Photos by Kaya Kelley
Eliza Mclamb, former GW student, came back to the District to perform at DC9 for the first time. She recently released her second EP, Salt Circle, in which she shares extremely personable songs, speaking of growing up, healing and different types of love.
The new EP sounds incredibly mature with elegant but smart lyrics that drive Eliza’s guitar and the percussion. Now in LA, where she co-hosts the podcast Binchtopia, she calls music her side gig, but still something she couldn’t not do.
After seeing her live it feels crazy to think that music isn’t her day job–Eliza commands the stage and knows it. It was easy to fall in a trance and effortlessly follow her through the set.
She’s releasing her debut album later this year, an effort that will be replete with heavy emotional stories on top of a funkier, fuller sound. Eliza’s delivery is reminiscent of Kate Bollinger’s syncopation and her writing of Leith Ross’s honesty, meshed with Alice Phoebe Lou-esque playfulness. There’s also an angry undercurrent and her need to scream is feral and joyous and real.
McLamb spoke with me, a noticeable smoker rasp in her voice, ahead of her three-show tour in March. She asked me what dorm I was in and we talked about writing songs on her bedroom floor, GW a cappella and her love for Alex G.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
CC: How do you think moving from GW to home (during the pandemic) to LA influenced your songwriting?
EM: I wrote a lot when I was traveling because my journey to LA was pretty long. I was farming and camping in between, so I just had a lot of time. I think it was just a period where everything kind of fell apart which worked out for me in a way because at GW I was a poli sci major and thinking I was going to go into law or something, which was something that I thought I should do. And so I feel like that gap and COVID gave me an opportunity to explore what I would do if there were no other constraints, and then I figured out what I would do.
What’s the songwriting ideal for you?
I’ve written everything so far alone. I would love to co-write at some point but I’m so protective of my stuff. I don’t think I’m quite there yet. Usually, it’s not when I want to write a song. It’s when the song wants me to write it. Like, I write a lot in my car, driving somewhere. Or waking up at two in the morning being like, fuck, let me drag myself. And strangely, I’ve written almost every song on the floor, which I don’t really know why that happens to me, but that’s just where I write everything anyone’s ever heard from me.
That’s such an interesting perspective. I was talking to a friend the other day and he was saying he worked on one of his songs specifically at golden hour. Everyday at golden hour he would work on it, and it kinda became a “looking out the window at the sunset” song for him.
At this point she stopped me and asked me what dorm I was in, telling me that she lived in Thurston and JBKO during her time here. She was also E-Merged for mold poisoning her freshman year, #onlyatGW.
Were you part of the music community here on campus when you were here?
No, that’s definitely one of my biggest regrets, that I wasn’t involved in any of that. And I know that GW had, it seems now it’s especially pretty big and prominent, but it’s always been there. There’s always been people doing really cool stuff with radio and with the SMC. And I never got involved in that. I think I was pretty one track mind on academics like I did my a capella group for fun, but nobody ever heard the songs I wrote until I left school. And so I didn’t really consider that a good enough or big enough part of my life to justify being involved in any of that and definitely I really regret but I do love the a capella community. I think it’s like the nerdiest thing ever in the best way, I’m grateful for my time there.
We talked about a mutual friend who does a capella here. There is truly no more than a third degree of separation at this school.
So let’s talk about the EP you put out a few months ago. I really love the cover art of Salt Circle, can you walk me through the elements on it?
That album art was done by my friend Jamie [Williams]…she’s brilliant and that kind of came to me because I was conflicted on what to call the EP. And at the time, I had a few songs that I thought might go on it and then I wrote “Salt Circle” and I was like, “Oh, it has to be this one.” And like, that whole song is about my friendship with my friend Kate. And about being deeply feeling people and she was very involved in the Wiccan community because she’s from [around] Salem. And so she taught me about what a salt circle is, which is basically a protective circle for you to do your own ritual. It’s not specific to Wiccan culture, there’s many variations of what’s called a magic circle among various cultures, but I think they all have in common that sort of protective element. And it was just a collection of songs that I was writing when I was learning how to protect myself emotionally and what I wanted to maintain within myself. And so the art contains a lot of things that I associate with myself or that I would have to represent me or my emotional world. I have my cats there, obviously, who I would die without, and I have this amethyst block that my friend gave me when I was traveling in Kansas that I’ve always kept with me, I have my old stuffed animal rabbit in there. So it’s just a really nice representation of all of that and then that core blue, kind of watercolor design running through the whole thing to me really represented that true fluidity of emotion that felt really core to me.”
Oh, I love that. I saw you put that on a t-shirt and it’s so sick. And so you’re talking about salt circles and I’ve briefly listened to your podcast and you guys talk about moon signs and crystals and what not. Do you consider yourself a superstitious person?
