Eliza and the Delusionals welcome you to their sonic garden

Australian indie rockers Eliza & the Delusionals accomplished what many bands outside the U.S. strive for — getting a song to break in America.

The group’s 2019 track “Just Exist” gained the attention of American alt rock listeners after SiriusXM’s AltNation channel played it in heavy rotation. The success of “Just Exist” helped open doors for Eliza & the Delusionals outside of their home country, including a support slot for Silversun Pickups’ tour in 2020 before the pandemic hit.

Listen: Eliza & the Delusionals talk concept album, injury scare, Aussie food

COVID derailed much of the momentum Eliza & the Delusionals had built up. The band released A State of Living in an Objective Reality in March 2020, their first EP with record label Cooking Vinyl Australia. However, with the world shut down, they couldn’t fully capitalize on the buzz around them since touring wasn’t an option.

That hasn’t deterred Eliza & the Delusionals — now a trio consisting of vocalist, guitarist and band namesake Eliza Klatt, lead guitarist Kurt Skuse and bassist Ruby Lee — from still creating music and evolving their sound. From their 2022 debut album Now and Then to last year’s Make It Feel Like the Garden, the Gold Coast musicians have effortlessly blended indie-pop, shoegaze and alt rock into songs that make you think of ’90s icons like Liz Phair and Veruca Salt when you hear Klatt’s dreamy vocals.

While repeating the success of “Just Exist” would of course be great, Klatt says that’s not something she needs to obsess over, especially after the setbacks COVID brought.

“That was really a hard time for us mentally. I can’t believe some days that we actually got through it and we’re still playing music,” admitted Klatt during our conversation before Eliza & the Delusionals headlined the Pike Room in Pontiac earlier this month. “There was a long period of time where we were like, ‘Yes, that’s what we need [‘Just Exist’], that’s the goal post.’ Whereas now we go, ‘No, times have changed. We need to just be doing what’s making us happy and not set these crazy expectations and just be a band and just enjoy playing music.’ Whether there’s 100 people, 1000 people, 10 people.

“And that’s been our mantra for the tour. We’ve really enjoyed ourselves. So I think it’s really important. It took us a while to get ourselves back into that headspace, but it’s been really important for us mentally to be able to continue to enjoy music and touring.”

Make It Feel Like the Garden is an 18-track journey through a specific space Eliza & the Delusionals painted for listeners. It’s a departure from today’s world of streaming — where singles take priority over absorbing the album in its entirety — and it’s quite refreshing. From the title track that stirs up the yearning to belong to “She Sits Up So High” with pop sensibilities that fans of The Sundays would love, Make It Feel Like the Garden leaves quite the impression on its listeners.

Shoegazers will gobble up “Lately” that features Brian Aubert of Silversun Pickups.

Concept albums can be tough for artists as sometimes they run into trouble managing the scope of the project. Longtime songwriting partners Klatt and Skuse didn’t have any issues since they were locked in on what the core idea of Make It Feel Like the Garden was.

“I think we actually had a pretty clear direction. We used to get told when we were doing our first record, Now and Then, write 50 songs and pick 10,” Klatt said. “Whereas this approach was more kind of like, if I loved this song, I’m just going to work on it. If I’m not like vibing with something, I’m just not going to waste my time. You know what I mean? So when Kurt [Skuse] and I were writing it, that was kind of our thought process. Almost every song we wrote, except like maybe two or three, made it onto the album. Instead of writing a giant batch of half-assed songs and then picking what we felt like maybe it was okay.”

“Even from the start, Kurt had the aesthetic all down — the garden, the videos, the album cover,” Lee added. “I feel like the songs just fit into that. Even the ones that didn’t make it on the album, we still took them to the studio. And even then, that’s when we went, ‘This one’s probably a bit harder to come up with parts.'”

Listen to the entire conversation using the media player above, where we also discuss Klatt’s gnarly hand injury, Australian food, the band’s older catalog and more.

Eliza & the Delusionals just wrapped up their North American tour and are back home in Australia. Their latest album Make It Feel Like the Garden is available now wherever you get your music.