Aging Gracefully

Fresh from signing a global publishing deal with Universal Music, Elizabeth Rose is more than keen to branch out as a artist, eager to continue refining a sound which has quickly made her one of the most progressive young songwriters in Australia.

Having already supported the likes of Chairlift and Chvrches, the 23-year-old Sydneysider is excited about connecting with more overseas artists: “At some point in my career I want to work with Disclosure,” she says. But before that she'll be bringing her dazzling new five-track to life around the country, a release that stands as a natural extension of first single The Good Life, one of the most played tracks on triple j in 2013. “I've had this EP ready since June last year but we held it back, built it up with the single and I'm really glad that we did that,” she smiles. “I'm a very impatient person sometimes, but it's worked out for the better.”

Still sounding completely fresh and now – naturally balancing R&B with intelligent electronica – the self-titled offering from Rose was recorded between Sydney, Byron Bay and Melbourne, where she worked with hip hop beatmaker Styalz Fuego, writing latest single Sensibility. “My manager hooked that up, because my brother [Anthony 'Hook N Sling' Maniscalco] has worked with him and he's also worked with The Aston Shuffle, I'm friends with them as well,” Rose explains. “It was kind of just word of mouth just how it got around; [Fuego] really liked the songs so he was definitely keen to work on them. The structures of some of the songs are quite different to [others]; I wasn't afraid to change it up a bit.”

Rose then co-produced the whole EP with Perth lad Shazam, aka Cam Parkin, in Melbourne, the three individuals enjoying a dynamic that made the long hours easy. “I had so much fun,” she beams. “I was up to like 4am every night with Cam in the studio, and then we'd start at 10am the next day.”

And regarding the obvious step-up from her debut 2012 EP, Crystallise: “I was just writing differently at the start of last year,” Rose explains. “I don't really know what did that, but I guess it was just through using that writing muscle in your brain, just strengthening that by writing more music. I was writing a lot after Crystallise was released, although it [didn't] feel like one day I just started writing differently. It was really gradual so there wasn't just one point where the switch flicked over.” But even though the end results suggest otherwise, she's not a tech geek. “I only know Ableton, really,” she shrugs, “I don't deal with computers in general, I just know Ableton well.”