If you haven’t already immersed yourself in Treading Water, the new single from Eli Dan, stop what you’re doing and go listen to it now. The track is a stunning slice of pop magic, and we’ve had it spinning on repeat ever since we first laid ears on it.
So fresh off the track’s release, we caught up with vocalist Elisha Apurado to chat all about it, musical influences, and what the future holds.
With an amazing new single hot off the press, we caught up with Melbourne-based outfit Eli Dan’s Elisha Apurado to chat all about it.
HAPPY: Hey, how’s it going? What are you up to at the moment?
ELISHA: Hey! Going good, just been rehearsing for our upcoming show on Feb 8. There’s going to be a few different ones in there so just going through the refinement process with the band, trying to get the sound right etc.
HAPPY: We’ve been loving Treading Water! How does it feel having the track out there in the world?
ELISHA: Thank you so much! Personally, it’s been such a relief. There was such a process behind the scenes before getting to this point so we’re just super stoked to have it out there and to be able to share what we’ve been working so tirelessly on these past couple of months.
HAPPY: Could you tell us a bit about the song?
ELISHA: Treading Water actually just started out of an idea. One day, Danny and I got together and he just said, I really like the line ‘Treading Water’. We were at the end of the session that day so we both went away and when I was driving home the melody for ‘you can’t keep your head up, it’s getting harder, you’re just treading water’ just popped in my head. The next session, we got together and we were just talking about the difficulties around breaking into the industry and this kind of sparked our inspiration behind the lyrics of the song. In essence, it’s an honest song. We talk about feeling defeated, and how sometimes it’s actually ok and completely normal to feel that way, but not to stay in that place.
HAPPY: Even though you’re still in the early stages of this project, it feels like you’ve got a really strong musical direction. How long had you been collaborating before releasing this track?
ELISHA: Musically, and production-wise, it took a while to get to this point, even now, after the single has been released, I’m still refining and researching about that sound that we want to have. Lyrically, Danny and I have been working together for more than 5 years now. It all started on Danny’s solo project and since then we’d just been writing songs in hopes that other artists would pick them up. When that didn’t happen, we just realized that we needed to take things into our own hands and late last year we decided to put my voice on them and that’s how Treading Water came about.
HAPPY: How long does it generally take for an Eli Dan song to come together? Because it sounds so flawless…
ELISHA: Sometimes it just flows and comes out seamlessly and at other times it doesn’t. Through the years, I’ve learnt that a good song just comes when it’s ready. If it’s not the right time, it won’t come out like it’s supposed to, so in these cases, we just have to be patient and wait for the right melody and the right line. I know I do Danny’s head in sometimes because if I don’t like a line, I’m always saying hmmm, it could be better. I just always feel that you have such a limited amount of words to say what you need to say and you can’t waste it on mediocre, cliché crap.
HAPPY: Were there any specific artists you were listening to while writing and recording this track?
ELISHA: When we were in the super early stages of writing the song, I personally took some inspiration from Leave A Light On by Tom Walker. I loved that it had aspects of being a ballad but had movement and motion to it. I was actually listening to a lot of different stuff at the time to get inspiration for the production. I have a Spotify playlist called ‘Research’ where I just throw in songs that I find have some interesting production techniques or sounds. Just looking at it now, I’ve got One Republic, KT Tunstall, Labrinth, Kygo, Billie Eilish, Alicia Keys and a whole bunch more. I was also listening to a lot of songs that had vocoders and harmonizers on there, hence the slightly overused sound of the track lol.
HAPPY: Are there any other artists you’re currently loving?
ELISHA: I’m a little late to the game but I’m currently thrashing Johnnyswim’s latest album, Moonlight. Their songwriting is ridiculously good and it just hits the spot. I’ve always been a huge fan of theirs but took a while to get around to listening to their last album. But man, I’m glad I did! I just love how they’ve blended acoustic concepts with electronic ones without losing their folk roots and their voices are amazing. It’s so good.
HAPPY: What’s next for Eli Dan? Any other exciting plans in the works?
ELISHA: As mentioned earlier, we’ve got our first headlining show coming up on Feb 8, so just preparing for that at the moment. We’ve been working with a management team so hopefully, we’ll be looking at releasing another single and hopefully an EP later on in the year.
HAPPY: Cheers for the chat!
ELISHA: Thanks for having us! We’re really grateful for the love you guys have given us on the track. Happy Mag FTW!
Watch the video for Treading Water above.
Grab more info on Eli Dan’s upcoming single launch here.
