LISTEN: Hayden Arp Shares New LP With Eliza

Check out the album the day before its wide release

November 17, 2022November 17, 2022 Ron Hart 0 Comments 2022, album, Austria, Hayden Arp, Nick Drake, Premiere, Virginia, With Eliza

Organic warmth. Natural intimacy. These are the ways by which Virginia-born, Vienna-based indie folk songwriter and producer Hayden Arp describes the music on his stunning new album, With Eliza.

The LP, due out this Friday, was created during a demo writing session that found Arp utilizing memories of a road trip he took with a friend a few years ago. It was then the concept of the Eliza character was manifested, using her as a vehicle for channeling these experiences into song.

“I think the most accurate word to describe the sound of the album is nostalgic,” he said. “The first song I wrote, ‘Eliza,’ was already looking back on a road trip that had happened years before. And as time passed and I continued work on the album, I continued looking back – to the week I started making it, to other trips with other friends. Even towards the end of the process, where I was singing over instrumentals and vocals I had recorded many years ago – the recurring perspective was backwards.”

Adding to the ambiance of these new songs are the sounds of nature that Arp invited into his recording sessions which kept the music flowing at a calm and quiet pace, embellished by electronic flourishes that color Hayden’s Nick Drake-like vocal delivery.

Hayden Arp With Eliza, self-released 2022

“At the end of that first week in August 2018, as I was finishing up Eliza, I had the idea to place a microphone in front of my bedroom window, hit record, and see what happened,” he explains. “When I did, a chorus of crickets began chirping, and they rose and fell in volume along with the dynamics in the song. I was so delighted with how it sounded; I’ve not edited the audio since.”

The Rock & Roll Globe is proud to offer this early listen to With Eliza before its official release date. It is an album that commands your attention to listen in one sitting in order to fully grasp the beauty of Arp’s creative intentions.

“I really love the album Divers by Joanna Newsom,” he explains. “One of the things I love about that album is that its end cycles back into its beginning again – as if it was meant to be played in a continuous loop. I had this in mind while working on With Eliza, and I wanted the final song to reference the first. Sonically, ‘An Offer’ uses the same drone sound featured in ‘Déjà Vu.’ And lyrically it ends with an offer to ‘get away.’ One could interpret this as the conversation that precedes all the traveling that occurs on the album, which ultimately ends with the couple reaching the sea.”

Listen to the complete record below, and pre-order With Eliza here.