EP Review: Eaves Wilder - 'Hookey'
Eaves Wilder releases debut EP ‘Hookey’.
Eaves Wilder has been playing the piano since she was 8. By the time she was 16, she started recording, producing and releasing her own music.
Now, her debut EP is finally out. “Hookey” is released by Secretly Canadian, a record deal she waited until 18 to sign, as it would be “uncool” to have her mum sign it for her.
Co-produced by Andy Savours (Arctic Monkeys, Black Country, New Road and Rina Sawayama), the EP has 4 tracks. “I Stole Your Jumper”, “Morning Rain”, “Connect the Rooms” and “Are You Diagnosed”, which was praised by BBC Radio 1 in the “next wave/future artist” session.
Throughout the EP, the born and raised in London singer tells her story so far, from heartbreak to mental health.
“Hookey is basically about bunking off. I spent most of my teens playing Hookey in the music room at school. That’s where I wrote songs and taught myself instruments”, says Eaves.
“‘Are You Diagnosed?’ was literally written in the middle of my French GCSE class, and I remember mixing my first demos of ‘Morning Rain’ under my desk in sixth form. Through lyrics, production, or melody, my main thing is always adding as many hooks as possible - or how can I expect people to listen? My inner dialogue when writing or jamming is MAKE IT MORE HOOKEY!!!! Each song is kind of a different perspective of where I was and why I wasn’t at school, it shows a progression. It started in the hospital when I was unable to speak my mind, and ended with the decision to share the secret songs I’d been making.”
One of her most personal tracks is “Are You Diagnosed”, inspired by her experience with the British mental health service CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services). “I first entered the CAMHS when I was eleven. Although they did finally help me, and I left at the age of fifteen, ‘Are You Diagnosed?’ is basically a stream-of-consciousness, scream for help rant/report about what it’s like in those awful, quiet waiting rooms, and consulting rooms.
As CAHMS is so dangerously underfunded by the government, the deal is- the closer you are to death, the higher up the waiting list you go. Which on average is around 16 months. And people with eating disorders are competitive anyway, so it’s very easy to look around the waiting room, and think, ‘I need to be the most ill person here. I need to get … ill-er than the girl with the bandages on her arms, or the tube up her nose - or I’ll never get treated. I’m going to make my way up that list.’
The key thing is getting your diagnosis. There’s no treatment until diagnosis. You don’t know what is happening to you. And a lot of people doubt you are ill anyway. They (friends, family, teachers) think that you’re making it all up, I think that's easier for them. And so the biggest question is, over and over: “Are you diagnosed? Are you diagnosed?”
In a recent interview for The Independent, she confesses that didn’t see herself as a singer and felt embarrassed to share her lyrics. With the lockdown, she had all the free time and online resources to learn how to produce and perform her own music.
Inspired by all types of artists, from Paul McCartney, Al Green, Marvin Gaye to female lead singers such as Courtney Love (Hole), she dedicates “Connect the Rooms” to one of her inspirations, Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre).
The expectation to see where the release of the EP will take is highly anticipated by the critics, as NME has included Eaves in their 2023 ‘100 List’.
It was only in February she performed live for the first time. With two other gigs lined up in London and Cambridgeshire, we look forward to what is yet to come!
Words by Gabriela Simionato
