Eliza Marshall on Eternal Birth: Flute Without Borders
Here is the link to the podcast and video version of this interview as well as complete show notes with all the important links.
Eliza Marshall:
Oh, many. We have toured so much. I mean, I'll tell you a time for anyone who's, I guess you can liken it to a string quartet, to chamber ensembles in whatever genre you're in. If you have something that you have grafted at and put lots of hours and lots of time in and made lots of sacrifices for. There are lots of times I could have possibly done, let's say, some orchestral work, but I'd have a tour in with the band and I'd stuck with that. Last summer we played at a festival in England called Cropredy. I think we played to about 17,000 people. Now I've played to 20,000 people with other artists. That's not a daunting thing to do in any way, but when it's your own band and you're still on stage and you're playing the songs that you've been playing for 10 years, playing in tiny little folk clubs, I cannot tell you how full my little heart was actually standing on that stage and going, "This is our music and this is our product and our project." It's worth every bit of sacrifice and every bit of graft, I think.
Leah Roseman:
Hi, you’re listening to Conversation with Musicians, with Leah Roseman. Eliza Marshall is a British flute player acclaimed for her expressive multi-style playing and in this episode we’re celebrating her new album “Eternal Birth” in which this award-winning flautist and composer channels over two decades of international collaboration into a bold, genre-defying album, with a rich cinematic soundscape, blending classical, folk and world traditions, with haunting flutes, whistles, bansuris, spoken word, percussion and electronics. Recorded in both the UK and Senegal, the album features an extraordinary line-up of world-class and Grammy Award-Winning musicians: Ady Thioune, Ansumana Suso, Drew Morgan , Dónal Rogers, and Lena Jonsson . Eliza shared her rich musical life: her studies with Michael Cox, her varied career including performing on the long-running West-End show The Lion King in London, touring with Peter Gabriel, and the joys and challenges of using a loop pedal. She shared insights about the importance of the folk band Ranagri in her life, her multi-disciplinary project Freedom to Roam, her love of the Hebrides Islands, the importance of re-wilding, and finding the courage to push boundaries and take risks.This episode is being released a few days before the release of Eternal Birth; you’ll find the pre-order link on Eliza’s website. I was really inspired to exchange ideas with her about living a life rich with connection and creativity. You can watch this video on my YouTube or listen to the podcast, and I’ve also linked the transcript. It’s a joy to bring these inspiring episodes to you, and I do all the many jobs of research, production and publicity. Have a look at the show notes of this episode on my website leahroseman.com , where you’ll find all the links, including different ways to support this podcast, and other episodes you’ll enjoy!
Hey, Eliza, thanks so much for joining me here today.
Eliza Marshall:
Hey, thank you so much for having me. This is really wonderful of you.
Leah Roseman:
I've really appreciated being able to listen to a preview of your upcoming album, which is coming out in a few days as we release this podcast.
Eliza Marshall:
Yes. Very, very excited.
Leah Roseman:
So Eternal Birth, it's really powerful, really beautiful. And I listened to it several times. And what I'm hoping we can do is give people a taste of all the tracks, but in between that, we're going to talk about your life and music and all kinds of other things, if that works for you.
Eliza Marshall:
That's totally amazing. Thank you. Yeah, that's great.
Leah Roseman:
As we record this, I'm about to put out my episode with your friend, Lena Jonsson, the Swedish Fiddle player who appears on this album.
Eliza Marshall:
She does. Yeah. She's absolutely extraordinary. How lovely. That's great.
Leah Roseman:
How did you meet her actually?
Eliza Marshall:
So I met her actually during COVID. We did something called Global Music Match online. It was run by lots of folk expos around the world and we were both selected and we put on the same group. So we just totally hit it off. I fell in love with her music and everything that she does. And we've kept in touch since then. I've been over to Sweden. We've done some gigs together. There might be some more stuff in 2026. Watch this space. So yeah, it was actually incredible that during that time we were able to kind of meet lots of people even though we couldn't get out. So very, very happy about that.
Leah Roseman:
So the first track, They Listen. I mean, you definitely talk about mortality and connection to ancestors on this project. Do you want to speak about that and people can listen to a little bit?
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah, sure. I mean, it's really interesting. So the poem, the Thomas Hardy poem that inspired a lot or came to me during the writing of this album, it's called Transformations. And it's ... Actually, I've learned a lot from Thomas Hardy. It was his kind of moment of looking into reincarnation, I guess, and looking at that side of the life and death, I guess. That isn't necessarily how it is for me with the writing of this album, because it could be very much a scientific look at what happens to us and what our cycle is, if you like. But actually for me, especially within this track, there's something really beautiful about thinking about our ancestry, whether that's spiritually or scientifically. I really love the idea that what's passed on from us and what do we pass on and who's around us, what's there, what's out in the ether. I suppose that's really in the lyrics of this track and I love those ideas. I love exploring that. So it was quite special to me actually. (Music: clip of Track 1 They Listen, Eternal Birth)
Leah Roseman:
So I was curious, Eliza, when you perform some of this live, because there's all this layering and you're doing spoken word and you're playing flute, how does that work?
Eliza Marshall:
So it's really interesting. That's such a great question. It's funny, isn't it, how we record things and then how we come to explore that as a live performance. And especially as when I do it live, it's often just me. And in the actual album, I've got lots of amazing percussionists and particularly featured, I suppose we've got Lena and we've got a Senegalese percussionist called Ady Thioune. When it's just me, I have my loop pedal, I have my balafon, primarily my life is that I'm a flute player, but I also have kind of ... I've come to understand that I think what I like to do is open up textures. So that might be that I'm not a trained or highly efficient balafon player. I'm not a highly incredible percussionist, but actually I can build textures with a loop pedal and with various electronic layers, that sort of sets a bedding, if you like, for what I then put over the top, whether that's a flute solo or whether that's my spoken word. And then if somebody comes to join me like Ady has been on tour with me, then obviously that changes it and shifts it again, that we have the highly percussive element catered for, I suppose. But it's really interesting and quite exciting as a musician to say, "Okay, this is how I've recorded it, and now how am I presenting that live?" And actually, obviously it's very different, but it still speaks within the ... I guess it honors the song still.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. Since you mentioned Ady, so I was curious, like his father, Yelly Thioune, has this dance company?
Eliza Marshall:
Yes.
Leah Roseman:
There's this interesting family connection.
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah, totally. Very sadly. He's just lost his father actually. He's just passed on, but his dad and both his parents were amazing within the Senegalese kind of music scene, I suppose. They both worked for the Senegalese Ballet, the National Ballet of Senegal. In fact, his dad, I believe he ran it. And for his generation, this was really incredible actually. It meant that they went all over the world performing and dancing and being part of ... They're part of the Griot family, which means they're part of a long line of musicians in Senegal. So I think I found that really inspiring to hear from Ady that that's what he was brought up with parentally and within his family tree, I guess. It's a wonderful thing that they had this company.
