

Going to gigs of local bands, forming genuine friendships with like-minded people in music. There's so much we musicians (and people who love music in general) have in common. I get excited and motivated seeing my friends play live and release new stuff, hearing a great new local band or just talking about music we love.

Also, something I feel it's really important just now: don't work for social media creating content you don't fully connect with to the point of burning yourself out. Make social media work for you instead. I believe that being consistent in the form one feels comfortable with, with the frequency that works for that individual will bring the right audience one way or another. Quality over quantity.

Lastly, what can we expect to see from PELOWSKA this year?

We are very excited to play with our amazing friends later in the year, we can't really talk about it yet but watch this space!
Our next steps after 'Resignation' is to release the single we're currently close to finishing, 'Deep Water'. It's a remote collaboration between Croatia and Edinburgh. Once the song is ready, a video for it will be released. Marko Tomasović is a renowned composer who's take on things is: you don't need a label to promote your music if you know how to promote it. This is exactly what he does, with his audience of 1,700,000 million followers on Facebook alone. The plan is to release the song along with the music videos through his Internet channels.

Check out their latest single ‘Resignation’ below and follow PELOWSKA here.