Interview with Kelly Elizabeth: Montreal singer-songwriter talks about her new EP.

Interviewed and written by Briahna McTigue

With two singles under her belt since 2021, Kelly Elizabeth releases a new phase of her music through long-awaited EP, Half Moon. Detailing feelings of love, longing, and growing up, these songs hold space for stories we all share.

Ok I need to ask… did you plan to have the release of your EP Half Moon align with an actual half moon on October 6?

No I didn’t! I was looking up at the moon a couple weeks ago, and it was a half moon, and I was like ‘hmm’ I forgot the moon actually does that. I’m not a spiritual person at all, but with this EP, it’s been such a long time coming and this is a crazy coincidence! It definitely made it feel a bit fated. And the show for the EP release was on Friday the 13th too, at Casa Del Popolo. It just felt like there was shit going on!

Was Friday the 13th on your side at the release show?

Yes the show was pretty surreal! I was so lucky to have KT Laine and Allysann Mei Foehring play before me, and the room was packed with friends from all these different times in my life. I was also so happy to play with a band I respect so much artistically and who I’m also great friends with. And I couldn’t believe people knew the words to my song “Just Don’t”. I could barely hear myself because the crowd was so loud singing back to me! It was a super special and beautiful way to celebrate a project I’m so unbelievably proud of. 

How long has this project been in the works?

The oldest song on here is from when I was seventeen. That would be “Him”. I wrote “Breathing In, Breathing Out” when I was eighteen. Then “Just Don’t” is from last summer, and “Half Moon” was written in December. So that would be the most recent one, and it’s also my favourite song on the EP. It’s my favourite song I’ve written.

How does it feel to see your writing and feelings change over the years?

I feel a lot of empathy for my younger self because I write journals, so I know exactly what I was feeling at the time of writing these songs. They’re feelings I still experience. Like “Him” for example, that song is just about longing, and it’s still something I feel often. Even with “Half Moon”, it’s the same feeling and theme… Though I think “Half Moon” is more accepting of the situation, because it’s me saying, “well it’s fate that this didn’t work.” Whereas, “Him” is like “ugh this isn’t working, this sucks!” That's the feeling. So all in all it’s probably good that I’ve grown since I was seventeen!

If the EP was a colour what would it be?

A CULT?

A Colour!

OH. Definitely a muted colour like a faded blue. Except for “Just Don’t”. That one sits somewhere else for me because it’s a celebration… so maybe it would be pink. But the other three songs are all about wistfulness and wanting something that doesn’t actually exist. 

Are there other central themes that come up in the EP?

Shadows for sure. They were a visual thing I wanted to play with. And that also comes across in the cover of the EP.  I initially wanted something with shadow puppets on the cover, because so many of the songs are about wanting something that’s not really there. And with shadow puppets, you don’t really want to see the hands, you want to see the shadow that it makes. You want to see what it creates on the wall—that ephemeral thing. So it’s a little heady. And that was the image I had. Even the idea of a half moon, half of it is shrouded in shadow. And I wasn’t thinking about it cognitively when I wrote it, but with a half moon, you can’t see the full thing. So you’re able to project onto it. It’s like when you meet someone new and there’s so much about them you don’t know… you’re able to project all of this stuff onto them. Onto their shadow.

What made you feel ready to release these songs into the world now?

Meeting the producer who worked on my EP. Finding Dorian Bell was that missing piece for me. He’s exploratory with the music and he really wants to play with it. He’s not just trying to get it out there. Dorian’s also coming from a background that’s very different from me. He has made a lot of atmospheric soundscapes, and applying that to singer-songwriter stuff has always interested me! Phoebe Bridgers has a team that does that a lot. It’s textural and experimental but it’s grounded in this pop music, and I think it’s a cool way to approach the genre. You can explore more emotional range because there’s so much attention to the texture of the landscape of music. Dorian is always very detail-oriented with that. And he’s also really empathetic towards what the songs are about. He was a friend to me throughout the whole process, and it really felt like a collaboration. If it hadn’t been for him, I don’t know how long this project would have taken. I trust his intuition a lot. And not to be corny, but my favourite part about the whole process was the friendship I got to build with him. He’s a bestie.

You mentioned Pop music. Is that how you would categorize this project?

  When I write these songs on my guitar, they’re pop, singer-songwriter, or folk songs. So that’s usually what I go with, but the production element of it definitely pulls from all these other influences that I won’t put in my Spotify categorization. 

Do you have any tour plans in the works?

I definitely want to keep playing in Montreal first. I am super down to tour, but it’s expensive. And the main reason I like playing shows here is because my friends use it as an excuse to see each other. It becomes a hang. I think that’s why they keep coming out, because we don’t have that many opportunities to see each other anymore. It becomes a family reunion in a way. That’s why I like playing with people too, because I get attached to them and I want to be their friend. It’s a nice way for all the people in my life to get together.

Connect with Kelly Elizabeth: Instagram