Eva Westphal Finds Magic In Life’s Tiny Moments on ‘Beautiful Little Life’ EP
Eva Westphal by Caity Krone @caitytakesphotos
Life’s tiny moments - from tucking yourself in your own bed at night to a simple glass of wine - are captured by QueerTok viral singer-songwriter Eva Westphal through gentle melodies and lyrical landscapes that allow most moments that people in life tend to overlook finally get to exist, for a moment in time, bigger than they are.
Through a chronological tale of self-love, self-healing, discovery, recovery, and love, Westphal taps into her life story on her debut EP, “Beautiful Little Life.” In a moving confessional collection of songs, the artist slowly but resiliently sheds a light back on every part of herself throughout her EP. From becoming sober to recovering from an eating disorder to expressing her queer identity, Westphal’s EP is not only an introduction to her story but also a testament to persistence and strength.
The EP’s subject matters are ones that can often come from a place of pain, hurt, and personal baggage. Yet, the New York City-based singer-songwriter has nothing but gratitude to express about it all looking back, and through her music, the gratitude is clear. Despite singing about challenges in life, much of Westphal’s EP is rooted in hope, an appreciation for the present day, and looking forward to hope on the horizon which is reflected through soft acoustic chords, tender harmonies, and lovesick melodies that remind listeners that despite the struggles, life has beautiful things still to offer.
Drawing from her classical training and inspiration of pop music, Westphal’s influences pan from Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks to Brandi Carlile and "Folklore"-era Taylor Swift. What sets her apart from other 21-year-old artists is that her passion for mental health, self-love, and LGBTQ+ issues and representation lives not only in her advocacy and in her being, but also in her songs.
Eva Westphal opened up exclusively to Amplify Her Voice about sobriety, recovery, pride, and the stories behind “Beautiful Little Life,” which fuel the newfound gratitude she’s developed for the experiences that led her to make her debut EP.
Do you remember the first time you fell in love with music?
I think it was a slow gradual build because music’s always been a huge part of my life. I started playing violin when I was six and that was just a big part of my family. All of my siblings play instruments. I think the first time I fell in love with singing, I was eight or nine. I was always singing around the house. I always loved writing poems when I was younger. I think the big moment was when I really just begged and begged for a guitar for my thirteenth birthday, and I got the guitar, and I spent the whole day playing it and learning it, and my fingers were bleeding at the end of the day.
Eva Westphal by Caity Krone @caitytakesphotos
What was the first song you learned on guitar?
I learned “Perfect” by Pink! A classic.
When did songwriting start for you?
That same moment. I’ve been writing songs since I was thirteen and got that guitar.
Did you ever perform growing up?
Yes, I was always performing at talent shows and playing violins, and singing covers. The first time I performed my own original song was at a talent show when I was fourteen and a freshman in high school.
I love the way you take small moments and turn them into big, beautiful songs. Where did you come up with the overarching theme of recognizing how small things in life are beautiful?
The EP ended up being a chronological thing. I started working on the EP a year ago when I released, “She’s Mine” and my other releases came out chronologically after that. Those songs spoke more to my self-acceptance journey and coming out. Then it all kind of tied in as soon as 2021 rolled around because that’s when I quit drinking. That was a moment for me where I was like, “This is the final puzzle piece.” That’s when a lot of my emotions for being grateful in my life came in and being grateful for where I am now, and that’s when I wrote Beautiful Little Life. A couple of months later I wrote, “Magic,” which is the last track on the EP and I feel like those two songs sandwiched the other songs pretty well. “Things Don’t Fit” is about recovery and then there are three love songs sandwiched in between these two songs about a general appreciation for life, and I feel like that tied it all together.
How was it filming the “Beautiful Little Life” music video? What was the process like for that?
It was amazing! I worked with the most incredible team. A lot of them had been collaborators for a while. The sound design was by Gloria Hui, and she produced all the songs on the EP. So she’s a massive collaborator, and it was a big women in music moment to work with her just because women producers are so rare and I feel really fortunate she was the person that I worked with. My friend, Rommel Nuñez, was the director, and the whole crew was all female so it was such an amazing experience with such an amazing crew. We called it summer camp because it was kind of like summer camp with really long days where we were only with each other, and it was great!
