Zoe Graham has released her new EP ‘Gradual Move’.
Out now, the EP marks formative experiences in her life to-date dealing with how much of our histories we can hold on to without succumbing to nostalgia entirely.
Speaking of the EP, Zoe said: “Life changes, blame / guilt, honesty / truth and eventually acceptance and reassurance. Each track marks one of these emotions and tells a story of how changes in my life have affected me, and how I have now accepted them as part of the overall story.”
To celebrate her EP release, Zoe shared with us 5 tracks that influenced ‘Gradual Move‘.
Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek | Listen via Spotify
Imogen Heap is the kind of artist that you really start to appreciate when you really listen. This song is a bit of an obvious choice but the vocoder effect was the main driver behind ‘Sleep Talking’. The melody in the vocals is stunning. This song really takes you on a journey through the use of melody but particularly harmonisation. The beautiful thing about a vocoder is that it works from the reference point of your voice rather than you voice working with it. Which means you can create some gorgeous dissonance that you might have not used otherwise. It’s a brilliant writing tool! Another Imogen Heap song I would recommend is ‘Xixi She Knows’ the production on that is MAD! The only criticism I have of Heap is her ‘windows paint’ style artwork… who signed off on that!?
Suzanne Vega – Luka | Listen via Spotify
This is an absolute classic and probably one of my favourite songs of all time! It took me a while to realise that the lyrics were all about domestic abuse. Which, once you really listen gives you a whole new perspective on the song and makes you appreciate it a lot more. Especially for that time, a woman writing about a topic like that would have been quite a big deal! A stunning song! The 12 string guitar in this is so wholesome and nostalgic. Everything about the production makes me feel like I’m back in 1987 sipping a coffee and thinking about my asshole of a husband!
HAIM – Want You Back | Listen via Spotify
This was the main reference track for ‘Know By Now’. This is the kind of song you want to drive fast with the top off (or your top off for that matter). I’ve been a bit fan of HAIM since they released their first album and they have served as a great songwriting lesson for me too. Especially percussion/rhythm wise, I’ve always been big into my rhythm and these girls just nail it in every track! We really tried to replicate that ‘American Dream’ feeling you get when listening to a HAIM track. Driving, rhythmic guitars, ethereal synths and of course a big lovely long snare!
Christine and the Queens – Night 52 | Listen via Spotify
The vocal melody in this song feels very nostalgic for me. It reminds me of something I’ve heard before while also being completely new. In fact, the French original version ’Nuit 17 à 52’ might even be better. Again, I love a vocal melody that takes too somewhere, usually, a big interval gets me. Probably why I’m such a fan of Caroline Polachek too, her melodies are sickeningly good.
Aurora – The River | Listen via Spotify
This is a song I referred to frequently during the production process. Perfect pop, beautifully produced! The song itself is a gorgeous tale of hurt and acceptance, which is what a lot of my EP is about. So a lot of inspiration from the offset. A side-chained arp bass sound seems to be big at the moment and I wanted to have a song with that in it. In fact, we did record a song that was very much on this vein but never released it. Either way, this song is a big inspiration to the squeaky clean, but still interesting pop production we were going for.
You can stream Zoe Graham’s new EP ‘Gradual Move’ below: