Eilis Frawley tackles conventions on her latest album, Fall Forward

“Pick a hobby not a habit,” pleads Eilis Frawley.

The Berlin-based songwriter approaches music from some quirky angles, which produces an end result that is every bit serious. Trained as a classical percussionist, Frawley plays the drums in her recordings and does vocals. You can’t exactly say “sing,” because she doesn’t. Instead, she speaks her words through stream-of-consciousness, as if she’s writing them in real time. She speaks to the listener as a friend who will tell you as it is: direct, honest and sometimes cutting - but you still get the sense that she is on your side, no matter how much her words may sting.

“I wish I had some romantic answer,” she says when asked why she doesn’t sing the lyrics. “But I think I like telling stories. I think it’s a nice format to tell stories.”

Born in Adelaide, southern Australia, Frawley has lived in Berlin for the last 10 years. When she arrived, the first thing she did was audition for a circus - they needed a drummer.

“My audition was a spoken word thing that was triggered through electronics. That was kind of the beginning step. But I didn’t get the job.”

Her style of spoken word has more in common with the Beat generation than with a rapper’s sensibility - in others, no rhyming, and very little posturing. Her tone of voice is sincere but unapologetic, stern but likeable. She explores where the personal meets the political; seeing the world through an untainted innocence without naivety is hard work.

Fall Forward tells the story from a perspective of a young Catholic student who has the maturity of a middle-aged person - the story telling is accessible to both younger and older audiences.

I lied in confession, in order to lie a week later.

From the title track, this is my favorite line of hers.

“It’s a true story. I went to a catholic all girls high school - a catholic-based early education is still really big in Australia, which I find quite shocking - and we had to confess, but I didn’t have anything to confess. They would say, ‘well, you must have done something wrong…’”

“A lot of the album is about growing up in this guilt brought on not so much by my family, but by the education system.”

When asked how her experiences differ now that she is in Berlin, which is known for its progressiveness, Frawley says that there is still a long way to go.

“Especially if you look into the music industry, where people make more money, often the higher you go the less diverse things get.”

Conversely, there are a few nuanced cultural differences that are often overlooked. Frawley was reminded of this when she recently took a trip back to Australia.

“I was just in Australia where women still wear high-heels at work. We would never wear high heels to work in Berlin - it’s uncomfortable. All these kinds of cultural details are different. You are allowed to be just who you are in Berlin.”

It brought back some childhood memories that are tainted by old Catholic guilt. Her latest album addresses these kinds of societal pitfalls that are equally awkward as they are backwards.

Frawley spent most of March touring Germany and Switzerland. She will take April off and continue her tour in May, making the UK one of her stops.

Her closest stop to Nottingham will be the Hatch in Sheffield on the 31st of May.

“Sheffield is my favorite city in the UK. It’s so charming. I’ve played there many times. I’ve played one or two times before at Hatch (Sheffield), it’s a cute place.”

“I forget what it's called, but there’s a great record shop, and the proprietor is just full of knowledge. Other than that, I really love the drive from Sheffield to Manchester. I always like going to London. Always a good place to eat dinner.”

How does she find playing to English audiences?

“On the logistics side, it's very complicated. Especially since Brexit. The fees are not as good as in mainland Europe. The investment of a British tour is a lot higher. I like the crowds. My music is very text-heavy, very english language based. So it makes sense to tour in the UK.”

Some of the nuances of her lyrics don’t always hit when playing to European audiences. “The tongue-in-cheek moments get kind of lost.”

“Some of the people who come see me already know what it’s about, or at the very least they are open to music. But now, especially with this live band set up, I think it’s more interactive, which makes for a better live show. I always get asked, ‘How do you play drums and do your vocal thing at the same time?’ It seems to be the thing that people can’t move past. But as we’ve going on, I’ve learned how to perform better, and how to do the spoken word live more effectively.” Sometimes, the band overpowers Frawley.

“It does take some demand to listen to us - we play around 40 minutes - I think that’s my limit too. It’s important to give the audiences time to digest what they are listening to.”

Frawley’s song structures are not your traditional verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus. Instead, much like her stream-of-consciousness spoken word lyrics, the accompanying music flows linearly, simultaneously spontaneous, yet acting as a stable bed-rock to the more transient nature of the words.

What is the role of music within society?

“I think live music has a huge role in community. I would consider a lot of venues the modern-day church. I think any time spent in community is healthy. I think we spend so much time by ourselves on our computers, on our phones. I think this idea of being in a collective society is healthy.”

“I do worry that everything is getting more expensive - people are getting poorer. I work in a music venue as well, and it just generally feels quite tough to make ends meet while making sure it’s accessible to everyone. The question is: Who should be paying for art? I don’t think it should be the individual person - I don’t know, it’s pretty complicated - but I still really believe in this government-funding-the arts system. Allocate money, otherwise it becomes elitist, and this is not good for the community.”

“There’s a lot of music being released, which is fantastic, but it’s really hard to be heard, to get a response. I especially feel for younger artists who are starting out, who don’t know how to navigate the system yet. Even getting your first show can be challenging. I sometimes take it for granted. Venues want to know: how many people can you bring? Who’s your label? Can you pay this much rent? This isn’t easy on an entry level.”

Fall Forward came out on the 7th of March