Leah Roseman:
I've been following you for a couple of years and I've seen, oh, going to Senegal again. And I was curious, I know you went to Africa when you were quite young to do some volunteer work. I don't know which countries those were, but do you want to speak about those early experiences?
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah. I mean, I can take you right back to when I was ... Actually, when I was growing up at school, I went to a very international school that's called Steiner, Steiner Education. And that meant that we had a lot of bands visiting us from all over the world. Whilst I was growing up, I was learning as a classical ... I was being trained as a classical flute player, but I had these bands from South America, Rumillajta, Bolivian Band. We had children coming over from Africa. We had a dance company, Kakuma. So those influences infiltrated my life. When I was 16, I did a huge project for my A levels that was studying African rhythms versus minimalist Western composers. How did these sync up? Who was influenced by who, and was there any correlation in how people would write out rhythms or not write out rhythms as it is in a lot of sort of aural traditions in Africa.
So that inspired me. I then went on when I studied at the Royal Academy of Music, I also looked at a lot of African music. And that's then, of course, once I graduated, it was a no-brainer. I had to go out there and I went to Cameroon where I worked on a big music and drama production in the local area, the local village that I was in, Buea. It's actually a university town on the side of Mount Cameroon, which is a 12,000 foot mountain. So it's really exciting place to be and really wonderful, wonderful people I was working with. So that sort of ... I already had a love of the music of Africa, but that solidified the idea that this was somewhere I think I wanted to be quite often.
Leah Roseman:
Let's talk about track two, Roots Entwined.
Eliza Marshall:
Okay. Roots Entwined. So, well, this was released as a single at the beginning of January, and I really wanted to release this at the beginning of the year. I feel like it's a really uplifting track. I want it to be all about how connected we are. You hear a lot these days about our connection with nature, our connection in life. Look at the kind of global connections that we have throughout the world, I guess. And I wanted to really embrace that and really honor that, I suppose, as well. And the idea of roots entwined, I'm connecting this idea of humanity versus nature, specifically trees, I suppose, to a certain extent. And the idea that trees really nurture one another. Lots of things go on under the surface that we don't necessarily see, we don't witness. And I like the idea that we don't have to see it.
Everything is so visible these days on social media, within our media, that actually there are these great things going on that we don't always hear about, and maybe we should hear about those. And maybe if we think about what's going on under the earth of all those amazing roots that look out for one another and nurture one another, I like to liken that to humanity in a way.
Leah Roseman:
I think we both read that book about the mother trees sending out there.
Eliza Marshall:
Absolutely. Yeah. That is the one. Exactly that. It's beautiful, isn't it?
Leah Roseman:
Yes. I've carried that with me since I first heard about that research.
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
I can't remember her name though though.
Eliza Marshall:
No, I can't actually either. I never can, but it was a beautiful book. (clip of track 2, Roots Entwined)
Leah Roseman:
Well, can you talk a little bit about your flute collection and what you played on this album?
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah, sure. I'm a flute player. I play the classical Western flute, silver flute, Boehm style. Again, when I was younger, I discovered lots of whistles that I love, very Celtic influenced, I suppose, ranging from beautiful sort of wooden, Scottish made Ormiston whistles to really amazing aluminium. I'm going to be really fluty geeky here, but then also recently I got another whistle that's carbon fiber. Randomly would never thought that would be something I'd have. It's absolutely beautiful. It's got a lovely tone. But then I go much further afield. So I have loads of bansuris, which are the bamboo Indian flutes. I have Xiaos, which are Chinese bamboo instruments kind of modeled on the Japanese shakuhachi. They have a very haunting tone, I would say. So I love adding that extra colour. And then one of the things I suppose people often see when I'm performing live, particularly in my band, I have just a bass flute.
It's very normal, but so many people haven't seen it. And I play it in quite a rhythmic way. I love a lot of rhythm on the flute, as well as the fact that flute is always a melodic instrument. So I have the bass flute. Sometimes I have the alto flute and I've recently done something at the Royal Opera House actually in London where I play a lot of ocarinas. So I sometimes bring that into ... They're not actually on my album, but I do have those as well.
Leah Roseman:
Those are those little round things with eight holes or something?
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah, exactly that. Exactly. They're amazing instruments. Who would have known? They're absolutely beautiful. Again, every instrument, it's like it has its own little personality. It's very lovely.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. I was curious about your bansuri playing, and I did interview Milind Date, and I'm going to link his episode to this one in the show notes, because back in 2014, you were featured in Joby Talbot's Ballet, The Winter's Tale, and you were on stage playing the Bansuri. And I was curious, also you had worked with the sarod master, Amjad Ali Khan?
Eliza Marshall:
Yes.
Leah Roseman:
So did you get training in that in South Asian music?
Eliza Marshall:
I actually didn't, I have to say. So I've never had any training in any of the kind of alternative instruments aside from my flute. And in a way, as I get older, I almost harness that as not a USP, but I believe in the fact that we're able to immerse ourselves in different music and in different people's playing and learn from that as much as going and learning with a guru or ... So my Indian style of playing absolutely isn't ... I would never say I can play in the style of any of these wonderful Indian gurus, but I can bring the flavors that I think the instrument serves the instrument still.
Leah Roseman:
Eliza, you said USP. USB, what did you mean?
Eliza Marshall:
Well, I suppose like a unique selling point, as in, I mean, it's my individual
Leah Roseman:
Oh, OK!
Eliza Marshall:
That's a terrible term to use, isn't it? But it's almost like I embrace the fact that that's very unique to my style of playing. So the Joby part, for example, I went around to Joby's house when he was writing that ballet and we kind of went through various different instruments and talked through what might represent what he was trying to represent within the play and within the atmosphere he wanted. And that was the instrument we thought would work well. And then we thought how he could write for it. So we worked it out in our own way to a certain extent. Of course, he wrote it all, but that was a really enjoyable process to see which instruments would work for the soundscape he was trying to create.
Leah Roseman:
Well, actually, let's talk about track three, Our Times (Reborn).
Eliza Marshall:
Yes. Our Times Reborn. Okay. So it's called Reborn because it was released earlier in 2025 as a digital release on the Real World digital label and that was just Our Times and it had some beautiful kora on it from a lovely kora player called Ansumana Suso. But we wanted ... I actually had some lyrics that I wanted to use on it, so we decided to remix it. The remix doesn't actually have the kora part, but it has the spoken word. So that's why it's reborn. It's a rebirth of that particular track. And oh, I love this idea. Look even now, look what you're doing with your amazing podcasts. I love this moment in time. What is our time that we spend here together? Who is it that we spend our lives with? Who crosses our paths? Who are our politicians? Who are our partners?
