As the nights grow colder, Eliza Rhinelander’s The Precipice prepares to heat things up. With her debut album scheduled to release on Feb. 5 and a sold-out show at The Carleton on Feb. 9, the nineteen-year-old Dal/King’s student balances her studies with a blossoming music career. Exploring other genres while remaining close to her folk roots, Rhinelander navigates growing up through her earnest lyrics and haunting melodies.
Rhinelander spoke with The Watch about her upcoming album.
Q: Where did the title of this album come from?
A: The Precipice as an album is a coming-of-age story. The “precipice” is looking at adolescence on the threshold of adulthood. You’re clinging to this cliff because it feels so scary to have to make that leap. The songs on the album all take place from this perspective. It’s a limited time in this place with all this opportunity laid out in front of you, and you’re just thinking of what might be and observing everything around you.
Q: What were your inspirations for this album?
A: I grew up around folk music, so that’ll always be at the core of how I tell stories. In my album, there’s folk at the heart, but it goes to rock, pop, indie, country/bluegrass. It’s a lot of genre exploration, which kind of goes hand-in-hand thematically with getting older, exploring this whole wealth of different possibilities.
Q: Writing this your first year of university, did any of your FYP texts inspire your songs?
A: Know Better is inspired by La Princesse de Clèves. I loved that book. I was cut to the core. It verbalized the whole point of the Enlightenment. It’s about repressing and controlling feelings and the extent she goes to in order to suppress these visceral emotions.
Q: Your upcoming sold-out show in February will be your first time headlining solo. How did it feel to sell out that show?
A: The good thing about co-headlining is that you’re appealing to two groups of people, so you’re only responsible for half the audience. This one was definitely exciting because enough people wanted to come see me. It was like, “Oh, okay, people want to hear the new record, hear what I’ve got to say,” which is really awesome.
Q: Coming-of-age is so personal and tender, how do you feel about releasing this record to the world?
A: I’m trying to combat squeamishness. It does feel scary to feel like anyone can know things about you. I’m comforted by the fact that nobody can really know which ones are me and which are based on a book from the 16th century. I can keep my anonymity and know that anything people think they know from my music is just an assumption.
