Walls is the utterly dreamy new track from Elle Watson, an artist I first came across back in January. This new track encapsulates the young musician's desire for escape. Inspired by her experience at school, the 19-year-old recalls: “One morning, I didn’t realise how close I was to the window, looking out into the bigger world, until I bumped my nose, and saw my breath all over it. I needed to get out of there.”
The song feels like a momentary lapse - like falling through the cracks in your mind whilst the rest of the world carries around you. With production from Clams Casino the track is a layered, emotional R&B piece that holds its cards tightly to its chest only to flip that table on Watson's beautiful chorus.
Elle Watson hails from Sevenoaks in Kent. Brought up by musically obsessive parents she was raised on The Cure, Prince, Brandy and Björk - a feature of her upbringing that she claims contributed to her sense of isolation: “When you’re at the back of the school bus, rocking out to Bjork, and everyone else is listening to Rihanna, you’re opening up a door for people to be mean to you”. It's clear her music is inspired by this very feeling - describing her creative process, Elle says: “I find a sense of imbalance so inspiring. That can be in anything: contradictions that you have in yourself, or something that you feel isn’t right in a situation. When I write, I just put my hands on the piano, and find a bit of dissonance that I find really pretty. Then I go from there.”
Look out for Elle's debut EP Phantom in December - in the meantime check out the gorgeous track Walls and the EP's lead track Phantom below: