Elizabeth Wong unveils the story behind her latest EP, ‘Back to California’
A 20-year-old singer-songwriter known for her honest lyricism and gut-wrenching indie-pop tunes, Elizabeth Wong can best be described as “if Hannah Montana and Phoebe Bridgers had a child.”
On May 31st of this year, Elizabeth released her third EP, Back to California, a 9-track exploration of homesickness, nostalgia and navigating change as a young adult with big dreams.
VoiceNoted had the chance to talk with Elizabeth about her latest EP, breaking down her journey through music and the catalysts that keep her songwriting.
When did you decide that you wanted to be a singer-songwriter?
“I started making music when I was 15 so I’ve been doing it for five years now. I grew up loving music so much and I always loved the idea of songwriting but never really started until I was 14, which is when I became obsessed and have been making music non-stop since then.
I grew up super musical - in piano and singing lessons - and I started out in the theatre side but I wasn’t very good at it, so wanted to find another outlet of music. My dad actually showed me Taylor Swift and that’s how I got into songwriting! He introduced the idea to me and that’s what got me interested in songwriting: listening to Taylor.”
Talk us through your songwriting process: do you use a notebook or a notes app and do lyrics come first for you?
“I write everything on my notes app! It depends but I usually start with the chords first and pick up my piano or guitar and play through some chords then come up with the melody. Lyrics usually come after the melody for me, but it depends from song to song. The funny thing is, I’ll usually write half songs with the verse, pre, and chorus, then I’ll leave and come back to finish it only when I want to record it. That’s usually how my writing works, but I recently wrote a song in one sitting and I feel like the songs that flow more naturally usually end up being my favourites.”
What are some of your favourite lyrics from the EP?
“I feel like ‘this city built my bridges and now I cross them back in tears’ from San Francisco is very representative of how I felt moving away from the city. Also, the entire song, Back to California is super personal to me and was one that I’d wanted to write for a long time but I didn’t know how to, so I really love all the lyrics together in that song.”
From San Francisco to Back To California, talk us through the overarching narrative of the EP and what inspired each song!
“The whole EP is about me moving away from California, which might not seem like a big deal but I spent most of my life there and moving away from a place like that where I had so many fond memories and friendships was a super hard thing for me to do.”
“That’s what the EP’s centred around, and with the first track, San Francisco, I wanted to encapsulate the feeling of leaving - of literally stepping on the plane and looking back, knowing that you wouldn’t be home any time soon or even call that place your home anymore. It starts the EP on a sad note because it did feel sad leaving, and with the piano on the song, I wanted the music to really feel what it was like to leave - and not just have the lyrics tell you that.”
“The second track, how do I leave now? was the first track I wrote for the entire EP. I actually wrote it the day I found out that I was going to leave, because it was super sudden and my parents had always kind of mentioned it, so I knew that it was a possibility because my parents were just in California for work, but I had spent so much of my life there that I didn’t want to face the reality.
I wrote how do I leave now? when I was so upset that for four days straight I just wouldn’t leave my room and I didn’t know what to do because I had to change so many plans and figure my whole life out essentially and start over. The song came about when I was just in that moment, and it’s one of my favourites that I’ve ever written.”
“The third song, Girl On Tv! is kind of a random one honestly because it doesn’t really have to do with moving away, but I was listening to a lot of early 2000s Hannah Montana music at the time and wanted to make a fun song with a cool, rocky kind of production. It’s a standalone song, and being a small artist, having listeners and supporters empowers you in a way so that’s what the song’s about! It’s a really fun one, and definitely a fan-favourite which is great.”
“I had the idea for Should’ve Been Me way back in high school, and had the lyrics in my notes but hadn’t gone back to them. So, I did and wrote the entire thing in the middle of the night. This song also doesn’t have to do with moving away but I felt like it was sonically fitting. The thing about moving away is that so much of it is you sitting and thinking back on past situations and memories, so that’s how a lot of the songs came up.
Specifically, Should’ve Been Me was about a high school crush and me realising that I won’t be able to see him anymore. You know how you bump into people from school when you’ve lived in one place for a long time? It’s a weird feeling, so I wrote the song whilst reflecting and looking back on it, knowing that I’d be moving away.”
“So, want me now came about when my producer, George Fitzgibbon (@gtfitzy) sent me a really cool production. It’s a fun, upbeat song about being delusional and wanting someone to like you back even when that obviously wouldn’t happen. It was super fun to make, and there’s not much else to say about it because it’s very literal - if you listen to it, you’ll get it!”
“No Roses Tonight came about because I’d been trying to write about a feeling for a long time but I’d never really figured out how to until I wrote this song. It’s about watching my friends fall in love and get into beautiful relationships and just feeling left out. It’s kind of a sad one, but it’s about that feeling of wishing that you were them and that you had someone. It’s also about being delusional and thinking that having someone in your life would fix your problems, even when you know it wouldn’t. This one’s also one of my favourites from the EP and I loved making it! I especially love the guitar and think it’s super pretty - my sad songs are definitely better and more real to me especially.”
“A really fun one, she’s losing control! is my favourite production that my producer George has ever made. It’s a song about losing control, and I wrote it when I was feeling very lost about moving to a new place. I wrote this when I’d just settled down and I was so confused because I didn’t have any friends and didn’t know what I was doing. I’d literally spend my days just going insane and wondering and wishing that I could go back, so it’s kind of a chaotic, angsty song.
Someone actually DMed me and said that they’d cut their hair impulsively because of this song, so that honestly describes the effects and vibes of the track. It’s also a fan-favourite and people message me about it all the time!”