What comes in and out of our lives? And I think I'm such a harnesser of the moment that we're part of, that I really wanted to express that, I guess, in words and make us look ... Again, maybe there's a theme accidentally of sort of being slightly anti-negative media in that I want to harness things. I want to find opportunities and things and look for what we can make of this time. This is our moment here, so what do we do with it? (Music: clip of Our Times Reborn, track 3)
Leah Roseman:
Yes. And although you've had a long and interesting career, which we'll get more into, this is your first solo album, your own compositions.
Eliza Marshall:
It really is. And it's really strange to do that when you've spent 25 years, essentially. I write within my band, Ranagri. We write lots of tracks together, but that's co-writing and I obviously perform for lots of other composers and perform their music. So to actually suddenly come around and have your own voice in something or write your own words or ... Again, Our Times, it really features the balafon and that's just ... I'm just creating textures. I love Steve Reich. I love Six Marimbas. I absolutely love minimalism. So to be able to go, "Okay, I'm going to try doing this. I'm going to see how that might work." And then maybe the flute here and then what do I want to express lyrically even though I'm not a singer? It's very, very liberating and it's also really nerve-racking.
Leah Roseman:
I wanted to ask you about Steve Reich. I was curious, first of all, do you know Sarah Jeffery of Team Recorder?
Eliza Marshall:
No, but it sounds like I should do.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. So she's been based in Amsterdam for many years, but she's British and she does also teach in London. So she has made it her mission to get the recorder loved. And she plays across many centuries, but she plays a lot of mostly contemporary music and also experimental improvisation and very interesting person. So she's been on this podcast.
Eliza Marshall:
Oh, cool.
Leah Roseman:
And we featured a clip of her Steve Reich's Vermont Counterpoint, which she did for recorder.
Eliza Marshall:
Oh, brilliant. Ah, amazing. I bet that was incredible. I will look her up.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. She's something else. You guys should be friends.
Eliza Marshall:
Oh, amazing. That's brilliant. I will look her up.
Leah Roseman:
Now, I wanted to ask about some of your mentors when you were younger. So you studied with Michael Cox at the Birmingham Conservatoire?
Eliza Marshall:
Actually, I studied with Michael. I was at the Birmingham Conservatoire when I was between 13 to 18,
And then I was with Michael. I went to the Royal Academy in London, and he was my teacher there. Michael is the most phenomenal flute player. I would say he's the flute player of our times. Excuse relating that to my title of my track, but he's absolutely phenomenal. At the time, he was principal of the London Symphony Orchestra. He then went on to be principal with BBC Symphony Orchestra for years. And what was wonderful for me was that I was in this highly classical institution. I had an amazing time there. I absolutely loved the Royal Academy, but Michael, I think, could see in me this slightly left field or slightly unusual approach to things. So I would turn up to a lesson and I'd have a little book of Chinese folk melodies and maybe I should have been learning a Mozart concerto, but he really harnessed that, I think, and he embraced that maybe I had some slightly different ideas.
So I of course did all the very classical stuff that I needed to do and that's been a brilliant ... It served me fantastically in a particular area of my career, but also being open-minded to different sounds and different, even things like different vibratos that you use in different styles of playing. I felt like I couldn't have had a better teacher to be able to allow that to come to fruition within my playing.
Leah Roseman:
Are these different vibratos generated differently physically?
Eliza Marshall:
I suppose they are once you go to a different instrument. So for example, if you're playing a whistle, you might do like a finger vibrato, which is similar to let's say the uilleann pipes that are bellow pipes, so you can't use your airstream for the vibrato. And I think the whistle copies that to a certain extent, even though actually you are blowing down the instrument, so you could use your air.
So yes, there are very physical things that are slightly different in that manner. And then there are just styles, I suppose. So I guess in sort of folk music, you would often maybe get very pure tones where you might not have any vibrato. And I love that. I think it's very evocative and it's a beautiful way of playing. And then equally, you might have some Piazzolla, for example, where it's the sort of South American, let's really go for a passionate phrase where you want very full vibrato, almost like an opera singer. So to be able to go through those different styles and implement them on the different instruments is a great form of expression, I guess.
Leah Roseman:
And going back to your university days, I'm curious, like you must have been surrounded by everyone practicing orchestral excerpts constantly, but you weren't so sure you wanted to go in that direction.
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah. I mean, I did, I practiced every year for four years, I had an orchestral excerpt exam. So I had to learn my orchestra excerpts. And I mean, I love playing in orchestras as well. I'm hugely passionate about that as well. So I did do that and I was part of that, but at the same time, there's a classic example of, for example, well, two classic examples. When I was 20, I went around America for a month on a tour bus with a rock band. When you're 20, that's really good fun. It's a great way to see America. It absolutely has no bearing on actually practicing orchestral excerpts or bettering your playing necessarily, but it's an experience. So I was up for that. And then I remember just a small note on our notice board once from a bass player in Camden looking for an instrumentalist to come and join their eclectic band that they were putting together.
And I remember going to this basement in Camden with a whole load of people I didn't know. I'd never really improvised, but there was obviously something in me that thought I'd like to try that and I'm glad I did.
Leah Roseman:
That's wonderful. Well, shall we talk about your Freedom to Rome project?
Eliza Marshall:
Yes. So Freedom to Rome, this also came about in 2020. In fact, it came about just before that, but 2020 occurred and whilst there were lots of downsides, of course, about that time, if I may look at some of the upsides, was that we were gifted time from being in a very, very busy treadmill of work, suddenly having months and months of time was really phenomenal. So myself, my other half actually, Dónal Rogers, Jackie Shave, who at the time was leader of Britten Sinfonia and Catrin Finch, who's an amazing harpist, we got together, we kind of worked out a style of music that we wanted to put together and then actually separately we wrote parts of an album. We then invited other musicians to come and join us. We had other string players. We had a wonderful tabla player called Kuljit Bhamra and we put together an album.
So that was just the first part of what then turned into a three parts kind of multimedia. We got some beautiful video artwork from a lady called Amelia Kosminsky so that each track had its own artwork that would play, that would be playing behind us as we performed. And on top of that, and I suppose this was fairly instigated by myself because it was sort of a project that I'd dreamed up over several years, we put together a little documentary and the documentary, again, it sort of fits into a lot of the ideas of many of the things that inspire me, I suppose. It was called Connected. It was by a brilliant director, Nicholas Jones, and we harnessed stories from very ordinary people, not doing necessarily extraordinary things, but just doing really beautiful things that we should all hear about, I suppose. So for example, a lovely lady who planted thousands of trees with loads of children in Glasgow ahead of COP20, I guess, at the time.
