ELIZA
'My only ambition is to connect with creativity and honour it. When I feel the machine leaning in on me I try to remember that.'
March 13, 2026
North London’s ELIZA embodies the kind of authentic direction as an artist that most of us listening could only strive to achieve in our personal lives. Her music lives organically at the intersection of soft-edged, acoustically derived R&B and deep-diving, purpose-driven thematic discourse often in the orbit of myriad socio-environmental hurdles facing the world today.
So effortless is the bridge between the texture and the message that her music itself can feel healing and heavy all at once. So seamless is the connection between the different corners of her creativity that her position as a cornerstone of the modern UK-centric Soul renaissance feels rooted assuredly in the genre’s namesake. Through nearly a decade of releases and all the personal changes that she’s undergone in that timeframe, ELIZA is freshly on the heels of her latest album, the darkening green, so we caught up with her on her path to its release, how her sound continues to evolve, and how ambition, motherhood, and vulnerability keep her sound and herself grounded.
Ringleader: It’s been four years since your last full-length project. In what ways did you need – and in what ways did you use – that space before starting on The Darkening Green?
ELIZA: Well the story goes that the first two years I spent writing and recording the crux of it, half of that time pregnant with my son. It was finished just before he was born. Then he joined us and I spent the first 3 months or so deep in new motherhood and after that, popped to the studio occasionally to tweak the mix or add a vocal here or there and then it was done and I slowly worked on getting artwork together and finding a distribution partner taking my time as motherhood made me go at a beautifully slow pace.
Ringleader: Stretching back towards some of your earlier work, what about The Darkening Green is able to draw a line towards when you first really established your signature sound with 2018’s A Real Romantic?
ELIZA: The main thing I can think of is, I’m still me! Hopefully an evolving version of me but I’m sure there are elements that appear in that first record that are still a part of me now. I delved into my own sensuality for that record and that remains a given for this one too.
Ringleader: And what about 2022’s A Sky Without Stars feels informative to what you’ve created with The Darkening Green?
ELIZA: The titles. I’m always trying to use an album title as an opportunity to point to something I feel is important and could do with attention. And of course this is reflected in the themes of the music and where my head is at when observing the world and having an optimistic vision of what we could be.
Ringleader: This album feels less like a reinvention of yourself musically or the discourse you explore thematically. Rather, it feels more like a deepening of those spaces you’ve already established with your prior work. Did you approach this project with clarity as to what exactly you were trying to create, or did that reveal itself in the process of making?
ELIZA: Sadly the topics I’m exploring are in even more need of love and connection. So there is a need to go deeper and keep fighting the fight. I don’t always have a specific intention when writing, I just look around and inside and write about what is coming up. So if the themes seem similar then there is certainly more to resolve there.
Ringleader: Softness is often mistaken for weakness. Do you think vulnerability with your craft becomes easier or more intentional as you mature as an artist?
EILIZA: Vulnerability is not easy for me personally. But it’s so important to achieve. So I work hard at that. The more I dig and reveal the better, not only for a song but for myself. It helps me understand myself much better.
Ringleader: A lot has changed in your life personally, too. In what ways have those changes lent themselves to your creativity?
ELIZA: Having a child hasn’t changed my direction, it’s just reinforced it and my feelings have been magnified. I feel joy, sadness, worry, wonder, anger, and all the emotions in an even more intense way. I see any injustice and think of the mother of the person suffering. I see the face of my baby on every face.
Ringleader: You confront burnout and modern hustle culture in subtle but powerful ways. How do you personally navigate ambition without sacrificing your peace?
ELIZA: My only ambition is to connect with creativity and honour it. When I feel the machine leaning in on me I try to remember that.
Ringleader: You tackle a lot more than that. The album feels grounded in so many of the existential thoughts that scratch at all our minds everyday. Is it hard to focus your creative thoughts with so many things going on in the world and so much constant and immediate access to it all? Or do you think creating music aids in the untanglement of your own thoughts and anxieties?
ELIZA: Maybe both. Seeing so much of the madness in the world inspires me to write about it. But seeing too much of it can also create a feeling of overwhelm and powerlessness. Sometimes I try not engage with any of it at all. A difficult tightrope to balance on, staying informed and staying healthy. My song “Because We Can” really goes in on this subject specifically.
'Seeing so much of the madness in the world inspires me to write about it. But seeing too much of it can also create a feeling of overwhelm and powerlessness.'
Ringleader: What do you hope The Darkening Green provides musically at a moment when the gentler edges of the music landscape are rarer to come by?
ELIZA: I hope it provides whatever it is that you need. Perhaps a different thing on every listen.
Ringleader: What do you want listeners to personally take away from The Darkening Green?
ELIZA: Power!
Ringleader: Is there an ELIZA tour in the works? Anything else you care to share?
ELIZA: I’m sure we will hit the road at some point. Possibly 2027. I have so much I want to share….and I will continue to do so, I’ll keep you posted. Thank you for your questions.