I think superstitious is…what do you mean superstitious, do you mean like “woowoo” or…
Oh no, I don’t mean anything in a bad connotative way at all. I’m sorry if it seemed that way.
Just clarifying because to me superstitious means I don’t like black cats or something. But I would say definitely. I mean, being in LA it’s like the easiest place to fall. But actually this is a big reason why my friend Kate, fellow GW alumni–I’m not an alumni I guess because I dropped out–but my experience with religion until I met her was that I grew up in North Carolina, and my grandparents were Southern Baptists. So it was an understanding of religion. That to me meant a lot of like, “Don’t do this. These are the rules. You’re a bad person or you’re a good person,” and that never really resonated with me. I definitely went through an angsty atheist phase. And then I met Kate and she was like, “oh, yeah, I study religion.” And then I was like, “hmm, I don’t think we’re gonna get along” because I was very close-minded about everything that religion could be. And she just had such a beautiful perspective on religion in general, or spiritual views. She’s like, “I just think it’s the most fascinating thing in the world to study how humans throughout time have thought about their own existence and about like a higher being.” And then I was like, “wow,” and then I did psychedelics. And I was like, “God is real.” So it’s a combination of that. But I would say I’m a deeply spiritual person. And hopefully imbue most of the things that I do artistically in this work with that sensibility.
No, I think that’s great. Something I’ve been thinking about lately is how spirituality plays into performance and live music. Like with some music there’s something that makes you feel that higher power in a sense.
It’s so connecting and it’s also like, not to use this word, but it is literally vibrations, like we all have this like frequency that sort of runs through us at all times. Also we’ve been doing music forever, you know. Especially being out here in LA most of my friends are working on movies and stuff, which I also think is an amazing art form that I really appreciate. But nothing has been around as long as music. Like, we’ve always been doing this. It’s always been something that you don’t need any fancy equipment to do, that is done in community. And I think for that reason, people just feel very viscerally affected by music because it’s just always there, every culture has created music throughout history. And I think it’s a deeply human thing that we kind of all recognize.
Totally. Going off of that, do you have a proudest moment on the EP, sonically?
On “Older,” the last track, there’s this kind of crazy outro section, which I remember when I was in the studio and my producer Sarah [Tudzin], who I worked very closely with and is also a dear friend and love very much. She goes to my drummer, “I want you to do something like this.” And I’m like, “I brought you a soft acoustic track, like, what are you doing?” And he’s making all these sounds, literally like pots and pans. I’m like, “Saaarahhh what are you doing!?” And she’s like, “trust me, trust me. Like I have this idea. Obviously, if you don’t like it, it’s totally your call, but like I have an idea.” I’m like, Okay. And then I was like, you know what, this is actually really fucking sick. And that whole song is about experiencing almost a collapse of time and memory, just everything running into itself, and being very nostalgic and reflecting. And then I was like, “You know what, let’s just make this even more chaotic,” let me add in a bunch of voice memos and audios from videos I had on my phone. It’s so fun to play live obviously. But it was the perfect ending to the whole EP and it was really branching out for me. It’s almost like, honestly, it’s an Easter egg for my newer music that’s to come. It seemed a little out of place, but it’s like a bridge to the next thing, which is extremely cool.
That’s a great answer, there’s so many things I wanna pick out of that. Well, for one, do you have a proudest moment lyrically? Because you mentioned “Older” and I wrote down a few lyrics that really resonated with me: “I’ve got some pretty tattoos, I get a lot of good news / And it all belongs to you too.” And also the line about understanding time in a non-linear way and, I don’t know, time is a weird concept. Do you have any favorite lyrics from the project?
I’m proud of a lot of that work. I mean, I think conceptually, I have my pride in it because I didn’t think I would. It felt really good to put something together that felt cohesive…so much of that project is about nostalgia and about time and feeling existentially disturbed by being a mortal human. So I was happy to see that people got that out of it. I mean, one line that I wrote that actually, legitimately helped me reframe things in my mind is in “Doing Fine.” I wrote: “the easiest way to suffer is to be the exception.” Because I was realizing what was just compounding my sadness in the fact that I was being like, “I’m the only one who’s ever been this sad like, nobody gets me, I’m uniquely suffering.” And then that’s what my spirituality is all about, counteracting, of being like, no, this feeling links you to all these other human experiences and is part of what brings you into a community.
And how do you think these songs will translate into the live shows?