And a man who in the 80s raised millions of pounds to rewild a big Glen in Scotland. You've then got one extraordinary woman, I suppose, Virginia McKenna, who was in the Born Free film many years ago, and she set up the Born Free Foundation. She was talking about her life. She's now 91, I think, and she was talking about her life's kind of dedication to wildlife, just beautiful stories and interspersed within the documentary was the music from the album. So it was like this lovely triptych, I suppose, of a multimedia. And then we took it on tour and we had wonderful standing ovations across the country. It was a beautiful project to do at that time, I think.
Leah Roseman:
Were those some of your first performances after lockdowns?
Eliza Marshall:
Yes. I mean, frustratingly, if I may say that as well, the first performance, so the big launch was in Cecil Sharp House, which is a brilliant venue in London. And it was on the 18th of December 2021, which was, I remember the date because it was a new, it wasn't a lockdown, but a new strain of COVID had just come about.
Leah Roseman:
I remember.
Eliza Marshall:
Nobody wanted to come out because it was a week before Christmas. So we had a great audience, but credit to everyone who came out to us that night because it was literally like if you caught COVID then you would have to miss Christmas. Yeah. It was a frustrating time still, wasn't it? I think.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. So that project hasn't really continued or do you think you might do some things with it?
Eliza Marshall:
That's definitely, it's still alive, but it's a slow burner. I mean, in fact, it has continued in that last year. We collaborated with a ballet, a small ballet company called Ballet Folk, amazing company. And we played at two festivals. So we put together a whole short ballet with seven dances, I think it was, and we put that on at two festivals. So that was a kind of continuation of the same music. And I think the next step for Freedom to Roam is that there'll be a new album on the horizon at some point, but I can't tell you exactly when.
Leah Roseman:
Okay. So you mentioned Dónal, so he's also on your new album and in your group, Ranagri.
Eliza Marshall:
Yes. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
Are you partners?
Eliza Marshall:
We are. We are. So he's my life partner as well as my band mate and collaborator in many ways. He, funnily enough, when we started the band when we'd been together for several years and we just thought, oh, it'd be lovely to have a band together. He comes from much more of a sort of blues indie background. And I obviously come from a classical sort of folk, but we both had this love of folk music. And I think you can hear that in the band and the music, the style that we play. He's actually the main writer. He's the lead singer. He's been a writer all his life. He can't read music. I read music. So we've come from really different sides, but it's been a really amazing part of sort of both our musical journeys, I suppose. And I would say he's encouraged a lot of the things that I do.
If I have these mad ideas and what about this? And I could go there and I could collaborate with this person. And he probably gets a little bit exasperated with all of my ideas, but he's quite a major part of those as well.
Leah Roseman:
That's wonderful. You've toured a lot with that band. Do you have any memorable tour stories?
Eliza Marshall:
Oh, many! We have toured so much. I mean, I'll tell you a time for anyone who's, I guess you can liken it to a string quartet, to chamber ensembles in whatever genre you're in. If you have something that you have grafted at and put lots of hours and lots of time in and made lots of sacrifices for. There are lots of times I could have possibly done, let's say, some orchestral work, but I'd have a tour in with the band and I'd stuck with that. Last summer, we played at a festival in England called Cropredy, which is run and set up by Fairport Convention. And that year, I think we played to about 17,000 people. Now I've played to 20,000 people with other artists. That's not a daunting thing to do in any way, but when it's your own band and you're still on stage and you're playing the songs that you've been playing for 10 years and grafting, playing in tiny little folk clubs, I cannot tell you how full my little heart was actually standing on that stage and going, "This is our music and this is our product and our project." It's worth every bit of sacrifice and every bit of graft, I think.
Leah Roseman:
In Canada, we don't use this expression graft. What do you mean by that?
Eliza Marshall:
So just when you know when you repetitively work hard at something and you don't let go of it, I suppose kind of dog with a bone type of thing.
Leah Roseman:
Okay.
Eliza Marshall:
You see some things come and go, don't you? So you see bands that have maybe ... We've been running for 12 years. It's not that long, but it is quite long and it is a lot of ... You have to put the hours in, the blood and sweat of, I'm going to do this tiny little gig here and then I'm going to drive for seven hours and do another tiny gig, but it's worth it for those 40 people who are at each of those gigs. And I suppose that the more you build those blocks, then when you stand on a stage and play to 17,000 people, you think that was worth all that effort and all that exhaustion, I suppose, of continually doing it.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. I mean, it reminds me of podcasting, which most podcasters give up after about a year, but when I see the map of the listeners across the world, it's maybe not a lot of listeners in each place, but it's very gratifying to know that we're connecting with so many.
Eliza Marshall:
Absolutely. Are you 100% are grafting and you have to just keep it going, don't you? And you have to believe, and I'm sure there must be times when you're editing or chasing artists or whatever it is, or trying to fit things in that actually you think I could stop this and have some life, a lifetime away from it. But actually for those moments, beyond that, it's so worth it.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah, for me very much. And came out of the pandemic like so many musicians, we ended up branching out and doing different things.
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah. It's great. We're grateful. We're grateful for you.
Leah Roseman:
Hi, just a really quick break from the episode. I wanted to let you know about some other episodes I’ve linked directly to this one in the show notes, which I think may interest you, with bansuri master Milind Date, Sarah Jeffery of Team Recorder, singer Omo Bello with the project African Art Song with Rebeca Omordia, instrument maker and community music advocate Linsey Pollak, fiddler Lena Johnsson and also the kora player and vocalist Sophie Lukacs. In the show notes on my website LeahRoseman.com you’ll also find a link to sign up for my newsletter, where you’ll get exclusive information about upcoming guests, a link for my Ko-fi page to support this project directly, where you can buy me one coffee, or every month, and my podcast merchandise store. You can also review this podcast, share it with your friends, and follow on your podcast app, YouTube, and social media. All this helps spread the word! Thanks. Now back to my conversation with Eliza.
Yeah. I started improvising during the pandemic as well, and some things have come out of that that are very beautiful, but again, without the formal training. And I've listened to different ... The music I feature on this podcast is music I've listened to my whole life. Although I'm a classical musician, I have always listened to lots of jazz and world music and lots of experimental and different traditions, and so I'm sort of bringing that all together.
Eliza Marshall:
That's so great. It's great. It's good to keep your blinkers open wide, isn't it, in a way? Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
It is. Yeah. Well, you mentioned your love of wild places, and I know that you've had this love of Scotland and particularly the Hebrides Islands. And I had looked at Trees for Life and the rewilding when I was researching you. It was really beautiful to see, especially coming from Canada. And I've only been to Scotland once. We were there on tour and I remember looking out the window at these barren hillsides, and then it was explained to me about the sheep and the deforestation.
