In Conversation with Eva Kiss: Embracing change and her evolving sound in latest EP, ‘Everything Is All I Am.’
A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Leeds-based grunge/rock artist, Eva Kiss. Inside one of Leeds’ neighbourhood bars, it was a little busy, and although our mics may have missed a word or two, Eva’s excitement for her new EP, Everything Is All I Am, released on October 4th, was unmissable. During our conversation, we delved into her experience creating the EP, collaborating with her band, and finding her place within the Northern music scene. Eva’s approach to songwriting feels so refreshing, and the EP truly expresses both her talent and versatility; here's what she had to say about the journey so far.
Amelia:
So to kick off, I’ve always wondered how you decided you wanted to be called Eva Kiss?
Eva:
For a few years, I was really stuck on finding a stage name. It wasn’t because I disliked my real name, but it didn’t flow for me as an artist. On stage, I feel like I become a different person, so I wanted a name that reflected that. I came up with it when I was about 16 or 17. I’d been performing in Halifax since I was 11, and seeing my real name on posters never felt like it represented me. My mum and I were on holiday, brainstorming names, and I knew I wanted Eva because she’s always called me that. "Kiss" came from a part of my last name. Once I settled on it, it felt right—it’s still my name, just with a slight change.
Amelia:
How did you start to get gigs when you were 11? Did you just go out, like, yourself, and find stuff?
Eva:
Yeah, I actually started at church. My first gig was at a church event, playing guitar with my friend. There were probably around 50 people, but it felt like loads at the time. I was so nervous, I hardly looked up. The next year, I did it again, but this time I performed alone, singing and playing guitar by myself for the first time. I was absolutely terrified, but once I got through it, I loved the feeling of performing, and just people seeing what I could do, even though I wasn’t that great at the time! Yeah I wasn’t born with talent, and I’m sure a lot of people would agree… I really had to work on my skill. After that, I did a few small gigs—I tried busking, and some local events. But those experiences really helped me realise that performing was something I absolutely loved, and yeah, it’s been that way for the last 10 years!
Amelia:
That’s crazy, I haven’t ever performed, but when I’ve done public speaking in front of a crowd, I get so nervous—is it different when that stage is your happy place?
Eva:
Maybe not then but it’s definitely different now. I used to get really nervous, especially in the first 10 minutes of a set. I’d make mistakes, but once I got past those first few minutes, I’d settle into it, and it would start to feel like so much fun. I get a lot of energy from the crowd; if I see them smiling, engaging, or even just not on their phones, it feeds into my performance. Now, it only takes about 30 seconds into the first song for me to get into the zone, and as the set goes on, I’m just fully enjoying it. It’s a feeling of pure happiness I don’t get from anything else.
Amelia:
I think that's what really sets artists like yourself apart. The way musicians in general seem so in the moment, like performing is second nature to them. They don't even have to think about it—it’s just their purest form coming through all the time.
Eva:
Yeah that’s definitely how it feels for me most of the time, I don’t have to think too much about it.
Amelia:
How would you say, being from Halifax, that your upbringing and surroundings impacted your music?
Eva:
I think coming from a small town and then moving to a big city like Leeds was quite a shock. My experiences in Halifax shaped so much of what I write about. Whenever I take the train back home, even though I get it like every day, it still feels special to me. There’s something about seeing the tower that brings up all these beautiful and bittersweet memories. I love going home, but I have good and bad memories tied to every corner.
In terms of my music, it was really hard to kind of find a way into the music scene in Halifax. I did do a lot of gigs for my age, but I’d always be the only girl on the lineup. There was no representation at all, and that added a lot of pressure. I didn’t want to let anyone down, and I worried that if I messed up, people would think, "Oh, this is why girls shouldn’t play guitar." It was tough being the only girl on the lineup, but often, I was sometimes the only girl in the room. There were so many times I’d walk into a room and people would see a young girl with a guitar and assume I didn’t know what I was doing. It was frustrating because I wanted to show I knew my instrument and could handle myself on stage. This happened time and time again.
But yeah, I think coming to Leeds really improved my relationship with myself in terms of confidence, especially on stage. I felt like I could recreate and rebrand myself, and just have like a fresh start because you've got no prior associations. So yeah, it was a good change.
Amelia:
I can relate when I go back home as well, as much as I love seeing family, there’s always a bittersweet feeling. I feel like it’s the same with every relatively small place, people talk and love gossiping. There’s nothing you can do to stop it, and I just hate knowing that it goes on. I don’t restrict myself going home but I definitely don’t feel super comfortable most of the time.
