ENOLA releases debut EP 'All Is Forgiven' and shares single 'Waves'
Listen HERE
Praise for ENOLA:
“A shoegaze-y post-punk anthem… ENOLA essentially acting as your hype-person on this track, and they have got it absolutely pinpoint with the lyricism. I think it’s a new favourite out here on the show” - Jack Saunders, BBC Radio 1
“I think that probably is the best of the post-punk records to reach us from Australia in a while" - Steve Lamacq, BBC Radio 6
"ENOLA is a lit fuse with potential for the most incredible fireworks." - So Young Magazine (UK)
"For a song that sounds like it'd eat your face given the chance all that agitated energy still feels like a breath of life" - Dave Ruby Howe, triple j
"It's a very pop form of murky drive and I mean that as a massive, massive compliment, this is catchy as fuck." - Ned Raggett
ENOLA - the moniker for Naarm/Melbourne-based post-punk solo artist Ruby Marshall (they/them) - today unleashes their debut EP All Is Forgiven.
They also share enormous new cut of ‘Waves’ from the EP, which also features ‘Looking Back’, ‘Metal Body’, and ‘Strange Comfort’, plus brand new tracks ‘Hurt’ and ‘Miss You’ that reveal ENOLA’s softer side (“I wanna be someone that remains open, no matter what happens… There’s nothing wrong with getting your heart broken!”).
Listen to All Is Forgiven HERE
Closing All Is Forgiven, 'Waves' speaks volumes: in energy, resilience and sound, they leave absolutely nothing on the table. Telling parallel stories of personal and collective struggles, ‘Waves’ and earlier single ‘Metal Body’ are two sides of the same story - where ‘Metal Body’ was a reflection of the intensely personal, on ‘Waves’ ENOLA speaks to the broader struggles within society, how people fall through cracks in the system, living in the face of the climate crisis and the unlevel political landscape were the moving parts that created its cause.
Marshall shares, “Waves is really centered on the frustration of it all, feeling like you’re in a boiling pot with everything, from the political climate to the climate crisis, mental health issues, just everywhere I look there’s that feeling of tension rising. When what we need is compassion, what we need is softness.” ‘Waves’ has long been a standout at ENOLA’s much-talked-about live shows, most recently at SXSW Eora and supporting Ekkstacy in Naarm/Melbourne.
The balance of a gnarled world-weariness with compassion evident on ‘Looking Back’ with the full throttle energy of ‘Waves’ is echoed across the six tracks on All Is Forgiven. ‘Hurt’ and ‘Miss You’ draw on themes of remaining open to true, vulnerable, human love. The latter is a Mazzy Star-esque slowdown, featuring Ruby Marshall showing off a softer croon, while the former sounds like the end credits soundtrack of a David Lynch movie.
Marshall shares, “I wanna be someone that remains open, no matter what happens. I wanna keep showing up in love for the rest of my life. There’s nothing wrong with getting your heart broken! Go get your heart broken, it’s important. It’ll change you. So I commend all the people that keep rocking up for love.”
ENOLA’s hardened exterior that we hear in their songs, their voice, and see in their stage presence was forged during an incredibly tumultuous adolescence, coarsening after they left home at a young age where they faced years of uncertainty and instability. The juxtaposing softness is something that grew slowly over time; a flower blooming through split concrete. And now, the softness is the point. A hand reaching out, a heart determined to remain compassionate despite it all.
Taking inspiration from the upfront poetry of Patti Smith, the melancholic atmospherics of Joy Division and the snarling conviction of IDLES, ENOLA brings these influences into their full-band sound matched by their background in electronic music production. They teamed up with producer Bonnie Knight (Amyl and the Sniffers, Angie McMahon, Platonic Sex) to record All Is Forgiven at Naarm/Melbourne’s Soundpark Studios, and together with their band - Maya Alexandra (bass), Joshua Prendergast (guitar) and James Tyrell (drums) - were razor-focused on preserving the cathartic and intense energy of their live shows that have left a trail of fans in their wake: “To understand it, you gotta see it live,” Marshall insists.
ENOLA launched into Naarm/Melbourne's music scene with their self-titled EP performing as Enola Gay in 2019, released via local champions of the underground Burning Rose. Across ENOLA’s recent singles ‘Strange Comfort’, ‘Metal Body’ and ‘Looking Back’ they’ve seen immense support internationally from BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 6, Triple R, FBi Radio, Double J, TIDAL, NME, So Young Magazine, Pilerats, Demure, When The Horn Blows and more. Live, ENOLA is an enigmatic and captivating performer, holding their audiences close, and in 2023 alone have been hand-selected to support Sleaford Mods, Jen Cloher, RVG, Cash Savage and the Last Drinks, performed at Dark Mofo, RISING, Brunswick Music Festival and OK Motels among others.
All that said, what drives ENOLA at their core, beyond reaching any particular sound, is their desire to reach people, “What moves me the most is a willingness to be vulnerable, and whatever you’re saying, for it to be really sincere.”
