It feels like an eternity since Liza Flume appeared on our first Plec Picks series back in 2014 and we’re only delighted to still be championing her music with an exclusive premiere of her brand spanking new EP ‘Spain’.

The new EP gives birth to a new sound for Liza as she steps away from the loop pedal and turns to her newly-formed band consisting of ex-Toast Office Records mates Gaz Moore and Ste Lyons.

Swapping electric for acoustic, ‘Spain’ brings a rougher sound to the table, but retains Liza’s distinctively sincere lyrics.

We met Liza for a pint in her new home of London last week to talk about the journey that led to her new sound. So hit play below and treat yourself to some aural goodness while reading all about it.

We present to you, 'Spain':

It’s been quite some time since your last EP, what have you been up to?

“Well, to start with, I moved to London, where I was introduced to lots of different music styles and new experiences, however, I moved there for more personal reasons than musical reasons. I was definitely quite lost in terms of myself personally and continued to struggle a little so I went back to Australia and lived there for a year. Somehow, somewhere along the way, through many different strange things, I felt like I overcame those personal issues and it felt very clear that I should come back to London. Whether that's personally the right place for me, or creatively, I don't know, but it just felt like all the opportunities were here and all the people that I know, who are really creative, live here.

“I guess that and other things that were inspiring me brought me back to London. A lot of my friends here are Irish so it doesn't feel too far from Dublin. On a daily basis, I wonder if London is the right place, just in terms of the practicalities of living here are so hard, which everyone goes through but generally - creatively and personally - I think it's the right place for me right now.

This is your first recording with the backing of a band. Was that conscious decision or a happy accident?

“A bit of both I guess. I knew at some point I needed to figure out if I was going to go down the electronic route or the band route. I knew this years ago and many people said it to me that I need to figure out where the sound is going. I flirted with the idea of learning how to produce and I spent hours and hours teaching myself how to record. I don't know if that comes super natural to me, I'm not sure but that's ok. In terms of playing with a band, what held me back was that I was afraid having a band would make it sound like everyone else. I was afraid it would become not unique.

“That said, the way that this worked was completely by chance. My friend Garret (Moore) said let's jam. I'd never jammed before but something between all of the different styles, Ste (Lyons) being a punk drummer, Gaz being into Indie, sort of Father John Misty, that kinda music, and then I listen to a lot of hip hop and completely different things. For some reason, it felt really unique and exciting and fun. I've never experienced music being so much fucking fun. We laugh and we have a few cans. It's this great thing that I look forward to every week is to go practice with the guys and relax and explore a completely different side to music. I get to be angry and aggressive and I get to stretch my voice into places that I never did before because I was concerned about how sweet it sounded.

“The word that sums it up is exciting. It's so cool to play in a band, which sounds lame I know. I did it the wrong way around, everyone else started bands when they were 14 and I was like no I'm doing this on my own. Now at 26 I'm joining a band.”

Is it still Liza Flume then? You’re still in charge of the sound, the direction, etc?

“Well, yeah, I wrote every song before I brought it to the band, the guitar, the vocals and the lyrics obviously. However, that aside, it’s a very free, open environment so in that sense it’s definitely a collaborative effort. Obviously I know nothing about bass or drums, so the boys are doing that but in terms of how I want it lyrically or structurally or sonically, the guitar tone and stuff like that, I'm definitely in control. In terms of image, all my social media, etc is me.”

Will the backing of the band mean you’ll have to rework older material or how will that work?

“Now that’s a toughie! We've done a version of Sheets and we've played around with some of the other songs. But I don't know, it'd be strange for me to play What We Called Love among all these new songs because it's so far away both musically and personally. At some point it'll have to happen.”

“It's funny, especially that song, because it's such an honest tune. I remember writing it and not wanting to show it to anyone. I remember playing it to Sarah Corcoran (Pillow Queens) and being like ‘I think this song is terrible, it's like a weird rappy thing’. She thought it was incredible and said I absolutely had to release it. I was terrified and mortified because I didn't want the person it's about to hear it because it's embarrassing. So it's funny that that ended up being a song people connected to because it's the most raw, maybe that's why.

“But I'm at a point now where I can rationalise the relationship and see things from that person's point of view. When you're young you're just like ‘you're the worst!’, y'know, you just react with your emotion. When you get older you learn to rationalise things a bit better. Maybe through therapy, or whatever, you learn how people behave. Anyway, getting off topic, yeah, I'll probably rework it somehow.”

What inspired Spain? Both in terms of content and sonically?

“I guess the EP is about getting to a point where you're ready to be in a relationship after all these years of being a bit crazy and now finding yourself in a place where you're very happy with who you are and being very stable, but also moving on. You’re beginning to question what you can offer other people.

“My earlier EPs are so young. The lyrics are all ‘You left me and I hate you and you were mean to me. I loved you and gave you everything’. But when you're older, you get to this point where you're happy, you look at your ex and wish you’re that person they’re with but you know that what they’re doing now makes sense and they should do that. They’ve got a pet and they're very settled and I don't have a home right now and I'm a rascal. I get it, why would you choose me? That's a hectic realisation. Everyone gets it at some stage.

“If someone wants to be with me, I'm lucky. Everybody's lucky. For someone to choose you out of the whole world, and want to be with you, that's so hectic, it's the most beautiful thing. I think, when you're younger, you take it for granted, at least I did. So yeah, the EP is about being like I'm not even going to ask you to leave that person for me. Stay there, you're happy, I'm gonna bounce, I’m going to disappear.”

And sonically?

“Sonically, going back to Australia reminded me that, even though I listened to a lot of electronic music when I was there, you find yourself increasingly influenced by the lifestyle, that sort of California, cruisy, sun-is-shining way of life. You know when people move to say Iceland and write an album, you can hear it. Or a band from California, you can hear that it sounds like that place. I find that really fascinating.

“I started playing different kinds of chords and tried to experiment with my vocals in terms of falsetto or trying to make things sound really cruisy. The instruments we play on the EP, we don't usually play. I haven't played in a band before, Gaz never played bass before and Ste doesn't usually play drums. It's just a weird thing that's happened so what it means is that it's very free. I love the way Ste plays drums because it's so raw and rough. It feels like he's not looking at the music and writing it like a drummer. He's just feeling it and doing it.

“In the majority of the songs on the EP, I used reverb but on the others I used distortion so it’s been really interesting to discover that side of music. Again, most 14 year olds discover that with their first guitar, but I never had an electronic guitar until a year ago and now I've bought an amp and am getting into pedals and everyone keeps saying I'm so far behind.”

All photography provided by Anita McAndrew.

Liza Flume will play support to Elaine May at The Workman’s Club on May 4^th and launches Spain at The Montague Arms in London on May 14^th.