Eva:
It's tricky not to have that mindset, and I can relate. A few times I’ve taken my partner back to Halifax, and there was this one time I walked into a bar and saw my old high school teacher there. I walked straight back out! I was like, "I'm not coming out to you right now, this is not happening—we're out of here".
Amelia:
So, since you’ve moved to Leeds, how did you step foot in the scene here? Did you meet your band in Leeds?
Eva:
Yeah, so, I started out in my first year not doing much gigging. I was doing a lot of what I call soul-searching. It was definitely a rough year, but I got a lot out of it in different ways. I was writing a lot about my experiences, but it felt a bit like a chore because I wasn’t feeling passionate about it. I was doing a songwriting degree, so I was writing all the time, but it didn’t feel leisurely, you know? Then, halfway through, I think I started looking at it differently. I actually released an EP before I moved to Leeds, which I ended up taking down because it wasn’t very good. I made it during lockdown, just me in my room, and there were only three songs on it. One of them was a full band track I did all by myself, but it was really just for me. When it came out, I was like, “Okay, I’ve done that now, but I’m not really happy with it.”
By the second half of my first year, I started working on my next EP, and that got me excited about music again. I started playing acoustic gigs with friends, and it really sparked my love for performing. At the start, not many people were reaching out to me. I’d sit there for hours sending messages to venues, getting knocked back a lot, but that’s just part of it, you know? I found my band in Leeds during my second year, after I released my second EP. I recorded that EP with session musicians and an external producer, but then I found my band. The first members were two of my friends—one on guitar and another on bass, Louis, who’s still with us. We had a drummer, Jemima, too. We started rehearsing together, but we hadn’t gigged yet. I was just excited to make music with my friends.
Anyway, then I finally formed a band. To start with it was me and a group of friends, Louis on Bass—who is the only member from the first draft to still be in the band—a rhythm guitarist, and a drummer. It was just four of us for the first couple months of rehearsals, and we didn't have a gig to rehearse for at this point. I was just like, let’s go, let’s just start somewhere. After a few weeks I decided I needed a lead guitarist to get the kinda sound I was looking for. That’s when Jay came to us—and he is still in the band now. Then we got our first gig booked. My friend ran a promotion platform and asked us to play a support slot at Oporto, but our drummer was away all summer so I had to find a replacement. I advertised on my Uni’s website and found someone pretty quickly, but let’s just say he was definitely not the right fit for us… A couple of weeks before our first show, he stopped showing up to rehearsals. I was completely panicking. Louis suddenly got on the phone to some guy he played with a while back, and asked if there’s any chance he could make it to a rehearsal right now—and learn our whole set in 2 weeks. Then in walked Seb—I have never felt more grateful to see a man walk in the room with a couple of sticks and an espresso. He was so incredible and fit in with the band so well that we decided to keep him as our permanent drummer. This year we had a recent addition to our band, Liv. I saw a picture of her somewhere and knew instantly that I wanted her in the band. She picked everything up so quickly, and it’s so nice to have another girl in the band.
Amelia:
That's crazy because from what I've seen you look so cohesive, and like everyone's in the music and absolutely loving it.
Eva:
Honestly, it feels like magic how the band came together, everyone just clicks. We have such strong chemistry on stage, and I love them so much—it’s hard to imagine it any other way. I feel really lucky, not just because they’re all so talented individually, but because we fit so well together as a group. It feels like everything fell into place perfectly.
Amelia:
Yeah, that’s so amazing that you connect that well with them, it’s a rare thing to have.
I wanted to talk a bit as well about you being an emerging artist from Yorkshire. I would say experiences massively differ for emerging artists up North and then those in London, and opportunities for big breaks are probably rarer up here; but I would say we do have that community aspect, creativity, and drive that places down South sometimes lack.
How would you say you’ve connected with other creatives and artists at local levels in Leeds? I know you’ve worked with Launchpad a bit.
Eva:
Yeah, so, I’ve been working with Launchpad Plus for the past year or so, and they’ve been amazing, especially with strategy and planning this whole EP release. Claire is just incredible, honestly, I love her. She works so hard, and the fact that the program is completely accessible to any artist who just loves making music is unreal.
It’s interesting what you said about creativity in smaller cities versus places like London. I think one of the best things about being a musician in Leeds is how it’s not as fast-paced and overwhelming as London can be. Like, London’s great, but it’s exhausting. Leeds is more on the up, and I think that’s actually a huge advantage for new artists. It feels like there’s space to grow here, whereas London can feel saturated and too busy. I honestly want to stay in Leeds until I’ve really done everything I can here. At this stage, I’m really focused on Leeds. Other cities can come later, but right now, this is where I want to be.
