Crepe Girl Interview - New Album Stargazing

Interview with Crêpe Girl

Posted on March 13, 2024
by Aimee

I was lucky to have a chat with Crêpe Girl recently – which is the stage name of French-American singer-songwriter Eliza Grégoire, who has one of my favorite name origin stories and a definite Colorado connection. Her third EP, Stargazing, releases next week and I loved hearing about that process after her 180 degree change from why she came to Colorado in the first place.

The first single from the EP, “Drug,” has been on repeat for me and I can’t wait to hear more as well as catch her live one day.

Header photo by Steph Estrada

Interview With Crêpe Girl

Aimee:
Let’s start at the beginning, if you wouldn’t mind, just for people who don’t know you. Tell me a little bit about your history and your evolution into being an artist.

Eliza:
Yeah. I was born in Indiana, in a French household. So both of my parents, they came from France just a couple years before I was born. My dad was racing cars, and that’s why they moved to Indianapolis. For the Indy 500, it’s a huge racing scene, and that’s about it in Indiana. But I didn’t grow up in a artistic environment, to be honest. I was more into sports environment. I was racing bikes, competitive climbing, all that stuff. And so I hadn’t really gotten in touch with any of my artistic side all growing up. The only thing was, I played drums and guitar, but I’d never written songs or anything. So I was extremely obsessed with drums and guitar, and Justin Bieber, actually.

Aimee:
Love it.

Eliza:
Then for college, I got the opportunity to move to Grand Junction to race bikes. So that was my way out of Indiana, which was really important to me, to get out. And then I raced bikes for a couple years there, and then I got burnt out. I was not in love with it anymore. So I turned to songwriting and finally wrote my first songs, and I was producing a lot of music. And honestly, since then, that’s just been my every day, just focusing on that. And Grand Junction was a perfect place for me to start that out with a smaller community, but really supportive community.

Aimee:
Right. And a super beautiful place.

Eliza:
So yeah, I consider Colorado my home, now, even though I have been in LA for a bit. That’s my home base for a lot of different reasons. But it’s really special to me that that’s where all my music started.

Aimee:
That’s awesome. So the name Crepe Girl came because you were making crepes at shows?

Eliza:
Yeah, so, you know Clairo?

Aimee:
Yes.

Eliza:
I’m a huge fan of Clairo. I saw she had a show in Denver and I had a crêpe stand that I had just started doing business with. And I was like, “Wait, maybe they want crêpes in the green room or something?” And they answered, and they were like, “Yeah, let’s put you in contact with the tour manager.” I was driving to Denver the next day and I couldn’t believe it. I made crepes for her! And then a bunch of different artists happened to be there… Mac DeMarco, Snail Mail, Thundercat were all there. That was kind of crazy to me.

Aimee:
What a fascinating entrée to meet all those people.

Eliza:
Right? And they all liked my crêpes, so Mac invited me to his Red Rocks show the next day. It was crazy. Then I stayed in contact with him and I made crêpes for him another time when he playing Mission Ballroom. So, yeah, that’s how my name started, they all just kept calling me crêpe girl.

Aimee:
That’s so funny. What a great name story. I mean, a lot of times it’s just, “We looked it up in a book,” or whatever. Did that turn into any leads into making music? Or just inspired you to continue to try?

Eliza:
It was inspiration to me. It was another big push I needed to just start believing that, “It’s okay. I can release music.” You know? Instead of just being scared of releasing music. I was like, “You know what? I have nothing to lose.” I fell in love with the inner workings of shows by being there with them backstage. So it was like, “I, 100%, want to give this a shot.” I just realized that it’s okay. It takes bravery to put it out, but once you put your first songs out, it gets easier and easier. So it was nice, yeah.

Aimee:
I know you have a new album coming out called Stargazing, and I wanted to hear about that. That’s really exciting. Congratulations.

