Perth newcomer Kiara Eve has embraced her love of classic pop songs and catchy choruses, partnering with a Western Australian music icon to write and record her debut album 'Close Up'.
The first batch of material for 'Close Up' began to take shape in early 2020, Kiara writing the demo 'Halcyon Dream' by September of that year.There still wasn't a plan to record an album, rather Kiara was planning to release a number of singles, even an EP to build momentum.
However, once Kiara began working with ARIA Award-winning Kav Temperley (Eskimo Joe) across a number of writing sessions in late 2020 and into 2021 thoughts of an album began to crystallise with a collection of songs that "all just fit together really well".
"'Close Up' is the album I've always wanted to write but never felt like I could," begins Kiara.
"I just felt that to be taken seriously I had to be 'cooler' lyrically or more abstract musically. However in that process I realised I wasn't being myself and really, I'm drawn to great pop songs with catchy choruses and that's what I've always liked to write."
Produced by Temperley, mixed by fellow Eskimo Joe band member Joel Quartermain (Meg Mac, Dulcie, Dan Sultan) and mastered by Simon Struthers (Meg Mac, Bob Evans), scenestr is thrilled to premiere Kiara Eve's 'Close Up' album today. Enjoy.
The uncertainty of the last couple of years also played a role in the birth of 'Close Up'. "With COVID and lockdowns, like everyone else I started to both revaluate my life and also seek solace in something other than what was going on in the world," Kiara says.
"I'm a pretty positive person generally so I seemed to just revert to the things that made me the happiest: nostalgia, music, summer and love. This album was me saying 'life is too short to be anything but myself, this is who I am and this is what makes me happy'."
In terms of creative influences, Kiara reverted to a couple of her "favourites".
"While writing the album I was listening to a lot of Taylor Swift and The 1975 (two of my favourite artists). Kav and I were both pretty obsessed with Taylor's 'Folklore' at the time and Jack Antonoff's production, which we spoke about during most of our sessions.
"Kav also introduced me to Haim's 'Women In Music Part.III', so there's a lot of musical influence from these artists in terms of production."
The creative partnership with Kav also allowed Kiara a certain confidence in the studio.
"I love working with Kav. Usually I bring in a song that I'm part done with and he just takes it to a whole other level. It's really special as a writer when you have an idea in your head and can bring it to someone who not only understands it and exactly what you're trying to do but can take it further than you can alone."
Though there was one moment during the recording that Kiara couldn't get right. "Pretty hilariously, out of all the things during recording, I had the hardest time trying to record the '1,2,3, go!' in 'Hair Down'.
"I just couldn't get the timing right of when to come in. I'd randomly add in another second and jump in a second late and just couldn't stop. It was really funny. I don't know, apparently I just can't count!"
Here, Kiara shares some stories and insights behind each song that features on 'Close Up'.
'Are You Looking At Me?'
This is about unwanted attention. I used to hate going out clubbing because it just seemed that to guys, it was always an open invitation to hit on my friends and I. It seemed implausible that we really just wanted to dance.'Close Up'
Written by Liam Doc, the song is about dragging your feet in a situation-ship. Having no intent to take it further and no urgency to call it off, but deep down hoping you'd be called out about it.It's inspired by confident female artists like Avril Lavigne, Beyoncé, Halsey, Lady Gaga, Megan Thee Stallion. Girls that aren't afraid to say: 'Yeah, I know I look good in this dress – even better out of it.' Or in this case: 'I like it when you're quiet – even more when you're under me.'
'Hair Down'
This was the first song I've written with music first. I'm a huge fan of OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder (who is an amazing songwriter and producer for other artists as well) and I completed an online course during lockdown where he took you through his songwriting process. He suggested working on a vibe first with music and then working back from there.'Hair Down' was initially a beachy, chilled-out acoustic but with nearly the same lyrics. When I wrote it, I looked at it more like letting my hair down in a carefree, relaxed way but when I took it to Kav, we created a party anthem out of it which suits the song so much better.
'Polite'
'Polite' is about my tendency to hold back and my frustration with that part of myself. Out of all the songs on the album, this one holds a special place to me, it's probably the most honest I've been lyrically.'Glow In The Dark'
I really liked the line 'glow in the dark' and wanted to use it. When I write I tend to find a word or phrase first and then build a song around it; this is was what happened here.I brought a chorus and a couple of verse ideas to Kav and we created this love story around it. It was a really fun writing session and inspired by Taylor's 'Folklore' of course.
'Restless'
'Restless' is about those initial stages of falling in love. Where you're thinking about them all day, romanticising everything and essentially just high on love and life. I came up with the chorus for this one first and the rest was built around it. It was one of the first demos finished and is one of my favourite songs on the album; it's such a fun one and makes me instantly happy.'Halcyon Dream'
Like with 'Glow In The Dark', I've always wanted to use the word 'halcyon' in a song and could never really find something that would fit, until I re-watched the film 'Call Me By Your Name'.With the track, I wanted to capture that '80s, summer and nostalgic type of vibe while also encapsulating the uplifting feeling of being in love and 'Halcyon' just summarised it all. This was the first song written for the album.
'Everything & Nothing'
With this song I set Kav and I the hard task of 'defining love'. For me love is everything and nothing, it's all encompassing but at the same time it's made of the smallest, mundane things. I like to say love feels like music to me, it has this huge, tangible feeling but it's intangible and that's what we tried to capture here.I'm really proud of this song. To me this is where real love evolves to, where 'Restless' is the early stages.
Kiara Eve launches 'Close Up' at Four5Nine @ Rosemount Hotel (Perth) 11 November.