And the best thing is how easy it is to connect with people. Leeds is small, and that’s actually a good thing—if you want to meet someone, you can. People are friendly, and industry professionals are so willing to give advice. You can sit down and have a proper chat with them. There’s been so much I’ve learned from just talking to people here that I don’t think you’d get as easily in bigger cities, where no one has tons of time for that kind of thing.
Amelia:
Exactly, I completely agree. Organisations like Launchpad and Come Play With Me are doing so much for the scene, and they do it all out of their pure love for music, not being paid much. It just shows that there are people out there that are rooting for you, even when it might not always feel like it.
Amelia:
Okay, so your second EP, Everything Is All I Am, is out on Friday—woo!
What are the main takeaways you want people to get when they listen to it?
Eva:
So, the main thing I wanted to get across with this EP is our new sound. We're moving away from that kind of singer-songwriter vibe to something heavier, grungier, and more deep and meaningful. It’s proper rock music now. I remember when I first sat down to think about the direction for this EP—what I wanted to say with it and what I wanted it to do for my career—it was clear that this had a real purpose. And that purpose was to show off our sound and really put my band in the spotlight. This is the first EP we've all written and worked on together, and that makes it feel super special.
In terms of the songwriting and themes, I think it shows a real range. There’s a lot of emotion packed in there—you’ve probably noticed! Some songs are really angry, which is new for me. I haven’t written much about anger before because, especially as a woman, I feel like that emotion isn’t really encouraged. It’s always been this "ugly" emotion, one that I didn’t want to touch. But over the past year, I’ve been exploring it a lot more and leaning into those uncomfortable feelings. I knew the music I wanted to make was going to be heavier, so I had to dig deep into those ugly emotions and be okay with feeling uncomfortable. I’m not uncomfortable with it anymore, I embrace it.
When I perform those songs, especially the angrier ones, I can feel it, like, all over. And I think the audience really feels it too—through the way I’m singing, the way I move on stage, my facial expressions, everything.
On the flip side, there are a couple of love songs, but I hesitate to even call them that. There’s this stereotype about female artists always writing love songs, and I’ve always tried to avoid that because I feel like it gives us a bit of a bad rep. But I couldn’t avoid it this time, because, well… I fell in love! But even then, those songs have a kind of melancholy to them. The lyrics might be about love, but they come through in a way that’s not all sunshine and rainbows. There’s a contrast in the music—where the sounds and the feelings don’t match in a traditional sense, but that’s what I love about it.
Amelia:
That’s so exciting, which song can we find that on?
Eva:
Winter Sun, the lyrics are beautiful; they’re all about love. But the sound is really quite moody, which I think works perfectly for it. So, honestly, I’m not a Winter person at all—I really hate it! I mean, we’ve had this conversation before, right? I can’t stand being cold and in the dark. But then I met my partner last year, and suddenly I started finding these moments of light in the winter and in the darkness. I never thought I’d feel even slightly hopeful about that time of year. Now, I’m discovering happiness and finding the summer in her, but also within myself. It’s all about looking forward to things, and that feeling has really changed my perspective.
Amelia:
Aw wow, that’s absolutely beautiful how you just put that.
I get the same kind of vibe with the single you released, Hands in the Dark, would you agree?
Eva:
Absolutely! But there’s always got to be a little bit of sadness there too. With Hands in the Dark, the first half is a love song through and through. But then there’s this three-minute-long instrumental section that completely shifts the mood of the track. The first half really puts you in that lovey-dovey feeling—the excitement of meeting someone. Then it shifts, and you realize, “Wow, this is kind of intense.” Even now, after spending hours in the studio listening to it, I still feel that anticipation when I hear the instruments. It gives me a good kind of anxiety. I wrote that song about being queer and experiencing that beautiful excitement at the beginning of a relationship, but there’s also a lot of fear that comes with it. You know, what will people think? This is my first queer relationship, so how will they react? How do I feel about holding hands in the street? It’s not until it happens that you get hit with all of these emotions at once.
It took me a really long time to write because, while I’m an emotional person, I’m not a particularly soft one. I find it hard to write music that expresses those deeper feelings because I know I have to share it with my bandmates and then perform it on stage. There’s always got to be some kind of twinge of mystery or drama, and that’s where the music really comes alive.
Amelia:
So, did you do most of the songwriting yourself? And then you took it to the band, and worked on building the songs up together?
Eva:
Yeah, it was really interesting because every song on the EP was different. For example, with Winter Sun, I was working with a producer I’ve collaborated with for a couple of years. We started by creating the instrumental first, which was really new for me. I usually write music starting with lyrics. For me, a song usually begins with me picking up an instrument, finding some nice chords, and then singing along until the lyrics come to me. So doing it backwards felt really weird.
