Elsie Lange "Talk To Me" Track Rundown
The new EP “Talk To Me” from Elsie Lange (Pting, Elizabeth) is a thoughtful folk/pop/rock record and a truly honest body of work that explores love, love lost and the complexities of being a woman. Elsie has been playing music in and around Naarm/Melbourne for a few years in Pting and Elizabeth and this debut EP is her first solo body of work. We caught up with Elsie about the EP and she gave us a track by track rundown of each song.
Tulips: I absolutely love this song, it's such a pretty melody that has a kind of vintage warmth to it. What’s the song about and how did you write it?
Oh mate!!! thank you!! Tulips is one of those songs that just happens, you write a progression and words spill out, old words and new ones, lyrics you've parked and come back to again. I remember looking outside my bedroom window when my tulips had blossomed. It's a long haul, that process. You plant bulbs in June, and they don't peep til Spring. I had made myself a little surprise I'd forgotten. But when they reared their gorgeous little heads I felt lots of things from times I'd forgotten. I had a bit of a broken heart and wove in all of the hard things I was feeling with older feelings of similar times. It's a collection of fictional and non-fictional ideas that come back a lot. It's a song about change, love and remorse. A culmination, I suppose.
Adelaide: This song reminds me of a Pting song in the drum feel / bounciness yet melancholic sounds and subtle harmonies. What's this song about and did you write it originally for Pting or was it always going to be for this project?
This song I always wrote for myself. I remember thinking, maybe it would work in that Pting space, but realising later on it might have been too vulnerable. I was in Adelaide, as I am for most Christmases, sitting in my Aunty Jude's spare room. I'd been listening to Strangers by the Kinks and loved that major/minor change. I wanted to do it too. So I worked this little narrative around some chords I loved, a collection of ideas I'd held in me for a while that were waiting for the right song – that joyful melancholy of love! and growth. A friendship rooted in time, forever moulding as you age and understand things more. Fictionalised and magical – that messy period between Christmas and New Year. It's just an ode to all the lovey dovey songs I've grown up with.
Vertigo: This song’s ending is huge, I love the way you weave harmonies in and out in such a fluid way. How did you go about writing harmonies for this one and was it a simple process or something you put a lot of thought into?
Oh you angel!!!! Actually, I've recorded this song a few times. Even had a go making it a piano ballad. So the way it's sung has definitely changed over time. But these harmonies, those big sounding bits at the end, I wanted them to sound as juicy and strong as they could. That's why Calum Newton is the best producer ever. He just wants as many layers as possible, so he can play around choosing to give or take – it's having the content and knowing what to do with it. That's why his role on this record is huge – he knew what to do with all those harmonies.
Vessel: This has a beautiful beginning and gives me a Beautiful Baby vibe in the 6/8 groove and spaciously reverberated vocals. Was this song / is your sound influenced by bands you play in and other Melbourne/Naarm bands in general?
All my songs are in some way influenced or inspired by the bands I've played in or written music for – but I definitely didn't have the confidence to record a song like this until I played with Elizabeth. She helped me find strength in my vulnerabilities. This song is an anthem about taking back what's yours, as a woman, not letting powerful men decide for you. It didn't always start with that synth vibe, but with Calum I was able to explore that space with this song and I'm glad I did. This is a hard song to sing live. I'm always glad when I do though.
Talk To Me: This title track has such a dark feeling and harsh sounds shifting in and out. What's this about and what was the writing process?
This song is about loving someone so dearly, seeing what they're going through and wanting them to reach out. Wanting to be their rock, in friendship or in love, wanting to help them find a place that helps keep them safe. I wrote this song quickly after a few wines, strumming away feeling a bit helpless in a situation. Knowing if they knew they could just talk to me, it might help in some way. It is a dark song. I'd been listening to a combination of the Drones and Tropical Fuck Storm and Julia Jacklin when I wrote it, so it always felt slightly confused genre wise. So adding all that noise, the feedback, was important for conveying all the feelings in it.
Follow Elsie on Facebook / Instagram and stream / buy “Talk To Me” via Wing Sing Records here
Words and interview by Winter McQuinn
Images by Mickey Manson
Thank you for reading this article. Before you leave the page, we’d like you to take a moment to read this statement. We are asking our readers to take action and stand with the BIPOC community who fight and endure the oppression and injustice of racial inequality.
Here in ‘Australia’, Indigenous people are the most incarcerated population on Earth. Countless lives have been murdered by white police, white government policies and this country’s white history, institutionalised colonialism and ongoing racial oppression. Racial injustice continues today under the phoney, self-congratulatory politics of ‘Reconciliation’ and the notion that colonialism is something that must be denied and forgotten, an uncomfortable artefact of the past.
Feeling guilty is not enough. We must take action, pay the rent, educate ourselves and acknowledge that empathy and sorrow for past actions is insufficient if this does nothing to prevent our current reality from extending into the future.
Please consider making donations to the following organisations (the list is so small and the work to be done is so large, do your research to find more grassroots, Indigenous-lead community organisations):
Indigenous Social Justice Association - fighting to stop Indigenous deaths in custody
Firesticks Alliance - who campaign for Indigenous land management, cultural burning and looking after Country