Ezra Williams is a Wicklow-born singer-songwriter, now based in Cork. Their music has been featured in the Netflix series, Heartstopper. OTwo Editors Alice Keegan and Laura Molloy sat down with Ezra to discuss inspiration, the Irish music scene, and what the future may hold...
Ezra Williams is a singer and songwriter from Greystones, Co Wicklow. Music was never the plan for Williams - they studied some piano lessons in their youth, but didn’t undertake any formal music education long term. Williams told us that their approach to their music career is, “just go with the flow”. Ezra continued, “The music industry itself, and, like, dreaming and playing gigs and everything, it has ebbs and flows, so sometimes I'll be doing loads and I'll feel really busy, and I'll have loads going on with my career, and then sometimes it'll be quiet.”
Williams told us that they have taken a step back from gigs at the moment to concentrate on their studies as they complete their final year of college.
Williams’ career began after they released their first song. “My mom kept asking me to sing for her, and I was getting annoyed by her asking me to do that - so I recorded one of my original songs and put it on SoundCloud so that she could listen to it and would stop asking me to sing for her,” they told us. Williams then began to grow a following, so much so that a remix artist asked if they could create a remix of their song.
“I didn't realise he was gonna put it on Spotify - he put it on Spotify, but because I didn't have a Spotify [profile], there was no way for him to credit me. And so, my mom went into full, like, manager mode and was like, we're making you a Spotify, we're making you all of these accounts, and we're gonna take this seriously - because she didn't want anyone not, knowing that it was my song”.
Having everything in place gave Williams the foundation to continue creating and uploading their music.
Williams’ music taste is diverse. They listen to a lot of different types of music. “I've been getting really into listening to, kind of, ambient music recently, which has been inspiring me,” Williams told us. They continued, “Whenever I want to record anything or start writing anything, I'll usually have a little bit of time where I just sit and listen to music before I start doing it myself.”
When asked about the process of creating music, Williams told us that their, “personal life is basically their music.” “It’s basically my diary. I'm really bad at separating my own feelings from any of the art that I make, so anything that I've said in a song is exactly how I feel,” they added.
On the subject of releasing their first EP, they said “I had dropped out of school, and I was just making songs, and that was kind of all I was really doing with my days. I was 17, and I just had a few songs - and I was like, let me make them into an EP. And I wasn't really expecting it to go anywhere or do anything, I was just kind of like, this is the gradual [thing], it's the next [step] after releasing singles, you release an EP, so I was like, let's do that”.
[My music] is basically my diary. I'm really bad at separting my own feelings from any of the art I make, so anything that I've said in a song is exactly how I feel.
We asked Williams about when they released their second and third EP, both in 2021 and 2024, if that process was different to their first one, and if they had learned anything from releasing their first EP that they took on board when doing future work.
“I think that every time that I make a new project, I do try to look at it in a different way. I always just want to feel it out and see what I want to do in the moment. I'm very much a kind of, fuck around and see what happens person, so I really go don’t in with a big plan or anything. Usually, I don't start the process by being like, I'm gonna make an album, or I'm gonna make an EP. I'm just kind of always writing, so I always have new songs, and I always have new bits of writing, so I usually just weed through them and see what works together.”
In 2022, Williams’ career reached an incredible milestone with their song “My Own Person” being featured in the first season of Netflix’s Heartstopper, based on the comics by Alice Oseman. “It was really cool. I got approached, they asked me. I got to know what the scene was before the show came out, and I knew that it was for Heartstopper, so I was able to kind of look through the books and know what was coming, which was pretty cool. And so I knew what they were using it for,” Williams told us as they reflected on the experience.
“It was really exciting. It was kind of nerve-wracking though, because I had it in my head that it wasn't gonna happen or something. Like, I was afraid to tell anyone in case I was wrong, or in case it wasn't actually true. So I kept it to myself for a very long time until, one of my friends, she got to see an early release of the episodes, and she sent me a message and was like, what's your song doing in this? And I was like, okay, so it's true, it is happening”
The song is featured in the scene where the protagonist, Nick Nelson, questions his sexuality in episode three. The moment is really pivotal to his character, so we asked Williams why the song “My Own Person” was the song with the greatest connection to the scene.
“I wrote it when I was, like, 15, 16, which I think is the age that Nick is in the show. I tried to encapsulate the feeling of being really out of it, and not really sure of yourself, and questioning a lot about yourself. So I think because I wrote the song when I was going through a very similar experience, it lends to that - it ended up fitting very well, because it was kind of what it was written about in the first place,” Williams explained to us.
