Emerging pop artist, Liska, first dazzled us this past summer with her 90’s alternative-infused single, “Infinity.” The Chicago artist – real name, Annelise Steele – has just unveiled her new EP, It Girl, and needless to say, this one is aptly-titled!
With an addicting, and rather refreshing, pop meets alternative sensibility, Liska’s It Girl EP is the epitome of cool.
Reminiscent of Gwen Stefani meets Charli XCX, Liska shows off her bad ass vocals with a sweet twist, making this one EP you don’t want to sleep on while solidifying her name in the world of pop darlings. Also, that Clueless sample at the beginning of the title track: * chef’s kiss *
We asked Liska to break down each track off of It Girl for this exclusive track-by-track commentary! Enjoy and make sure you press play below!
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We recorded several songs before deciding which ones to actually put on the EP. I wanted to make it clear that I am here to make catchy pop songs, but I also wanted to bring elements of indie-rock. While I’ve always been a rocker at heart, I’ve always been mystified and inspired by the world of pop. The songs don’t sound too much alike but they’re an accurate depiction of all the places I wander. I also think it ties back to the idea that an ‘It Girl’ is not just one vibe, one sound, one aesthetic. It’s an all encompassing attitude.
“Infinity”
I got the idea for the chorus ‘your eyes are infinity’ while watching the Netflix documentary, Escape to Infinity. There was a segment of the documentary where they explain the concept of infinity as a never ending circle, moving away then feeding back into itself endlessly. They were using an eyeball to demonstrate this circle and I thought to myself, “oh my god, your eyes are infinity.” Then I was like, “that would be such a romantic song.”
“Grapefruit”
This song was probably my favorite one to write and record out of all of them. We started writing it at a party we threw at the studio as guests were still arriving. We were genuinely just writing it for fun. I wrote the lyrics and melody with my friend Matt Allen and then went into the booth to record a demo of it. I could hear the party outside getting louder and louder and I low-key started getting fomo but we did manage to write the majority of the song. We finished it up a little later when we decided to put it on the EP.
“Aura”
“Boy”
I wrote this song in the car on my way to work. This was when I was obsessively watching TikToks and researching all of the different types of “aesthetics” and “girls” starting to emerge. It almost felt like you were expected to choose just one aesthetic but I was like “this is crazy I want to be them all.” So I think the song “It Girl” is just the common denominator of all the different types of “girls.” Strawberry girls, bloquette girls, Soft Girls, E-girls…. I was like, “why don’t we just be girls?”
