We had a chat with Izzy Pingrey about her thoughtful and engrossing new indie pop single ‘roots’
It’s easy to forget that Izzy Pingrey is still just 17-years-old when listening to her nuanced and thoughtful sound, with the artist’s sound and writing both having a level of maturity and guile that belies her years and puts to shame a lot of the work of artists much more accomplished and with much more experience that she has.
Following the release of her excellent debut EP junior that was released towards the end of last year, the artist is already gearing towards its successor, providing us with the first taste in the form of her excellent new single ‘roots’. The track provides more of the introspective and reflective coming of age narratives that we have grown to love from the artist, serving as a bittersweet letter to her younger self, blessed with all of the thoughtfulness and charm that we’ve come to expect from the artist. We love this new track and the way that the artist’s developing sound continues to shine as she releases more music, and had a catch up with Izzy to find out some more about the track, how it came together, and what else the artist has in store as her star continues to grow.
Hey! We love your new single ‘roots’, what more can you tell us about it?
Thank you! I wrote roots after getting back a “letter-to-your-future-self” thing that I did when I was 12. I got it back on my 17th birthday, which was actually almost a year ago. It just really made me think about how much I’ve changed as a person throughout the last five years. It makes sense because of my adolescence, and there’s obviously a natural transition for everyone between those ages, but it’s still so jarring to read what I was feeling and thinking then.
What was the process like putting it together?
I saw this TikTok in which a girl was practicing her guitar while her neighbors were listening to house music next door and I loved how it sounded. I started writing roots with that in mind, but then I ended up not liking the way it sounded with this particular song. Maybe I’ll use it again for a different track, I don’t know. It’s such a cool idea in theory, I just really want to get it right.
What were your biggest influences when creating the track?
The main influences had to do with how we changed the drums around. There’s definitely a lot of 80s and 90s rock influences in the drums. At heart I’m a singer-songwriter, and the topic and lyrics of this song are so intimate and special to me, so the guitar and the tempo and the melody really draw from any woman I know of who writes songs with a guitar.
How do you feel that your sound has changed or evolved compared to on your lauded debut EP junior?
I think the main thing that sounds different to me is my voice. I think if you listen to my first song and then this song back to back I sound so much older in this one. I think my lower range has improved as I’ve been working more and more on these songs. Knowing what I do about unreleased songs from this EP, I would say that I cover a lot more topics in this one. Although the first single is about growing up, there’s a lot less of a theme of change and more of a focus on where I am now in general.
What else do you have planned for the near future?
The rest of this EP! I’m really excited about it. I have a bunch of songs that are in various different stages of workshopping. I think that I have some songs I’m working on right now that are some of my favorite things I’ve ever written.