Williams’ career was starting when the Covid-19 pandemic kicked off, restricting their ability to avail of live performance opportunities. When asked if these restrictions had a big impact on their career, Williams explained how it slowed down their progress.
“Yeah, it definitely did. It kind of halted everything, but when I look back at it, I kind of think of it as almost a blessing in disguise, because I think that now, being the age I am, and knowing what touring and doing gigs and what type of toll it takes on your body and your brain and stuff, I feel like who I was at the time . . . I don't know if I would have been as ready for it as I am now. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I got a very slow and steady start into the live scene.”
When asked if there was any one piece of music that they were particularly proud of, Williams pointed to two songs on their album Supernumeraries - ‘Skin’ and ‘My Nose’. Supernumeraries came into being because Williams “had a load of songs that I was writing, and I wanted to make an album, and it felt quite daunting, but I wanted to do it, and I had the idea of wanting to produce it all myself - go in and see what happens.” Williams reflected on “producing almost all of the songs,” along with having written all of them. The process took “about a year,” though Williams noted that, “it didn’t take me as long as it’s taken me to make my second album.” Williams is of the perspective that more time spent with their second album is a good thing however, as they wonder, “Maybe every album that I make is going to take longer and longer and longer, because I have higher expectations for what I want it to be.”
Maybe every album that I make is going to take longer and longer and longer, because I have higher expectations for what I want it to be.
Williams released their most recent single ‘Incandescent’ in November. When asked about this, particularly how they found this experience in comparison to the release of their past singles, Williams replied, “It was good. It was my first release in a while - it was kind of a last minute thing where I wrote this Christmas song a few years ago. I had time over October, and I was like, I’m going to record this song I wrote a while ago. I finished it and I was happy with it, and I was just like, I’m just going to upload it and see what happens.” They didn’t have any “promotion or anything backing it . . . it was a release for the sake of releasing it, I think that it did well and I’m really proud of it.”
Williams’ biggest influences throughout their career have been the band Florist; “I was such a big fan of them when I was 15, and I’ve been listening to their music for years.” They, “got the opportunity to be their support act for their Irish leg of their tour over the summer . . . It almost reshaped what I view as important in my life, and what is important to me . . . it was one of the best experiences ever, and now I’m still obsessed with their music and it just inspired me in ways that I didn’t think it would.” They also point to Haley Heynderickx as another main source of inspiration for them, along wi I’m th Stella Donnelly.
Williams also has a keen interest in art and design. They reflected upon whether having a background and another interest in different forms of art has shaped their music and how they approach their career in general. “I think that with a lot of the work that I do through my music, I’m able to look at it as art that I can make, because the art that I can turn into songs, they kind of inspire each other and bounce off each other.”
Williams, when asked about how they have found the Irish alternative and indie music scene, and whether their experiences have been mostly positive or negative, they remarked that, “They’ve definitely been mostly positive . . . In Dublin, all of my friends are in bands.” Williams mentioned going to various events such as the Whelan's Ones to Watch series. “I love the scene in Dublin, I love getting to go to gigs, and having like familiar faces all around and just making friends, it’s really fun”.
Their favourite venues they’ve played at so far include Levis' Corner House in Ballydehob, West Cork. “It's such a cute venue. It’s so cozy and nice, and the people who run the pub and the venue are so lovely . . . the whole small town, it just felt like I was in a book or a cute novel. That would probably be one of my favourite [venues] that I’ve ever played in.”
Williams was then asked whether there was any one piece of advice they would give to young artists trying to break into the industry. Having started their career at such a young age, Williams said that, “The main thing that I would say that helped me stay sane in all of it is that every release is different from the one before or the one after, and you can’t get caught up in the numbers of it all, and the attention of it all. If you’re making music because you’re enjoying it, because it’s what you want to do, then that should be the main thing that you draw your gratitude from and your happiness from. It should always be what you think of your own music and your art. That’s what I do to try and stay positive.”
Williams was asked if they had anything planned for the future that they could tell us about. Williams revealed that they have written and recorded a new album, which hopefully will be out soon. When asked what their biggest goal that they are working towards is, Williams stated simply, “Being able to sustain a life as an artist, a working artist and musician. I’d love to be able to work through my text art while also being a musician and touring.”