Eliza Marshall:
It's crazy actually, isn't it? So I mean, I don't know. I've only been to Montreal and I would love to come over and see some of the wilderness in Canada, actually that's high on my list. But in Scotland, funnily enough, what I've always loved is that kind of barren land. I'd always, whenever I'd gone up there, I'd always loved ... It feels somehow very raw and it's there and tangible and you can see the earth and it's just wild. It is wild. And then suddenly when I started looking into this and realizing and researching about the trees and the rewilding, and as you say, the deforestation, the deer and the sheep, actually, it suddenly hits you. Gosh, this land shouldn't be treeless. And when we actually went up to film there for the Freedom to Roam and we went to Glen Afric that's been rewilded with Trees for Life, it's so beautiful.
And it's the simplicity for anyone listening, the simplicity of what they've done is just literally putting up fences to keep deer out and sheep out so that actually the trees can grow. And just looking along the line of a fence on either side of the sort of barren land and then this sort of wild wilderness of trees and life, you suddenly realize how important that is actually and beautiful, absolutely beautiful. I mean, we live here on the side of the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire and even this, it's not wild, it's quite maintained. And you think, gosh, imagine the spaces if they were all covered in trees, if we could do a little more rewilding or introduction of trees in some of the areas where they've been cut down or they aren't anymore. It's an interesting concept, isn't it?
Leah Roseman:
So these islands, are they only accessible by boat?
Eliza Marshall:
Apart from Skye, there's a bridge from the mainland over to Skye. Let me make sure I'm right with that. A couple of the other islands, they're bridges, if they're very close, the island of Seil I think is very close as well. That's near Oban. Have you been to any of these islands?
Leah Roseman:
I have not.
Eliza Marshall:
Well, I mean, I thoroughly recommend them if you ever come back to Scotland. They're very magical. Again, there's something, maybe there are other places like Norway, probably Canada as well, that have equal kind of magical elements of wilderness, but there's something so just in contact with the wild, I suppose, that I just love the ... Literally the wildlife there is amazing. The sunsets, even when it's raining and dark and the sea is wild, there's something so beautiful about that. I absolutely recommend it. If you like wilderness, the Hebrew desert, they are the place to go and peace. One of the islands I spent many months on actually had no electricity. So to just sort of quieten down as the sun goes down and just feel at one, I guess, with the cycle of the day, it's very beautiful. It's very peaceful.
Leah Roseman:
So you must have taken quite a hiatus to be able to do that.
Eliza Marshall:
So that was actually pre music college.That was when I was 16, so it was between A levels and music college, between GCSEs and A levels, in fact, now that I'm thinking about it. So those, yeah, between the main exams before going to music college. So already at that time in my life, I think a love of ... It's funny as you get in ... I'm in my 40s, it's funny to look back at what influences us, isn't it? And even things like writing an album now and going, Okay, little 16 year old who's listening to African music whilst lying on a island in Scotland, looking at the stars, and playing my flute in Scotland, one of the lovely stories, I suppose, is that the island I was on was surrounded by other islands and caves, so you could hear the flute reverberating back. So again, those things sort of, they come to haunt you, I think, throughout your life, the blueprint of what you fall in love with when you're younger.
Leah Roseman:
Well, we talked a little bit about ... So you started using a loop pedal during the pandemic.
Eliza Marshall:
I did.
Leah Roseman:
I spoke to so many musicians on this podcast, same thing. And it is quite a learning curve, right? To get good at it.
Eliza Marshall:
Oh my gosh. I mean, I'm a million miles away from being proficient on the loop pedal yet, I suppose, but it's just a whole other world. It's a whole other world of tech. I'm a complete technophobe. Well, I guess you must have had to learn loads to start a podcast up, but I'm a huge advocate of pushing boundaries and step ... I know it all probably sounds very cliched, but stepping outside of our comfort zones. I'm really pro that. I give workshops and classes about it. So I guess I'm just making sure I'm not a completely hypocrite and a loop pedal and technology is amazing, awful, inspiring, and nerve-wracking all at once, I suppose. But yeah, I'm really glad I've found it, but I'm really trying to work out how best I can use it, and there's so much that I don't know about yet.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. I'm going to link my episode with Linsey Pollak. He's a really amazing Australian musician who spent his life creating instruments. I think my reel of him with his rubber glove bagpipe has gotten more fuse than anything. Brilliant. But he started out actually, I think, making bamboo flutes as when he was a teenager and then it evolved into this incredible career because he was one of the very, very first people to use a loop pedal way, way back. And apparently it was so short what they could do that it was ridiculous, like maybe two seconds, there just wasn't because the technology wasn't quite there, but he made it work at that point and then developed it over time.
Eliza Marshall:
Oh, wow. I mean, I can't ... So I actually had a concert last night and finally I felt like, okay, I know I can ... Because you have to be so ... Especially because I'm using the balafon a lot, I love rhythm. I just love rhythm, which I think is really unusual in a way for a flute player, just because so much, whatever genre is, the flute is the melody. So to actually have to layer rhythms, you've got to be so centered with a loop pedal. You've got to be so in time with yourself. I mean, I do loads of recording to click track, so I'm very used to that kind of metronomic playing, but to actually have to set that yourself and you kick the loop pedal at the right time. And it's an exciting challenge. I laugh at myself a bit because I think what are you doing, Eliza Marshall?
You could just say ... I could go and just do the gigs that I'm booked for and rock up with my flute and piccolo, and it'd be a whole lot easier. But yeah, life isn't just about ease, is it? I think it's about learning. And this is definitely ... I cannot imagine having a loop pedal of two seconds length because this is ... Somebody was asking me at the gig, so how do you know where you're placing something on each track? And the pedal that I use, I have three different track options and within those tracks you can layer them up. So you could layer however many I wanted to into track three, and then I obviously layer up track one and two. And then if I want to delete track three so I can start a new layer, I can also do that whilst it's all running, which it just feels exciting.
It's like a big large sheet of paper and you've just got loads of paintbrushes and you can explore it.
Leah Roseman:
Having seen some of your videos on YouTube of doing this, it's very theatrical in a good way and you're sort of dancing as you do this stuff.
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah. It's funny, isn't it? I wonder how many musicians you have who also say this. I think in lots of ways, I'm probably quite an introvert. I liked, again, I sort of liked the pandemic being in my own little world of things that's quite nice. At the same time, I love being on stage. I love expressing myself and being lost. What also happens with a loop pedal, because it's just generally just me, I have to let go of any inhibitions as much as I can and just let myself get into whatever's coming out. And because I'm saying words as well and expressing a whole other side of myself that we're not used to when we've got an instrument that we can hide behind, I have to let go of any form of feeling introvert or inhibited. And so yeah, I think I do move around quite a lot.
It's quite good fun. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
You had mentioned, Eliza, that you do these workshops for people about getting out of your comfort zone. What context and how do these work?
