CMRC - Elsa Hewitt on songwriting, production, and navigating the music industry

Elsa Hewitt

Elsa Hewitt (‘one of the most interesting exponents of the electronic avant-garde in the United Kingdom...’ – Reverberacion Amarilla) is an electro-pop singer-songwriter, based in York and originally from Sussex, who ‘channels life’ into the making of albums. Largely self-taught in songwriting and production, she began making music in her early teens, as an escape from what she describes as the ‘materialistic values and superficiality of school culture’, and has been an unstoppable music creator ever since. In the words of music blog An Earful, she ‘makes music partly as an act of self-care, and the enveloping, immersive nature of her sound-world translates that compassion directly to you’. 

Since acquiring her first electronic instrument – an Alesis Micron synthesiser – she has been searching for ways to combine songwriting with experimental electronic and minimal music. In 2016, she won the PRS Foundation’s Lynsey de Paul Prize and was initiated into the Brownswood Future Bubblers programme.

She has produced nine albums (!), and her music has been featured on Radio 1, 6Music, Mixmag, and various Spotify playlists. She has performed in the UK and abroad, with artists including Suzanne Ciani and Anna Meredith, and Doa (Bjork’s daughter) cited her as one of her top influences in an interview with The Face.