They’re so fun. There’s something so special [about] a live performance because it’s not static. What really influenced the way I perform is when I saw a Big Thief and I remember looking at them being like “wow, like their songs sound so different live than they are on the record,” because you expect things that sound exactly like they do on the record and part of me was a little miffed. And then I saw Adrienne Lenker just posted on her instagram or something, [and] she was like, “the live performance is like living and breathing, you just signed up to see what we’re going to do with it. If you want to listen to every note be pitch perfect, listen to the record.” And I don’t think that my live versions stray far at all from the recorded versions, but there is just a certain energy that makes me so excited because I’m never going to perform the song this way ever again. And I just have really enjoyed it much more than the whole idea that kind of stressed me out at first. But being able to have a band is awesome, like, feeling really supported. Being able to collaborate is great. And just yeah, being able to create that sort of living performance every night is super fun.
That’s so cool. I definitely feel that when I see a concert. Especially seeing artists multiple times and seeing how they grow and how they perform and add on to their songs and build on them. Well, you’re playing DC9, so exciting. Have you played there before?
No, I never played D.C. before.
Oh my god, that is extra exciting.
Unless you count A Ca-Palooza!
Here we went on a tangent about another mutual friend, someone who she knew from “some psych class,” and the person who introduced me to Eliza’s music. Shoutout Tim.
So right before this call I was reading your substack and yesterday I was listening to Binchtopia. And I think it’s so awesome how open you talk about emotionally hard things. It’s really cool to hear and read someone being so vulnerable online and to a platform that’s bigger than your journal. So I wanted to ask you, you seem very comfortable with putting these feelings in song and essay form–what does make you uncomfortable, if anything?
I think being misunderstood is my biggest fear. And so perhaps my confessional style of going about my internet presence and my art is trying to save me from that. And I also think, for a long time, it was also needing somebody. So I think that a lot of what I do, [I have] this attitude of being self-sustaining. People tweet my lyrics and they’re like, “healing girls summer,” as if I’m the epitome of the healed girl, and I’m certainly not. But I think every artist has a complex about being misunderstood, which is why they make art and they’re constantly trying to perfect the way in which they understand themselves and the way in which other people understand.
That reminds me of this song “Miss Understood” by Little Simz. Which, to pivot a little bit…on my radio show I pick songs that I would share over coffee to someone, and I love asking people what songs they would pick for that situation. So…what songs would you recommend to someone over a cup of coffee?
I’ve been really liking the song “Candle” by Buck Meek. He’s a member of Big Thief and he’s so sweet. Another one, “Cookout” by Dreamer Isioma, that one is just really fun. I think that’s one that I always put on if I’m wanting to just get my body moving. And then I think probably “Miracles” by Alex G because that song is just so sweet to me. And I love seeing his turn from kind of outlaw skater kid saying whatever random shit to being like, “we’re gonna have a baby and I love you.” I think many of my friends are that kind of dichotomy. You know, half the time they’re doing ketamine and giving themselves tattoos, and the other half being I would love a baby at a house one day.
That’s awesome, I’ve also been in a huge Alex G mood right now.
Oh my god, ridiculous. He was my top artist of last year. Every interview when somebody is like, “who’s your inspiration?” I’m like, Alex G. Alex G.
To go back to your debut album you mentioned a little bit before, you’re saying it’s gonna be more rocky. Is that a good word? Similar to the end of “Older”? What can we expect from your new music?
I’m still figuring it out for sure. But I think definitely there’ll be some tracks that sonically sound very different than other stuff that I’ve done. That includes some rock stuff, but also some stuff that’s even more stripped back and I have a lot of exciting people working on it that I’m really looking forward to. Also Salt Circle is a relatively light collection of songs. You know, there’s nothing that’s too, too deep or dark in there and such will not be the case. I’m constantly trying to figure out how much I should disclose or in what manner or are people really going to want to listen to stuff that’s this kind of intense, not necessarily sonically but just emotionally. But I’ve had an idea of what my debut album would look like since I was five years old. So there’s a lot of me to please in this situation. I think hopefully it’ll be surprising and interesting and definitely my most raw and vulnerable work ever, in any capacity like writing or podcasting or anything. So definitely scary, but also exciting.
Very exciting for sure, I’m very much looking forward to that. So you said you had the idea for this album since you were five years old and now you’re 22…and you came to school for political science…How did that vision not get lost?
Yeah, I mean, it was just always something I loved and something that I always did, therapeutically, really for myself, is what kept that going. The fact that I never intended on making a career out of it and still, the podcast is basically my day job. Like anybody you talk to in music, there’s no fucking money in it unless you’re like huge or you just tour all the time, neither of which I really want for me. And then I remember my counselor telling me over and over again, he’s like, “You have to stop taking creative writing classes. You have to get your political science credits done. Like at this rate, you’re going to be a creative writing major.” I definitely think being able to take classes like that at GW and just be around people who were interested in art, but more fundamentally, it was just that there was no way I wasn’t gonna keep doing music. It really has been the way that I work through my emotions, and figure out the puzzles in my own mind. It’s one of the most valuable processes I have in my life and you’d have to pry it from my hands at this point.
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