Eliza Marshall:
Often, so another string to my bow, I suppose, is that I have a West End show. So I play the Flutes on the Lion King in London. That's been my job for nearly 11 years. It's wonderful. I feel really blessed to have the job. I have lovely colleagues. I feel very lucky. It means that various music colleges and various colleges and flute academies and things get me involved quite often. They want me to go through the flutes that I play on the show and what it is to be in a West End show and what that takes. And so I'm very happily do that. And then often I get asked back to do a little bit more of what we've just described, like looking outside of the box, what do you do if you're studying at the academy, but you're not sure if you want to be an orchestral player or Guild Hall, Trinity.
I've also done workshops at. And so I think I just like to open exactly what we were just saying, so open the minds in a way of like, you couldn't study at better institutions than these places. Of course, in US and Canada, you've got amazing institutions as well, wonderful classical places, but there are so many students going through and maybe sometimes they don't necessarily know that there are lots of other options and lots of other opportunities. I think, I actually think compared to when I was studying, which was in the early 2000s, I think the musical world has become much more innovative. I think there are far more people looking at opportunities and looking at collaborations and I think that it's a different world in a brilliant way, but I would like to just give people even more confidence to allow themselves to be uncomfortable
Because opportunities arise from that, I think. And funnily enough, if I had to talk about my career, I think I'd say I feel like every element of what I've done has helped another element. So I think being in a folk band helps ... I worked for Joby Tolbert anyway, this composer who wrote the ballet, I'd already played classical flute on various sessions of his, but then when he knew I was in a folk band and he wanted a folk instrument at the Royal Opera House, who would have known that those two threads could marry? So I think being authentic to oneself, but also not having fear of trying new things is really ... I think it's a good attitude to try to take.
Leah Roseman:
So I'm curious about playing the same show for so many years, how you deal with it psychologically and also in terms of your working conditions, how free are you to book out, sub out if you need to do other things?
Eliza Marshall:
Again, that's such a good question and it's a question that I think we get asked quite a lot, particularly on a long running show like The Lion King. It's been running for 26 years. I think good colleagueship is absolutely the top. It's a really good ... We have so many ... We get on so well. We have a really good dynamic in the pit, which I think is really important. And I think people have really honored that because they know that it's a really tight group of people to be together for so long playing the same thing. So I'd say that's pinnacle to the success of coping mechanisms.
It's a great show. It's a great flute part. I always go with an attitude of I need to play my best. I need to always try. I'm sure I don't always, but I want to try to. So I go with a fresh approach as much as I can. It's very easy to sub out. We have very supportive people around us as well, so long as I fulfill the amount of time I need to be there, then I guess that's probably why I have lots of creative projects outside of that, to make sure that I counterbalance what I need creatively as well. So actually, it's a great balance. It's really lovely. And of course, playing the same thing over and over. I'm sure Nutcrackers occasionally and similar such things once you play it a lot and you play it every year ... I mean, look, I've played the Nutcracker lots of times and I absolutely love it, but it's not a good comparison probably to playing a show, but it's the same thing.
You've got to always try and bring your best, even if you feel the repetition occasionally.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. Well, track six on and on does feature the kora, Ansumana Suso?
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah. Yeah, it does. This I just felt was a lovely ... Actually, again, comfort zones. I sing a little bit on this track. I'm absolutely not a singer, but I do believe that the voice can be a nice texture, and this is all about textures, isn't it? And I love the whole kind of somewhere I've never been to before is the Amazon. I love this idea of the continuity of water, the flow of life everywhere that ... I'm looking out right now, I'm looking out at trees and it's a bit cloudy and where's that moisture come from and where will that travel? And maybe one day that'll pass over somewhere near where you're at or this beautiful flow of the world. Again, how do we look after that? How do we nurture it? How do we keep it fertile? Talks, I think On and On is about the fertility of the world and looking out for that, I suppose.
Looking after it, looking after it both as this planet, this look beyond in the world of Elon Musk out there and also right close to home, like what's on our doorstep and how do we look out for it? Yeah, I love that track actually.(Music: clip of track 6 On and On)
Leah Roseman:
So how did you meet him, the kora player?
Eliza Marshall:
Ansumana. So actually, I've got more of a story about meeting Ady, but Ansumana, he was just recommended. I needed somebody ... I wanted actually to have somebody else playing some percussion because Ady was coming over when we were recording and Ansumana was recommended to me. He lives in London, so he just rocked up on recommendation and he was just the most beautiful player and lovely, lovely human. So it was like a blessing. He actually came and played some percussion and then said he had his kora with him and I was like, okay, I think I've got a track this could work on. So it wasn't really planned. It just happened and again, that's quite nice actually.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. So meeting Ady?
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah. Meeting Ady. So actually Ady, I met in 2019, I'd heard about ... I'd mentioned the Freedom to Roam Project to somebody and I'd said, "I'm really wanting to write with some amazing African percussionists. I'd really like to have some great percussion on this. " And this lady said, "Oh, there's an amazing group of some wonderful Senegalese players who live in Italy." So I actually just took the weekend off and I popped over to Italy. They had a workshop that weekend. Ady was there, I just was blown away by him. He's this amazing player and he's got such a presence. I just thought, "I have to do something with this guy." Brilliant. Lockdown came, COVID hit. It couldn't work to get him involved in the Freedom to Roam project, that wasn't possible. And then after that, once that had happened, then it sort of came about this whole idea of doing a solo thing.
Actually, a few people sort of gently, I wouldn't say pushed me into it, but they sort of coaxed me into the idea of doing my own thing. I got some funding from PRS, Women Make Music here in England and the Arts Council, specifically to develop my use of loop pedal, to develop my own writing and to go to Senegal. So that funding kind of gave birth, if you like, to this like, "I now have to fulfill this album." And Ady, I contacted and said, "Look, I'd love to write and record. I've written, I'd love you to record onto this. " And he said, "Come to Senegal, come and stay with my family." I went and stayed in his family flat. There were 14 of us in this little flat. It was amazing. It was an amazing experience and I would say I feel very, very close to him and he's an integral part now of what I will go on to probably write and continue to do with him into the future beyond this album.
Leah Roseman:
I know you've been back to Senegal, but that first trip, what did you think you learned from that?
Eliza Marshall:
Oh, I learned such a lot actually. I mean, you know these two different styles, it doesn't have to be anything to do with where we live or where we're born. In fact, just myself and Don, as in Don, my other half are good examples. I read, I rock up at a studio where I sight read lots of stuff. That's how I'm trained. Don writes so much stuff. He can't read a note, but he absolutely hears it. So the difference between reading, learning to read and learning aurally, I think are really massive. And I think the more that we can overlap those a little bit, the better for both sides of the musicians.
