Eilish Gilligan has today announced her first single for the new year, S.M.F.Y. , to be available worldwide on February 2. 2018 is shaping up to be a mammoth year for Eilish, having just been announced as a part of the Secret Garden Festival line-up and as support for Woodes’ tour in March.
S.M.F.Y. is a pop song struck by lightning. Elaborate and bombastic, yet somehow wildly, desperately intimate, this is an entirely new sound for Eilish - but it feels just like home. Produced alongside Japanese Wallpaper and inspired by the elastic production of Bleachers and the writing prowess of Lorde, S.M.F.Y. is a unique, double-take offering from this little pop prodigy.
There is an athleticism to Eilish’s performance – you can tell there’s craft there, a certain training and sense of discipline that’s hard to cultivate without years of work. There is power in her vocals, but restraint, too; She knows that an emotional gutting is done better with a whisper than with a yell. Her masterful sense of control brings to mind Bat For Lashes & Kate Bush – like both those iconic pop auteurs, Eilish has a keen sense of how deeply devastating a lone voice and some synths can be.
2017 was a big year for Eilish; she released two singles The Feeling and Creature of Habit, both of which received airplay across triple j, Double J, ABC Radio National and Unearthed, and community stations across the country. She was also announced as a finalist in triple j’s Lorde RMX competiton.
Her warm, spectral pop has earned well-deserved praise from triple j’s Zan Rowe, Nick Findlay and Richard Kingsmill, as well as glowing write-ups from Rolling Stone Australia, NME, I OH YOU, Pilerats, frankie magazine and more. Eilish has played in Japanese Wallpaper's live band nationally and internationally, and shared lineups with Alex Lahey, E^ST, Mallrat, Confidence Man and more.