INTERVIEW: Evie Irie on new single 'Misfit' - "The more you push against what society wants you to do and you keep trusting your instincts, that's when you become who you are."

Interview: Jett Tattersall
17 year old Australian singer-songwriter Evie Irie has been one of pop’s most buzzworthy ‘one to watch’ artists since the release of her debut EP 5 Weeks In LA in 2019. After cutting her teeth at open mics in Nashville when she was just 15, she has progressed to working with some of the biggest names in music, including Greg Kurstin (P!nk, Sia), Mozella (Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Kelly Clarkson) and Troy Carter (Lady Gaga, Eve) which has resulted in over 20 million streams to her name.

This year she has released two interconnected EPs - The Optimist in September, which was followed by The Pessimist earlier this month. Irie’s music covers a number of soundscapes, songs like the driven, hard ‘Over Him’ mesh R&B, rap, rock and electrothrash, while ‘Worst Enemy’ takes turns between electro beats and an acoustic, piano led ballad with choral vocals. Latest single ‘Misfit’ harkens back to the early 2000s with its Avril Lavigne indie-pop vibe, and the EP’s closer is a lush, emotive ballad with Irie’s beautiful vocals really showcased in the stripped back environment.

Over the past 12 months, one of the defining moments in pop music is the number of young, immensely talented singers that have come to the forefront of the scene. Evie Irie is one whose talents and musical dexterity puts her at the top of the heap and her further development over the next few years is going to be an exciting journey to watch. We recently caught up with Evie to find out more.

Hi Evie so great to chat to you, you are such a powder keg of sonic creativity. How is the world treating you?
The world is treating me really good right now other than me being ill. I have a common cold and I sound awful and I can't sing which to me …that's like death!

Let's talk about the new single ‘Misfit’. Your voice sounds like the love child of an electric guitar and a marching band. It's really something else. Before I get into that, I just wanted you to talk me through the inspiration and then the creation of this song.
That's so lovely of you to say. Genuinely. It’s actually funny you say that because when I was younger I was actually in a band and I played French horn. So a lot of my musicality comes from proper theory of music, which is very funny and then I ended up picking up guitar and now I play a bit of electric guitar as well. But let me get back to the inspiration of ‘Misfit‘. I wrote this song actually a little bit ago. I haven't been writing during COVID. I was in the studio with Andy Seltzer and Casey Smith, who are a couple of my collaborators who we wrote ‘Bitter’ with and we wrote a ton of other songs with together. I just adore them. They're just young and fun. There's not a lot of women in the industry in writing that I work with. I mean, other than, you know, you're in the industry - we've got to be in this together.

We do, we’ve got to stick in a squad. 
I don't even know how the idea really came about. When I'm in the studio, everything just happened so naturally and we were on a roll, you know what I mean? With Casey, Andy and myself we all just get on this same wave and just go with it. We just get so into the story. I think we all connected with this idea and this concept that, no matter who you are, no matter where you are in the world, and where you are in your life right now, we've all at one point felt like we don't belong. And we all at one point felt like we are a misfit. Even the people who you look at and you're like ‘wow, I wish I was them, they have so many friends and they have a perfect family and the perfect this and that’. They still feel like an outcast. They still feel like they don't belong at some point. I really resonated with this idea because when I was in high school, I really was an outcast and for most of my life, I've been a misfit. I've really been that kid. Most of my life, I’ve felt like I haven't belonged. Especially when I was in high school, I was still trying to find myself. It was so hard because society pushes you in one direction, and then your instincts push you in another and then all these pressures are pushing you in all these different directions, and you get lost. You get so confused. And you lose yourself and you feel like you don't belong, and you’re trying to be someone you're not and you're trying to be who you are, and then other people judge you for that and then that feels uncomfortable. It's just a cycle that feels like it's never ending. But the more you push against what society wants you to do, and what people want you to do, and you keep trusting your instincts and trusting who you really are genuinely and what you believe in genuinely, and you feel that deeply, that's when you become who you are and that's when you're able to see being a misfit is not degrading and it's like ‘I'm a freak, and no one likes me’. It's this is who I am, and this is where I've been.