So obviously, well, not obviously, but certainly whilst as in Senegal, the musicians I was working with then, it's a huge aural tradition, the rhythms that they would come up with or the rhythms that are part of their blood. It was just amazing to be in the midst of ... One night I was in the midst of 20 percussionists, this thundering sound. I don't think anybody there was trained or knew how to read music, but what they were creating was absolutely unbelievable. And that for me was a really good lesson of, yes, I've written all this music, but actually let it flow as well. Let it take its root with what other people bring to it, which is very different from, and now you shouldn't write parallel fifths and this is how this chord should sit and you're not allowed a particular note to the bottom.
The theory that we might learn in a music college, obviously those rules don't have to sit or have to be adhered to, but it's great to expand the mind, to work with musicians from such different backgrounds. So I think I learned an awful lot.
Leah Roseman:
I was wondering that the Griot tradition is very male dominated. Being a woman in this space, did it feel comfortable? How did that work for you?
Eliza Marshall:
I mean, you've just read my mind because I literally was just thinking, I wonder if that's something I should mention. So it is very male dominated and it is ... I was in a studio with 16 men, very forceful, brilliant, but very strong characters. I absolutely can hold my own in that situation. That was not a problem. I enjoyed it, but I was very aware that it would be nice to see more women involved in that. We did go to a dance company. In fact, this was when I was surrounded by these 20 drummers and that was very much both men and women dancing. And actually the women were playing the junjungs, which are really big low bass drums. And that was really wonderful. And I commented on it at the time, just saying, "This is really important for me and for maybe in general to see that more women get involved." So I was aware of it and let's hope that that becomes more inclusive and slightly more equality in those things as time goes by.
Leah Roseman:
Do you know a Rebeca Omordia?
Eliza Marshall:
The name definitely rings a bell.
Leah Roseman:
She runs the African Concert Series at Wigmore Hall. So it's the classical music of Africa and the diaspora. She was on this podcast and I was curious if you'd connected with her at all.
Eliza Marshall:
I didn't know that she'd been on the podcast. I have listened to some of your podcasts, of course, but I didn't know that she was. She works with Leon Bosch.
Leah Roseman:
Yes.
Eliza Marshall:
Yes. Who I know very well. And I know that he's involved in that as well. I haven't connected with them and I should do. I should do, yeah. Yeah,
Leah Roseman:
Just curious about that.
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah. No, it's funny because that side of my life has always kind of come under the umbrella of sort of the folk side. It's now actually becoming apparent that it's a bit more into genre. Let's create a little word there.
Leah Roseman:
I also had Omo Bello, who's an amazing singer from Lagos, Nigeria, who did an album with Rebeca of African Art Songs. So we focused on that and like the indigenous languages and that whole thing. It was very, very fascinating.
Eliza Marshall:
Wow. I'm going to go and listen to these podcasts of yours. That's brilliant. How do you find everybody that you interview?
Leah Roseman:
It's interesting you ask because if I want to get a certain kind of diversity, which I am interested in, then I have to seek it out. Otherwise, it's predominantly white men who are in the United States usually, honestly. That's like most of the submissions. And I get people ask me every day to be on the podcast. So I'm booked very far out and I have to say no to most people. But if I'm interested in ... And a lot of my listeners are in the UK and Australia and different places and I'm interested in a worldwide perspective, but I have to remember to reach out to people. So I was following like Songlines Magazine and different outlets in the UK. So I found out about people that I've had on and I just reached out. I mean, it doesn't always work these cold calls, but more and more I find it does work.
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah. That's great. That's really brilliant. It's important, isn't it?
Leah Roseman:
It is. Yeah. But I must say women, like through their agents, they'll reach out to me, but in general, women do not ask for interviews.
Eliza Marshall:
Interesting. Yeah, it's funny, isn't it? Isn't it? You wouldn't think that is a thing actually still, but ...
Leah Roseman:
I find it is.
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's important to voice that and keep pursuing the diverse interviewees that you have. I think that's great.
Leah Roseman:
So we haven't talked about the fact that you've toured with Peter Gabriel and he's a bit of a mentor to you as well, right?
Eliza Marshall:
Yes. I mean, Peter Gabriel, again, it's funny to look at points in our lives, isn't it, that affect us, I suppose. So touring with Peter, I think that started in something like 2009 was when we first started rehearsing and recording. And honestly, growing up, I'd listened to lots of his songs, but I wasn't like an avid I am a this fan or a that fan. I just liked bits of music. But there was one song that he wrote Biko about actually a sad story of a man in Africa, but it somehow resonated when I was younger and then suddenly realizing that actually that's what we were rerecording. We were recording that track, but with orchestral backing instead of his band. Again, I just love the thread of life, amazing to suddenly be recording one of the tracks that you loved in your youth. I think his whole demeanor as a musician, he's an amazing singer.
He's an amazing campaigner, I suppose, for human rights and just all just humanity as well. Being on stage with him, I think when I've said I've played to 20,000 people, that would have been on Peter Gabriel tours. We did massive venues, but in amazing places, so places like Red Rocks, Amphitheater, in the States, the 02s in Berlin or Verona Amphitheater, massive, beautiful old stadiums.
At that time, I was 29, which is quite a impressionable age, I suppose, or stage of when you're just discovering what you're doing. I'd just started working in the West End. I'd been depping on The Lion King. I'd been in other West End shows, I'd been depping in orchestras. Suddenly to do that, I think it was once I finished my touring with Peter and I was already with Don as my partner that I think we then said, "Let's have a band. I want to do this. " And yeah, that was accidentally, again, who knew, but that had a big effect on my life. And even now going into my writing now, I think I'm very influenced by a lot of the stuff that he does and a lot of the writing that he's done. I love his writing and he's just the most lovely man as well.
Leah Roseman:
Okay. Well, actually track seven, Dust to Dust, it starts with percussion only, and you're playing quite a bit on this percussion as well, right?
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah, I am. I mean, I'm almost a bit shy to admit it, but I am. And it just started ... I wrote it. I wrote the lyrics to this track when I was flying over the Sahara actually the first time I went to Senegal and just looking out over that vast expanse of nothingness, I guess, and then seeing little pockets of dwellings and little sandstorms and just thinking, "My God, this is just such a huge expanse." And yet people live there, things are going on and there's life and who's there and what if I was born there? What would my life be if I had been born there? So I guess I wanted that ... It's not bleak in any way, but it's kind of isolated and I wanted to somehow put that into the music. So you literally just start with like sticks, I think, just hitting one another and then you bring the djembe in and then some of the electronics kick in and then this very sort of hazy flute just to sort of try to place somebody in just being surrounded by sand and dry and heat and not really knowing what's going on in that space on this planet.(Music: clip of track 7 Dust to Dust)
Leah Roseman:
I was curious, it's a little personal, so tell me if you don't want to talk about it, but in some of your promo materials, you do talk about the fact that you haven't had children.
