Enny Owl Welcomes the World Into Her Music

This week, we’re excited to feature another fascinating musician in a Q&A. Originally from the U.K., Enny Owl currently lives in Los Angeles and has called a few other places her home. You can hear those diverse influences on her new album, Homes In Humans, which is based on a captivating concept. But let Enny Owl speak for herself while you  lean back and listen to the record here or below on Spotify:

Please tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into writing and playing music.

I started writing music when I was about nine years old because I loved storytelling and playing make believe. Disney and the Barbie movies really influenced that period of my life. I realized that I wanted to pursue music as a career when my shyness didn’t hold me back from the stage. I was no longer just singing and dancing around in the comfort of my room; I started signing up for open mics and auditioning for various talent shows.

You moved from the UK to Los Angeles. At which stage of your life did this happen, and did it influence your musical journey?

I moved to Los Angeles after graduating college in Iowa. The transition from London to college definitely influenced my musical journey especially because my campus had a gorgeous prairie. This magical place allowed me to spend more time in nature and truly discover my sound. When I got to LA in 2016, I was able to expand on that sound the more I grew into myself and played more shows.

Let’s talk about your new album that just came out. It started as a project very early into the pandemic. Please tell us about the idea and how it evolved into a full-length record.

They started out as personalized short songs on my instagram story. I asked  my listeners for their names and how they were doing at the time and based the songs on their response. As time went on, I realized I had so many song ideas started so a friend of mine suggested putting it into an album.

All songs of the album are titled with the first names of the people the song relates to. How did you select the names?

I chose each of the names based on the stories I connected with the most. Some were chosen because they resonated with a lot of people in lockdown.

One song I particularly like is our Song Pick of the Day, “Alina.” Can you share some of the real-life story behind the tale of a religiously oppressed young woman who finds liberation?

Alina sent me two prompts that inspired this song. In one she  expressed feeling sadness and the other was about her hope for finding the right girl. I started thinking about my own queerness and how much trauma I had to pull myself out of just to find joy and freedom in my identity. A lot of what I was personally taught in the church was that the love I felt for anyone who wasn’t a man was sinful. It’s been a journey, but I have found so much joy in my queer community and magic.

Your music is an intriguing and unusual fusion between global folk and pop. How did you arrive there, and what are your influences?

Thank you! I love that it's intriguing. I have a lot of folk and Celtic influence in my music. It was inspired by what my music teacher introduced me to during my time living in Dublin. I think the fusion comes from experimentation in the studio and trying to really build a cinematic/ magical soundscape. The more I’ve allowed myself to grow from the roots of where my sound began, the more it has become a genre blend that I truly love.

What is next for Enny Owl?

I’m excited to create more music videos to expand the visual world of “Homes in Humans.” I’m looking forward to playing more shows, going on tour, and experimenting with the live arrangements of these new songs with my band.

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Song Pick of the Day

Listen to/watch all seven songs on YouTube. Follow our daily updated playlists on YouTube and Spotify for the 50 latest Song Picks of the Day. Thank you for following us and sharing the excitement.

Last week, the wonderful Iceland Airwaves happened, and while this year we could not join in on the fun in person, we did enjoy some new music from the remote island in the North Atlantic. “Spaghetti” is an extremely relaxed track by the duo Pale Moon, who divides their time between their home country and sunny Spain. Why, then, the Italian food reference? It is about playing live. “There’s just so much stuff on the plate, so I want to explode,” singer Nata says. Get it?

Sunna Margrét represents the kind of intricate and experimental electronic pop that you may associate with Iceland in the first place. Her new track “Chocolate” (yes, another food reference) is a science fiction story about the adverse effects of time travel.

Let’s go back to the comfort zone: the Irish singer/songwriter Fya Fox (clever name, that is) invites you to a “Duvet Day.” However, “this track is about anxiety, all those little voices, little fears and worries creeping in making you want to crawl up like a caterpillar in your duvet hiding from the world.” If this is the case for you, she recommends using her bright, energy-loaded track as a pickup.

The Northern Irish indie-rock four-piece LipGloss does not elaborate on what their new song “Anna (Walks Along The Street)” is about. But it reminds me of one of my favorite Falco songs, “Ganz Wien,” which addresses hopeless drug addiction. The LipGloss song has a similar gripping build that will give you goosebumps.

The new song “Artificial Flame” by London-based singer-songwriter Emily Underhill, aka Tusks, is autumnal in music and lyrics. The theme is falling out of love, and she wrote the track in solitude when a storm hit. “Weirdly though, that actually ended up inspiring the chorus hook because I couldn’t light a fire without using a load of firelighters, which then made this massive green flame,” she recalls.

“Sin” touches on a similar topic as Enny Owl’s “Alina:” The blanket, often religiously enforced pressure put on everybody who does not conform to the rules of society. If this resonates with you – and I suspect that it does for most of us in one or the other way – London musician ELI has a “rallying cry for those who yearn for acceptance, who refuse to settle for anything less than being embraced for who they truly are.”

We go out with a party: Olivia Judd, aka Lunar June, takes us to the musical celebration of the essential focal points of any gathering: “bathrooms at parties.” She has a pandemic twist in the track, though: “I had developed a lot of anxiety about going out and socialising and being in crowds of people again,” she recalls.

Nine Photos Last Saturday in Central Park

While it was no longer as warm and super gorgeous as the Saturday before, it was still a pretty decent fall day; hence, we didn’t take that many photos but enjoyed our time in the park by crossing it from West to East and stopping at the one or the other park bench. Along the way, we not only crossed paths with many other park dwellers but came across the one or the other jazz combo. Enjoy!