Eluera: "I Finally Have a Clear Image of What I Want to Put Out"

Eluera’s new single ‘Madeleine’ is rooted in a period of personal chaos for the Central Coast songwriter and musician. Eluera’s professional fortunes have gone from strength to strength over the past half decade. The artist’s 2019 single, ‘Good When We Fight’, has notched more than a million streams. But behind the scenes, Eluera has been engulfed in instability and emotional unrest.

Her songwriting panache has suffered no such drawbacks, however, and ‘Madeleine’ is the artist’s smartest pop confection to date. Music Feeds caught up with Eluera to chat about the new single, her creative drive, and what the future holds.

Eluera – ‘Madeline’

Music Feeds: Who were some of the artists that first got you excited about writing songs?

Eluera: When I first started writing I was listening to a lot of Florence and the Machine and Daughter. Just lots of sad girl songs really.

MF: Growing up on the Central Coast, did you find a community of like-minded creative people?

Eluera: I went to a great music school where I had a few mentors who really encouraged me to get into writing and performing, who I am so grateful for. There were a lot of young people my age doing the same thing there, busking around the town, so it was a pretty supportive crowd to be around.

MF: What sort of things generally inspire you to write music—is it the work of other artists? Navigating your emotions? World events?

Eluera: I really just write to get my feelings out, ‘cause I have a lot of them [laughs]. I find it hard to use my words and speak what I’m feeling, so it’s nice to have an outlet like writing music. I always find I write the best songs when I am writing from an honest place about what I’m going through in the moment.

MF: Tell us about the origins of ‘Madeleine’ – did you have anything specific in mind for this song, in terms of sound and production?

Eluera: We actually wrote it completely on guitar and were unsure where the production was going to go. I was loving bass-forward tracks at the time, so we tried that and also blended it with some Western-ish guitar to bring back the feel of how we originally wrote it.

Then, in the bridge, I just wanted it to feel completely like the heartbreak chaos I was feeling at the time, which is now my favourite part.

MF: ‘Madeleine’ is about feeling insecure in a relationship and projecting things onto someone from a place of fear rather than fact. It’s a big thing to realise, that you were doing this. Did writing ‘Madeleine’ help you get a better understanding of why you felt this way?

Eluera: I definitely still really felt that way for a long time after writing the track as I was still in the situation. It wasn’t until after my relationship had ended that I had come to terms with the fact that it was a mix of my insecurities and an unhealthy relationship creating all this chaos that I was projecting onto other people, which left me feeling really guilty about it. But sometimes you can’t see clearly until you’re out.

MF: You released ‘Petty’ in April 2021. What sort of growth have you undergone as an artist since then? Do you think you’re entering a new phase of your artistic journey with ‘Madeleine’?

Eluera: I definitely feel like I’m entering a new era as I’ve been working on so much music the last year and have really been enjoying just writing on my guitar in my room and going where the songs take me. I’ve been trying to let the songs come naturally and not be too critical on what I want the sound to be like, which I feel like has been helping me make my most authentic music yet.

I feel like I finally have a clear image of what I want to put out into the world and I’m very very excited about all the new music I’ve been making.

MF: What’s next for Eluera? An album, EP?

Eluera: I have a few more singles coming out this year and a few shows, but I am also working on an EP at the moment as a little time capsule of the mess this year has been for me, which is a nice silver lining.