Isabel Wood
Interview: Amy Bell
Wearing her heart on her sleeve and doing it in style, Isabel Wood skilfully combines her sugary sweet vocals with sticky melodies and vulnerable lyricism to create sonically compelling emotional pop. After working with renowned producer Xavier Dunn (GRAACE, Jack River) on her debut single ‘Sunburn’, Isabel has built some serious momentum through the release of “a series of pop bangers” inspired by the likes of Sasha Sloan, Wafia and Holly Humberstone.
Isabel’s latest single ‘Falling in Love Again’ arrives as a collaboration with Melbourne indie-pop outfit BTWN US. The track employs bright and upbeat instrumentation to explore the rekindling of a prematurely ended relationship. ‘Falling in Love Again’ follows on from Isabel’s recent solo release ‘Allergy Season’, in which she teamed up with ARIA-winning producer Konstantin Kersting (Tones & I, Mallrat) to create a dazzling pop track that explores losing control of your emotions for no real reason.
With more emotional bops promised for 2022, now’s the time to fire your therapist and join Isabel Wood to work through all those sadgirl problems once and for all.
Hi Isabel, Thanks so much for speaking to ReVamp, in 3 words describe your sound?
My pleasure! Hmm I would say honest, delicate & breezy.
When did you realise that you had a talent for music and wanted to pursue your talent?
I was actually super shy when I first started making music and would wait until nobody was home to write my silly little songs. I was only 15 but I just really loved it and a couple years later decided I wanted to learn more and see how much I could improve, so I moved to the Gold Coast to study pop music at uni.
Do you remember the first album you ever bought?
I’m not sure if it was a whole album but I remember when I was about 11 saving up to buy a Jesse McCartney CD. I pumped Beautiful Soul every day at top volume for at least a year.
You have a new single out ‘Falling in Love Again, what was the inspiration behind the single?
Well I was lucky enough to have BTWN US reach out to me and ask if I wanted to sing on the track with them and as soon as I heard it I was like oh yes I love this!! The story telling of the song inspires a “take 2 at love” where in the modern world we are quick to move onto the next best thing without sometimes reflecting on the diamond we already have.
Was this song from a personal experience?
Usually a fairly simple question to answer for me but this is actually the first release of mine that I didn’t write on. So not a personal experience of mine but I definitely find myself relating to a lot of the lyrics.
I think you captured this song perfectly and everyone is worried about falling in love again, what is 1-bit of advice you would give to people going through this situation?
Falling in love can be scary but it’s almost always worth putting yourself out there, so I would say go for it and don’t hold back.
When singing this song, is there 1 lyric that has stood out to you?
“In my head I’ve replayed this scene the most”. A classic toxic trait of replaying everything in my head until it makes sense… which it never does. This line made me feel exposed. [laughs]
When it comes to recording the single, what was the process?
This was actually the easiest track I’ve recorded yet. Some of that is probably due to only having to sing half the song, but the process was super smooth. BTWN US just told me which parts to sing and then gave me some creative control with harmonies and ad-libs and then I sent my vocals back to them a few days later and voilà!
I’m sure everyone is excited to know what is next for you?
I’ve got quite a lot happening this year but at the moment I’m a busy bee working on my next release…..so stay tuned!