Eliza Marshall:
Yes.
Leah Roseman:
So in terms of your legacy, maybe you think about it in a more holistic way, but it does resonate with you to think about what you're leaving behind.
Eliza Marshall:
Totally. Yeah. And it is very personal, but actually I know that I put that in my publicity. So I obviously, I think I felt like it's a big part of the whole idea of eternal birth. So it would be incorrect with me to miss that out, even though I don't want to overly display all my personal life, but at the same time, I think it's so important to say, "Look, this is part of my life." And to then it really makes you delve into, again, who am I? What do I leave to the world or what do I ... And that I think is why you go right back to the Thomas Hardy idea of like, "Well, we leave ourselves. We leave ourselves and we become whatever it might be that we become." And again, that could be, if you want to put that into a religious connotation, that could be something spiritually, or it could be very scientific that it's basically, it's a big part of the whole meaning behind eternal birth.
And so I think it's a really lovely thing to express that, even though obviously it's not the whole focus of the album. It's just an important thing to ... When we write, we take so many inspirations, don't we? And I think that's part of the inspiration in a lot of these words. So it's nice to let people know that.
Leah Roseman:
In your bio, you mentioned playing with Stevie Wonder. I wanted to ask about that context.
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah. I mean, that was a lovely day. So as part of what I do, I guess I do lots of sessions in London. So we get to play with lots of different people. We play on lots of different film soundtracks and et cetera. And one of those days was playing, I think it was all the old Stevie Wonder tracks with orchestra and he was there that day and he is amazing as well. And again, isn't it just so interesting to see what all these icons kind of bring? So he would just, maybe we'd play something, it was with a big orchestra, maybe we would play something and then you'd hear him over the kind of tanoise, I'm not even going to attempt to sound like him be he'd say, can you just phrase this bit a bit like that? So instead of it like this, just a bit like that, and you just go, "Oh my gosh, amazing.
How wonderful to hear those kind of easy instructions from such a fine musician." Yeah, nice life moments those are.
Leah Roseman:
You've been on a lot of soundtracks, a lot of famous movies. People have heard your flute and this album of yours, it does have this kind of cinematic quality because of the layering. Have you thought about writing music for film? I mean, you know kind of what that scene's like. It's hard to break into ...
Eliza Marshall:
I mean, I absolutely hadn't thought about it until I started doing this, and then I started realizing that that is something that I love. I do actually love film music. I think it's, apart from its accessibility, I like how emotive it can be, I suppose, and how it can represent a mood in a particular way. So it's sort of accidental that it's quite so cinematic, and then I guess secretly it's also not. And that is something that I love. So yeah, I am actually interested in that and I think it's just very new. Part of me thinks I wish I'd found this in myself 20 years ago, but then 20 years ago, I wasn't who I am now, so you know how these things happen. So yeah, I'm excited to see what it might lead to and simply in where I might develop to as an artist and as a writer, as much as a performer and a flute player, I'm quite excited to add that to just a whole load of learning that I want to do and I think generally I tend to learn on the job.
Leah Roseman:
This beautiful album cover, it's such an evocative photo. Do you want to talk a little bit about that and the photo shoot?
Eliza Marshall:
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. You're asking such lovely questions. Can I just say, I really appreciate how much you've put into researching everything for this interview. That's really lovely of you. Thank you so much. That photo that we chose for the cover, I suppose it sort of sinks in with what you were asking about the more personal side of this album and the personal connection to me and my life. I felt like, again, as a flute player, I'd look at that photo and I think, "What are you doing? You're in this strange position and where's your flute?" So that's my identity as a flute player. I always identify with my instrument. I'm sure you can appreciate that feeling. This album is slightly beyond that. This is slightly more of a personal in depth musical journey with me. And I felt in a way somehow just even just the positioning of like ... I mean, this is how much I thought about it, but just the positioning of like holding my hand close to my chest in a way.
It sort of shows it honours ... I think I'm quite a deep thinker and I'm quite a deep feeler and it honours that to myself that this is something very special to me and it's like I'm holding it in a way.
I'm also not looking at the camera because I'm slightly shy. I don't want to give my whole self to it, but I think by holding my hand to my chest, it's just very like, here I am. I've never described that to anybody or even to myself. So thanks for asking because that's a very natural answer that's just come out.
Leah Roseman:
Good! Well, maybe let's just end by talking about track eight, interconnected.
Eliza Marshall:
Interconnected. Isn't that a lovely word? Our lives are all interconnected, aren't they? Everything we do, everyone we touch, everyone we speak to, it matters. So I think again, it's quite an uplifted track, this one. It's not too introspective. There's nothing dark about it. It's very much, let's harness this. Let's all be interconnected and know that our lives affect one another in a beautiful way, hopefully. And obviously I don't, just before I sound like some big happy, fluffy bunny, I'm very aware of a lot of the traumas and terrible things that go on in the world. So I'm not in any way in denial, but I think I'm in a ... I would like to embrace the things that can help some of the not so good things that are going on in the world. How do we help those? And maybe by being and embracing our interconnectedness, that might somehow enable a little bit of help into the areas of the world that need it.(Music: clip of track 8 Interconnected)
Leah Roseman:
Eliza, we talked a little bit about keeping psychologically healthy with playing a long running show and doing different creative things and taking time out, but I'm curious, do you have any other sort of self-care things you'd be willing to share about working so many late nights and how you stay healthy and grounded?
Eliza Marshall:
Yes. I mean, I'd say I'm not good at this because I'm a complete workaholic. So actually I could do some advice from lots of people if anyone has any advice. But I would say I have a dog, she's my absolute lifeline, getting outside. So if I didn't have a dog, I would say still getting outside, going for walks, fresh air, looking out beyond the screen. It's so hard. So many things need to be done online and so much is in our phones these days. And the minute you look out and you look beyond that, and you remember to have a wide vision and perspective, I think that's ... I would say that's more important than ever in a world that is very technologically run these days. So that's my biggest ... I attempt as much as I can. And then just for me is being outdoors.
I like to get out and swim outside and anything to do with the natural world and I'm in.
Leah Roseman:
So I want to thank you so much for this today. Really appreciated it.
Eliza Marshall:
Thank you so much for having me and thanks for all you do with your podcast. It's really, really appreciated by lots of musicians.
Leah Roseman:
I hope you enjoyed this episode. Keep in mind, I've also linked directly several episodes you'll find interesting in the show notes of this one. Please do share this with your friends and check out episodes you may have missed at learoseman.com. If you could buy me a coffee to support this series, that would be wonderful. I'm an independent podcaster and I really do need the help of my listeners. All the links are in the show notes. The podcast theme music was written by Nick Kold. Have a wonderful week.