Well, with tracks like ‘Misfit’, and then of course, the delicious EP The Optimist, you really clearly are one for soldiering on in the face of a fall and clearly an incredible role model for anyone dealing with disappointment. You champion the loner, the outcast, I guess the secret in all of us and, in doing so, looking back on your own younger adolescence, do you feel like you're the role model of the youth that was missing for you?
Yeah, definitely. I really wish that I had these songs and these lyrics that I could resonate with as a child, because I never really listened to music because I never resonated with anything. I feel like I am the voice that I wish I had. I'm the person I wish I had, which is really so beautiful to think about. We don't give ourselves enough credit for what we do, especially I don't. I always think it’s just what I do. But really, it can change someone's life completely. These words, and these concepts, and these stories, are able to move a person in ways we can't even comprehend.

And, of course, with artists such as yourself, Tate McRae, Billie Eilish, we're actually hearing the words sung by the people that are writing them. Of course, ageism within the industry is no secret, historically it has been the case that young women sell records - but as long as someone with years of experience is writing the song and producing the sound. As a young solo artist, have you ever felt the need to push even harder to be heard and taken seriously in the many facets of creating the song?
Yes yes yes yes yes! In everything I do. Firstly, no matter what age, I'm so specific with everything I want to do, that I will go into so much detail and write emails and emails and emails about everything that I need and want from something, and that needs to happen, and my dreams and desires - which is just who I am. So I would do that regardless. You know, there is sexism in this industry, and just in life in general, the world and society we live in, unfortunately. It's changing. It's definitely changing. But, you know, there's privileges of being female, and there's privileges of being males, and one of them is that you get taken more seriously as a male. You don't get taken as seriously as a female, especially when you're young. I try not to see it as a disadvantage, but to be hones I know that if someone was a male and they were older, they wouldn't have to go into such detail to get the things their way - no matter what it was. They wouldn't have to go into detail. People would just say ‘this is a great idea’. They wouldn't have to explain themselves. 

They wouldn't have to justify it. 
Yeah. They wouldn't have to justify it at all. But being a female and being young, you have to justify everything. Which is fine by me because I'm so detail oriented, and I'm so specific that I would do it anyway. With anything in life, there are privileges and there are disadvantages. I try to see the privileges over the disadvantages, because there are a lot of privileges of being female and being young and if you just lean into those, it's pretty good.

There we go again - the optimist! Now you have been writing, singing and playing a very interesting plethora, of instruments incredibly well from a young age and now as a fully-fledged recording pop artist. It's clear that music charges you up. Listening to your music now, there's so much confidence in your voice, I just want to know from you, how has that exposure to the multiple possibilities of music shaped you as the artist that you are now?
I'm so grateful for it. I've always felt that it's my passion. My calling. The fact that I've just gotten the opportunity to be able to do what I love, and be in it and have the chance to be able to make a difference in the world through my voice and through my lyrics and myself,. it really makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I'm on the right side of history. You know what I mean? I'm doing something good for the world. I feel like a lot of my life, I have felt so disappointed in myself for doing bad things, even if it was little things, I just felt so disappointed about like lying, or this or that. Just a lot of disappointment. Now I feel like being able to do what I love and genuinely be authentic and be true and not put on a persona and not have to be something I'm not, it just feels so real. I just feel freedom every single day from it.

That's gorgeous. You know, it takes some people a lifetime to get there and some people actually never get it. So it’s very impressive that you’re there. It is resonating now, and it is there with a tune. And lastly, before I leave you, Evie, what's coming up for you?
Well, I have a song with Dillon Francis out, ‘Be Somebody’, which I'm very excited about. I’ve been working on it for a hot minute and it's just gonna be crazy. I actually co-directed, co-produced, built the set, I casted, I did all these things for my music video ‘Misfit’ which is also just out as well, which I'm very excited about because this time, I was so involved. I was hands on with everything and I'm really excited because it's exactly my vision. A lot of blood. A lot of sweat, a lot of tears have really gone into it and so I'm excited to have my vision come to life and for everyone to see it. And just to build a community around people who feel like right now, they don't belong or ever in life, they haven't belonged. I'm just building a community of people who are strong and have one another's backs and can relate on that. This music video sort of brings that to life. I'm excited for my fans to engage in that and to feel like they have one another and I have them. And for all these other people to see it and hopefully feel the same way.

‘Misfit’ by Evie Irie and the EP The Pessimist are both out now via Republic Records/Universal Music.

To keep up with all things Evie Irie, you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.