TOUR DATES
Sat 11 Nov - Luliepalooza - Naarm/Melbourne
Thur 30 Nov - AusMusic T-Shirt Day @ Hotel Esplanade - Naarm/Melbourne
Sat 13 Jan - Major Tom's - Taungurung/Kyneton | Tickets
Thur 18 Jan - House of Music & Booze - Eora/Sydney | Tickets
Fri 19 Jan - TBH Fridays - Dharawal/Woolongong | Free entry
Fri 2 Feb - The Gaso - Naarm/Melbourne | Tickets
Sat 17 Feb - The Eastern - Wadawurrung/Ballarat | Tickets
15-18 May 2024 - The Great Escape - Brighton, UK
All Is Forgiven
out now via Hell Beach/ONELOVE
Tracklisting
1. Strange Comfort
2. Looking Back
3. Hurt
4. Miss You
5. Metal Body
6. Waves
About ENOLA:
ENOLA’s debut EP All Is Forgiven begins, on opening track “Strange Comfort”, with their vocals set against a haunting synth. It sounds like the wind whipping on a cold, bleak night, a bleary traffic light glow guiding you as you wander. The first thing you’ll notice in those vocals is the bite. There’s toughness in these songs, a gnarled world-weariness. But there’s softness too. In fact, the softness is the point. A hand reaching out; a heart remaining compassionate despite it all. “There’s a strange comfort in going through the same / You’re not the only one,” they repeat on that opening track.
ENOLA is the solo project of Melbourne-via-Sydney artist Ruby Marshall. Initially an electronic producer and DJ, with ENOLA they take charge of a full-band sound. They take inspiration from the upfront poetry of Patti Smith, the melancholic atmospherics of Joy Division and the snarling conviction of IDLES. But always driving them at their core, beyond any sonics, is the desire to reach people. “What moves me the most is a willingness to be vulnerable, and whatever you’re saying, for it to be really sincere,” they say. “I deeply wanna connect with others and I wanna contribute, and I hope that maybe I could write something that resonates with someone else. That would feel really meaningful. It gives my life meaning to me, anyway.”
Marshall grew up in Byron and Sydney. Their mother was a pianist, their earliest memories being falling asleep listening to her practice. “I had a bit of an unusual upbringing; we had a lot of creatives coming through the house,” they remember. From the age of 4, they had a guitar in their hand, but they were always too shy to sing or perform.
They quit playing music during a tumultuous adolescence and early adulthood, in which they left home young and struggled with intense personal issues. In their 20s, once on more stable ground, they ended up working in radio and events. Eventually, they realised that they were seeking proximity to art that they really wanted to be making themself. “I think I was just hiding; I wanted to be around it, but didn’t have the confidence of doing it myself,” they say. So they enrolled in the Australian Institute of Music, where they began making dance tracks and DJing.
ENOLA grew from this, when Marshall decided to add backing musicians to their live show. From here, they began writing more band-focused music, and solidified the lineup of Maya Alexandra (bass), Joshua Prendergast (guitar) and James Tyrell (drums). The songs on All Is Forgiven come from the transition of allowing collaboration and a broader set of influences into their work, while still taking inspiration from the world of electronic music. “I feel like I’m really interested in getting the recordings and then kind of fucking with them — like getting drums and really distorting them, or getting a guitar to sound like a synth and a synth like a guitar,” they say. “Even when I’m writing, I always write a breakdown instead of a bridge, and I approach the structure of songwriting more like I would be producing an electronic track.”
In April 2023, they and their band hit Soundpark Studios in Melbourne with producer Bonnie Knight. Four out of the six tracks on All Is Forgiven are older ones, reshaped and perfected over the course of two years and across Covid lockdowns, while “Looking Back” and “Miss You” are new cuts. The band were focused on maintaining the energy of their live show, a cathartic and intense experience: “To understand it, you gotta see it live,” Marshall insists.
“Strange Comfort” began as an electronic track, and elements of that remain in the tightly chopped drums and glitchy backing vocals, while the reverby lead guitar and looming bass give it an antsy new-wave feeling. It’s a track that recounts their adolescent years living in the shadow of Sydney’s ‘Suicide Towers’ housing estate, reflecting on their life’s darkest moments while clinging to an undertone of hope.
“Looking Back” uses its shimmering guitars and huge drum sound to create an urgent plea: “Stop wasting what you don’t have.” ““Looking Back” was the first song that I said something really direct. I wanted it to be heard and I wanted people to listen,” says Marshall. “I’ve found myself often in a place where I’m torturing myself over past mistakes or anxieties about choices I’ve made. Life is so fleeting and so finite and so precious, and I don’t wanna waste another second wasting the most precious thing of all which is time.”
Elsewhere, “Hurt” and “Miss You” draw on similar themes of remaining open to true, vulnerable, human love. The latter is a Mazzy Star-esque slowdown, featuring Marshall showing off a softer croon, while the former sounds like the end credits soundtrack of a David Lynch movie. Of “Hurt,” Marshall explains, “I wanna be someone that remains open, no matter what happens. I wanna keep showing up in love for the rest of my life. There’s nothing wrong with getting your heart broken! Go get your heart broken, it’s important. It’ll change you. So I commend all the people that keep rocking up for love.”
The final two tracks are the EP’s most visceral. We can hear Marshall’s appreciation for Nirvana in the crushing guitars that open “Metal Body.” It’s a raw exploration of childhood helplessness and isolation. Meanwhile, closing track “Waves” is an indictment of the politicians and systems that allow for vulnerable people to fall through the cracks. Furious, Marshall snarls: “There goes another one, hey / We failed another one, hey.”
Across all of these tracks, what doesn’t change is Marshall’s determination to wrestle with their longest-held pain, anxiety and wounds. They don’t take for granted that ENOLA can be a vehicle for this; it’s taken their whole life to build the confidence to get here. “I think I’m most proud that for the most part, I’m willing to be vulnerable,” they say. “Because I really want it to mean something, and I’m not afraid to say that I care. I think that’s something that I’m constantly trying to push myself to do; to not cower, to just be honest and say it. Just leave it all on the table.”
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