Eliza:
Yeah, thanks, it was the most fun I’ve ever had making music, by far. It was the best thing. It was the first time I ever made something in collaboration with a producer and songwriter. I worked with Boy Pablo, who is a Norwegian artist I really look up to, as well. And his brother is a collaborator with him, and his brother was in town to do sessions in LA. And so I got in contact with him and that started the label discussion. Basically, me and Esteban, the producer I made this with, we made the first song, which is actually the focus track of the EP, it’s called “Circles.” We made that first song and we sent it to the label and they really, really liked it. So they were like, “Let’s just go ahead and sign something to make this EP.” After that, I got the resources to make more music with him, we just kept going and we kept writing what I was going through. We kept producing music in hopes that we would come up with a whole EP, and it happened. And then he went back to Norway. And then over the summer, I got the chance to go record all the final takes in Norway in a studio.

Aimee:
Oh, wow, that’s great. Love how that just flowed.

Eliza:
Yeah, it’s really special to me because I wrote the lyrics of this EP, I wrote the songs. I’d say one of the biggest changes of my life was moving to LA, and I captured that, really, in the EP. And it’s a lot of heartbreak, a lot of repeated cycles of doing the wrong thing. You can hear that throughout the whole EP. I’d say it’s a lot of heartbreak, but it has a little bit of hope at the end of it. So it’s really cool because to me when I’m listening to it now, I can remember how I felt when I first moved there.

Aimee:
That’s one thing I love about albums. I mean, I do love this new modern way of people are releasing songs independently, that we are getting music more often from people. But one thing I do love about albums, it’s a collection from of a point in time.

Eliza:
Exactly. And Esteban really helped me, pushed me in that direction to really song write even more vulnerably and more transparently. And that was something I’ll always carry on, no matter who I worked with or if I just make music alone. He really enabled me to be a better songwriter. It was really cool. And we’re starting to work together for the second EP, which is sick. But he helped me so much, and he produced it, so production-wise, but also songwriting-wise. Because in the past, it was just me. And I felt like I was plateauing production-wise because I hadn’t pushed my boundaries because I wasn’t working with anybody. So that’s definitely one good thing LA brought, was collaboration. And now I understand why collaboration is so important, sometimes.

Aimee:
Right.

Eliza:
And it’s cool. I like me making music alone and with people, now. I know the difference and I think I have a better gauge of when I want to make something alone, versus when I want to bring somebody in, which is valuable, too.

Aimee:
Are you planning to tour with the EP?

Eliza:
Yeah, I’m trying to. I have an LA headline March 24th, two days after the release, which is exciting. And I’m trying to book a Denver headline and a Salt Lake headline, and maybe, also, Aspen. I’m trying to do a little Colorado kind of run. And I am playing Grand Junction in May, which is fun, too.

Aimee:
Yeah, I was going to say, you can’t miss Grand Junction.

Eliza:
Exactly.

Aimee:
It feels like you have a lot of things that you’ve done in your life besides music. Do you have any hobbies, now, that you love doing outside of music?

Eliza:
Yeah, I think climbing has stuck since I was 10 years old. It’s probably my favorite hobby, to be honest. I was really into biking, too. Biking’s awesome, too, especially in Colorado. But climbing’s always been there. It’s the best. I’d say it’s super important for me to keep doing that, keeping active. If I don’t, then my mental state isn’t good.

Aimee:
It’s good to find that place that you can do that. That’s good.

Eliza:
Yeah, shut my brain off for two hours or whatever.

Aimee:
Yeah. I know we’re a little short on time. But is there anything that you wanted mentioned or wanted to talk about that I didn’t touch on?

Eliza:
Yeah, maybe just the origin of the name of the EP, Stargazing. I think it is a good theme for the whole album, and a a good representation of me being in that new city, and also trying to figure it out and hoping for maybe some better times. Especially romantically, I was not doing too hot. And it’s representation of me feeling a little bit alone and seeking what’s going to be better, and so like stargazing. It’s hard to put into words, but I think the songs represent the title really well once you listen to it throughout, from top to bottom.

Aimee:
Yeah. That’s interesting. And I also love that that kind of feeling can mean a lot of different things to different people, too.

Eliza:
Exactly, yeah. It’s a good umbrella term for whatever you’re feeling when you listen to it.

Aimee:
Yeah. I love that.