For Tempt Me, my bandmate Louis had this instrumental that he and his previous band had written three or four years ago. Then, one day in rehearsal, Louis pulled it out, and I thought, “Oh my god, this is incredible!” and I sat down to write a top line for it.
Those two songs felt a bit disconnected for me in the writing phase because I wasn’t writing from scratch. The rest of the songs, however, came straight from my bedroom. For example, the song Exist To Feel, which you’ve heard, started with the lyrics. When I’m struggling for inspiration but know what I want to say, I often do this thing on paper. I’ll pick a phrase or an idea and set a timer for 10 or 20 minutes, just letting everything flow onto the page. It usually ends up being pages of thoughts!
That song was born from a really hard summer for me. I had so much going on, especially coming off my medication for the first time, which I had been on since I was a teenager. It was overwhelming because I started feeling adult emotions for the first time, and it was a lot to handle. I wanted to draw inspiration from something else, and growing up religious, I thought about that moment in the Bible when Jesus kneels and prays, feeling the weight of the world’s sins. It felt dramatic, but that was honestly how I was feeling—it was like I was carrying the weight of the world.
So, I did my writing, wrote the song on the piano, and it had this beautiful structure. There was so much I wanted to express that I ended up with three extra verses, and it broke my heart to cut them. It was tough because sometimes when I have too many lyrics, it feels like I’m killing my children by getting rid of them. That happened a lot with that song.
When I played it for the band, I thought, “Okay, this is the best thing I’ve ever written. What do we do with it now?” It took us a few rehearsals to figure it out, but they just knew what to do with it. It was a beautiful process; I trusted them with my emotions. It’s like sharing your diary with someone. I brought the song to the piano, and they just instinctively understood how to enhance it.
In general, that’s how our band writing sessions go. I’ll bring something, and we’ll just dive in together. It might take a few rehearsals to remember what we’re doing, but it’s usually a smooth process.
Amelia:
The drums in Exist To Feel are stunning, and the song as a whole is one you should be so proud of. From my perspective, it really just shows how incredibly talented you are as a whole, both in your songwriting and then just ability to transform that into a whole world and experience. That song really takes you on a journey, and it’s release is just beautiful.
Can we talk as well about the queer representation on the EP? How important do you think it is that you have that, I don’t know how represented it is usually within genres like grunge, and indie rock, what do you think?
Eva:
I think one of the most important things for me, as a queer artist, is to make it known in my songs, but not as the main feature. Growing up, hearing queer women sing about their love for women was so important for me to understand my own sexuality, and I’m really grateful for that. But for me, I want to be an artist who is queer, rather than a "queer artist." I don’t shout about it in my songs, I’ll shout about it on stage, but not in my music, because I want my songs to resonate with everyone, not just queer people, if that makes sense?
I’ve also noticed that when I advertise myself as a queer artist, I only get booked for queer nights, which is great, but it can feel limiting sometimes. I want people to hear my music and love it, and then maybe find out later that I’m queer, and be like, "Oh, cool, they’re just like me." I want to be known for my music first, you know, and it just happens that I’m queer.
Amelia:
That’s amazing, and yeah I completely agree. It’s like your music should be what people associate you with, and not just being a “queer artist”, you can be an artist who happens to be queer. It’s nice that people can find that in your music, that confidence and pride in yourself and your musical abilities, and expression.
Do you have any artists that have inspired you, for the EP?
Eva:
Yeah definitely, we’ve really leaned into that '90s grunge vibe, like Soundgarden, and we all love Queens of the Stone Age. We even took a little school trip together to see the band, which was a blast. They’ve had such an impact on our sound. In terms of songwriting, it’s been Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey—I discovered her album Rid of Me this year, and it blew my mind. I saw a video of her performing the title track, and I swear I’ve watched it a million times over. The song starts with just one chord, and it has this intense rhythm that I’d never heard before. It inspired me to try limiting myself to one chord when I wrote my song Shame. It came together so quickly—about an hour—and it feels like an homage to PJ.
Amelia:
Shame is so good, I don't know what you put in that song, it's like, laced with something I swear…
Eva:
(Laughs) Thank you! Yeah, Shame came together really quickly.
Amelia:
I can’t wait to hear that and all the other songs on the EP live, you’ve got such a range of styles on there that I bet your performances always impress. Thanks so much for going into so much depth with me this evening, I’ve really enjoyed our chat!
Eva:
Always a pleasure to chat to you. Thank you for appreciating my music and for talking to me about it.