“The second to last song is Movie Star, which is actually about my listeners. You can interpret it in different ways because some people can listen and relate it to a partner or a friend or someone who just makes them feel special. I like that about this song - that it’s open to interpretation - because not everybody is an artist and can relate to it from that lens.
I just wanted to write a song for my listeners because I’m only a small artist and it’s super cool that people care and this last year I’ve gotten this first wave of fans who really care about my music, which has made me feel super motivated, so I wanted to write a song for them!
“The last song is the title track, Back to California. This one’s about my career and having big dreams, and about how it feels leaving a place where you thought you’d be able to pursue them. I grew up for a couple of years in Singapore but I always wanted to move to California and when I finally did, I got to do all these cool things like making music in LA like I’d really wanted to and express myself in ways I’d always wanted to but couldn’t back home.
It’s a super honest track about having big aspirations and wanting to please your child self and also not let your family down. It’s super honest and I feel like if you’re an artist, you can probably relate to this and what it feels like to be in the industry and have this dream.”
We took a look through your discography and noticed that since your debut single, Ghost of Her, came out in 2019, your music has changed quite a lot. The early stripped-back songs transformed into EPs with heavier production, then you released a mixture of pop and acoustic tracks, but your EP, Dancing Alone, was where you really honed into that indie-pop sound.
With that journey in mind, what has the experience been like of navigating your sound as an artist and finding the indie-pop vein you’re so firmly in now?
“It’s been a hard journey honestly! I started when I was 15 and the music I was listening to back then is so different from what I listen to now - and that’s what sonically inspires you. I started off listening to a lot of indie work as it was during the time where Billie Eilish was popular and a lot of indie musicians wanted to sound just like her - she was my main inspiration as well as a lot of super pop stuff.”
“In terms of my music, the single, Kid I Used to Be was really a standalone because I really wanted to write about my parents’ divorce so, production-wise, it’s a stripped-back piano track that’s super personal. I actually have a lot of songs from that time zone of 2019-2021 that I just deleted because they were strange. I went through a phase where I listened to a lot of Melanie Martinez and tried to make music that sounded like her but it wasn’t my sound at all and didn’t feel natural.”
“For my first EP, Mystery, I’d been listening to a lot of the music that I listen to now, but I’ve grown a lot as a writer since then, and grown up to have more experiences so that EP - while it felt authentic - wasn’t really autobiographical because I mostly made up stories in my head to write about. Writing that EP really made my fall in love with lyricism and I was listening to a lot of Taylor Swift’s folklore at the time.”
Then, after that was the weird time frame of Close To You and Dancing Alone because I really struggled to find my sound in that year. I had really bad writers block and was thinking about quitting music honestly because I didn’t know where I wanted to head as an artist. Close To You and Dancing Alone were more rock-pop songs because I was listening to Avril Lavigne at the time and wanted to experiment. I love those songs, but what finally made me find my sound was writing the EP, 18.”
“I didn’t even plan on making an EP but staying sober feels kinda weird was a song I wrote randomly on the piano in the middle of my writers block and that’s what broke it. It made me want to do the EP, and it was just a piano ballad but that song was so special and personal. It was the catalyst for that EP and every song I made after that gradually leaned more and more into this acoustic, folk kind of sound.”
Then, no words to say was the last song I wrote for the EP and that just tied everything together. I remember when I made that and thought: ‘yes, this is my sound and what I’ve wanted to make for the longest time.’ To this day, it’s still my number one favourite song in my entire discography.
In the present, I do feel like I have my own sound but there’s so much great music around and every artist takes inspiration from other people, so it’s really cool to have inspiration from other artists, but your own lyrics and stories to tell.”
What has the reception of the EP, Back to California been like since its release?
“What really surprised me was how the title track is the most popular one. I thought people wouldn’t necessarily relate to it because its so personal, but people really love that track and it makes me super happy! People have said really sweet things about the EP and I’m just super grateful and kind of surprised that people would see themselves so heavily in the songs
With a lot of my older music, I wrote songs based off of what I thought people wanted to hear and changing that mindset to writing about what I’m genuinely going through is something that I’m really grateful to have done.”
How do you build community as a smaller artist and engage with your fans?
“I have a small group chat where I talk to people every day who I’d consider my friends. We talk every day, share our favourite songs and interact so much with each other. I also go live a lot and talk to them because I feel like it’s important to be close to your listeners because if I were to talk to an artist I love every day, it’d make me feel special so I think it’s a really good thing.”
Looking forward… are you planning a debut album any time soon or working on some singles to release?
“I’m making so much music right now and I don’t think I’ve ever been as creatively inspired as I am right now. For a couple of weeks after writing Back to California, I didn’t have much motivation for new music, but I wrote some new songs recently that have started this new set of music - though I don’t know if it’ll be an EP or an album just yet.
The new music isn’t a super different sound but what I’m writing about has been more mature because had so many experiences in the past few months that have made me write some very heart-wrenching songs that are real and vulnerable. I’m really motivated to make lots of music now and I’m very excited to release them. I don’t know what the plan is yet for when I’ll release them, but I’m just focused on just making the music right now!”
For a fun last question, what are your current obsessions (music/food/TV shows or movies) and do you have any recommendations for fans?
“I’ve mainly been listening to small artists lately, like Kenny Titus, Lizzy McAlpine, ROLE MODEL and honestly a lot of Sabrina Carpenter’s new album, too! I was just in Thailand and ate a lot of great mangoes over there, so that’s my food obsession right now. I also watched a movie called Before the Sunrise on the plane the other day and it was so good it’s one of my new favourites so if you haven’t watched that, I’d recommend it!”
And on a final note, if you haven’t already listened to Elizabeth Wong’s discography, we’d highly recommend you head to Spotify and follow her on Instagram to stay in-the-know about upcoming releases.
