Hazel English
Just Give In / Never Going Home
Release Date: May 12, 2017
Following a hugely successful 2016, which saw her play to sold out crowds in the UK, North
America and Australia, 26 year old indie sensation Hazel English is releasing a new 2xEP titled
Just Give In / Never Going Home, compiling her debut EP alongside six new tracks to make her
first full LP-length release.
The Never Going Home side combines the hazy, direct songs that have helped Hazel rise to
prominence this past year, while the Just Give In side documents her blossoming creative
partnership with Jackson Phillips (aka Day Wave).
Both musicians met when Hazel was working in a local book shop. Jackson popped by on his
way to get a synth repaired, and the two got talking about music, before deciding to collaborate.
It’s a meeting of minds that’s helped forge this essential debut collection.
Each song sports a timeless, sun-kissed aesthetic that you might expect from Bay Area-based
creatives, but Hazel’s direct style and pop sensibility take things to another level.
A traveler itching to see new places, Hazel first found Oakland on a trip away from her native
Australia. It only took a few days to convince her this could be her new home. Shortly after, while
studying creative writing in Melbourne, Australia, she had the option to study abroad.
She didn’t know she’d stay here, or indeed that she’d find the tight-knit musical community
that thrives in the Bay Area, but she was drawn to something unexplainable about the place
– a connection: “I thought I was just gonna go for six months, but I got connected with the
musicians and felt like a really strong part of the community. So it felt like home. That vibe really
made me feel like I could be whoever I wanted to be, I could try whatever I wanted to do.”
Given the time and space to make music in her new home, she took a casual approach to
working with Phillips, even as debut track “Never Going Home” racked up millions of plays online.
“We were just kind of taking our time. Over the span of a year, whenever we could we’d go and
work on something.” Picking lyrics from her journal entries and jotting down ideas on a reel-toreel tape recorder, this simple but personal approach worked wonders.
In other hands, you could imagine these songs being direct, shiny chart smashes. It’s not
inconceivable to envisage the world’s biggest stars flocking to Hazel for the perfect hook.
Plenty of these arrive on Just Give In / Never Going Home. The glistening “Birthday” captures
summertime melancholy with smart precision, new single “Fix” flips excess on its head, while “It’s
Not Real” is a brilliantly stark account of how the mind plays tricks on you.
Closing song “That Thing” is an exciting outlier on the release. A perfectly-paced collision
of stirring synths and circuiting basslines, it sees her working with Justin Raisen, a deskman
described as Ariel Rechtshaid’s protégé, with production credits including Angel Olsen’s
sensational ‘My Woman’, as well as Sky Ferreira and Charli XCX. Although this shift in direction
could remain a complete one-off in Hazel’s back catalogue (“I just want it to feel like a
standalone song, not paving the way for what’s gonna happen next”), it’s further proof that she
can work magic in different territories.
1. Other Lives
2. Fix
3. Birthday
4. Love Is Dead
5. More Like You
6. Never Going Home
7. Make It Better
8. Control
9. It’s Not Real
10. I’m Fine
11. That Thing (Bonus Track)
There’s no guessing which direction future material will strive towards, but virtually nothing
seems off limits. In turn, this double EP doesn’t just serve to document Hazel’s more-thanpromising first steps – it suggests that whatever’s next round the corner will be the making of a
star.
Press Contact: Duncan Will
facebook.com/hazelenglishmusic
[email protected]
hazelenglish.com polyvinylrecords.com/pr/hazel_english