The architecture is gorgeous and you’ve got the bay. “ This is gonna sound really hippie, but there was an energy,” she states. She didn’t know she’d stay here, or indeed that she’d find the tight-knit musical community that thrives in the Bay Area, but she was drawn to something unexplainable about the place – a connection. Shortly after, while studying creative writing in Melbourne, Australia, she had the option to study abroad. It only took a few days to convince her this could be her new home. Each song sports a timeless, sun kissed aesthetic that you might expect from Bay Area-based creatives, but Hazel’s direct style and pop sensibility take things to another level.Ī traveller itching to see new places, Hazel first found Oakland on a trip away. It’s a meeting of minds that’s helped forge this essential debut collection. Jackson popped by on his way to get a synth repaired, and the two got talking about music, before deciding to collaborate. Both musicians met when Hazel was working in a local book shop. The Never Going Home side combines the hazy, direct songs that have helped Hazel rise to prominence this past year, while the Just Give In side documents her blossoming creative partnership with Jackson Phillips (aka Day Wave). New 2 x EP release Just Give In / Never Going Home, out on Friday May 12 on Pod via Inertia Music in Australia, is a startling collection of old and new, compiling her debut EP alongside six new tracks to create her first full LP-length release. Suddenly it’s not just a number, it’s a physical person standing in front of me that’s getting something out of this.” Actually having a conversation with someone who loves my music, that means a lot to me. “ Something I made had an impact on somebody else – that blows my mind. Although writing personal lyrics can play a primary, self-facing purpose (“ it’s cathartic”), nothing tops the realisation that someone else feels the same way. “ It’s really cool to hear when people say, ‘This song really helped me this week,’” she confesses. Her candid songwriting – whether documenting the experience of leaving home or living with anxiety – draws people in. The Australian born, Oakland, San Francisco-based artist makes amazingly infectious dream-pop that’s bound to affect people. Hazel English gets plenty of these, and for her, these conversations with fans are why she makes music in the first place. But for anyone making music, IRL encounters are way more important. Play counts and streaming stats all play a part, and in 2017 you can near enough work out exactly how many Mexico City-based fans dig a new artist, if you please. It’s easy to get swept up in the numbers of fledgling success.
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