INTERVIEW - Izzy S.O Releases EP 'Silly Me'

Izzy S.O is back with her sophomore EP ‘Silly Me’, a five-track release with new tunes ‘Growing Pains’ and ‘Do I Make You Feel Alive Yet’, which join the catalogue of reassuring coming of age songs.

 

These tracks join recent singles ‘Would We Make It’, ‘Without You I Don’t Like Sundays’ – as well as title track ‘Silly Me’, which cleverly encapsulate the conflicting emotions of growing up and discovering who you want to be.

Speaking about the EP, Izzy expressed that she likes to draw on her emotions during the songwriting process. She said: “I always like to write about how I’m feeling in the moment, and I think that’s been the overriding theme over the past few years is the complex emotions that come with growing up.

“The change, the confusion, questioning who you are and what your childhood was really like looking back at it with a different perspective.

“When the fear of life kicks in, you notice the things you cling to and then when you let go of the fear, what are the things that you actually want to keep around – who and what actually makes you feel good.”

Impressively, Izzy’s creativity has been a constant in her life and she has been writing songs, short stories, and poetry since the age of seven.

Izzy, said: “I don’t really think one came before the other, but I did cut music off for a bit as there was a lot of negative emotion around it and so poetry felt like a calmer outlet to process emotions.

“But then as soon as I started properly writing songs again it was like I had all these songs stored in me that had been waiting for me to write them – writing is my favourite thing about music.”

Newly released track ‘Do I Make You Feel Alive Yet’ has a distinct Avril Lavigne feel to it with a catchy guitar riff, whist taking a more sexuality focused approach lyrically. The song pushes back against judgement which can be often shown against women for promiscuity and instead depicts feelings of owning passionate desire.

When approaching the writing process, Izzy stated how some tracks start as poems or a voice note on her phone.

Izzy, said: “It will just be an idea that pops into my head when I’m doing normal life things and then I’ll take that into a writing session and turn it into a full song. Or, I’ll go into a writing session with nothing, and we’ll play a few things and then I’ll start writing stuff down and see what emotion it sparks.”

The ‘Silly Me’ EP certainly has a nostalgic 90s feel with Nirvana and Alantis Morissette as big inspirations for Izzy S.O, as she admires the way they bring humour into lyrics so you’re not entirely sure of their perspective.

Izzy, added: “The main thing with the track ‘Silly Me’ itself was leaning into the fun and chaos around a situation.

“I think the melodrama of it was important to give me the freedom to say whatever I wanted without having to censor any of the lyrics.”

The new body of work, which is a mix of alt-rock and indie genres, was created alongside producer Dustin Dooley. The pair are already working on the next EP with hopes of releasing a single in the new year.

Izzy recently played the new tracks at her EP launch at Strongroom in London. Accompanied with friends, she found it to be a fun experience and feels the live shows are starting to get a rockier edge.

She said: “I think the new tracks bring a whole new energy to my set.

“I was so scared to sing ‘Do I Make You Feel Alive Yet’ because it’s quite hard to sing but in a way, I think that fear made me decide to not care and just really go for it.

“People were shouting along and dancing, by the end a few people actually screamed at me, it made me realise just how fun a live show could be.”

Staying in Strongroom until close, the ‘Silly Me’ celebrations continued with a dance in Sunset Bar and plans are in the works to continue celebrating the release weekend in Edinburgh.

Looking forward, Izzy expressed her excitement for the next instalment of songs and figuring out new sounds, as well as more gigs in the pipeline.

From navigating love, acceptance and all the feelings in-between and as new track ‘Growing Pains’ portrays the loss of the “safety net” from teenager years to adulthood. Izzy S.O is an artist to watch and the EP makes as a healing soundtrack to validate any feelings of existential fear of growing up or developing as a person.

The Silly Me is out now and can be found here: LINK (https://ditto.fm/silly_me).