On your EP, you touch upon your recovery and what that was like for you. You also mentioned coming out, and you have lyrics about staying sober. Was revisiting any of those experiences hard for you when making these songs or was it more of a therautpeutic journey for you to get artistic about those things?
I think it felt really special to write about those things because they had been so quiet for a while. When I wasn’t out, obviously, I wasn’t singing songs about girls. When I was struggling with an eating disorder, I wasn’t releasing songs about not struggling because that wasn’t the truth so it feels really great to be in a place where I can release honest songs about my life experience and for them to be about things that I wouldn’t have been able to talk about a few years ago. It wasn’t hard. It was really wonderful actually. It was a very emotional thing to put out, but only gratitude was the overwhelming sensation making all of these songs.
I would love to talk about, “Hey Americana,” and how you sing in Spanish! I love when artists bring in their heritage into their art. Does your heritage play a role in your music?
Yes, definitely. My first language is Spanish and I was raised speaking Spanish and German. My dad’s German and my mom’s Puerto Rican and so when I grew up a lot of the music would be like my grandparents lived with us most of the time. So experiencing music in Puerto Rico with them and absorbing that culture has been a big part of my life. It all came together in “Hey Americana,” because the song’s premise is this lightbulb moment that combines both my queer identity and also my Latina heritage. It was written about when I was living in Spain at the time, and this man came up and started flirting with my girlfriend, and he said those words, and it was so annoying but also great for songwriting because he totally just rhymed – but it gave me a chance to sing in Spanish. My whole family’s listened to it. My grandmother likes the song, my mom likes the song. I definitely want to release more things in Spanish going forward.
What do you think Is the biggest lesson you learned while making this EP?
I learned that music is one of the best ways for me to practice gratitude because that’s been a huge thing these days for me. So just looking at the sunset each night or walking around the city with music in my ears and things like that, are part of my daily gratitude list that I try to do. I make a gratitude list at the end of the night and music is probably the most powerful way for me to experience that. I’m just trying to appreciate every moment. Especially going into the studio and recording “Beautiful Little Life” and “Magic,” going back and forth with Gloria Hui, there was a lot of gratitude. That’s the function that the EP has had in my life.
Which song on it means the most to you?
It fluctuates, but I think that “Beautiful Little Life” is so public facing like I’m glad it’s the first song. I’m glad it’s the title of the EP, but in terms of connecting with the people who have supported me over the past year with my music, “Magic” means a lot to me. It’s a quieter, acoustic track at the very end. I think of the bridge as hidden a little bit because if you’re listening to “Magic” it’s at the end of the EP, so that means you’ve listened to the whole thing and if you made it to the bridge, I leave a message for my listeners in there where it says, “If you’ve made it this long in a song that will soon be forgotten inevitably, that means something. You mean everything to me,” and that feels really special to me because I get to thank people directly. If the song is in your ears, I know that you’ve given me a solid ten minutes of your time, and that means the entire world to me.
I know you’re passionate about talking about mental health. What is something that you do to preserve and protect your mental health, especially when it comes to being an artist or someone with a following?
This is recent and it’s been such a gift, but I’ve been letting go of expectations and enjoying the fact that the future is unknown. I think I spent a really long time trying to just micromanage a lot of things and plan everything to a tee and I found so much happiness in the past year just accepting that as long as I continue to make music, it’s up to people who listen to me to choose if that’s something they want to amplify and if they don’t, then that’s okay.
I guess that’s not the most music industry thing to say just because the immediate goal is to make a lot of money and make sure that as many people as possible are listening to you, but when I let go of things like, “I need this many followers,” the happier I get, and the more I reach the people I do wanna reach. So that’s something I do to preserve my mental health. If a song that I love gets less streams than I expect it to, then that’s okay. Letting go of expectations has been huge for me.
Have you ever come across any roadblocks being an artist maybe as a woman or as LGBTQ+, and if so, how do you power through that and keep creating?
I think one of the things that I had to get over was comments online because inevitably, if you’re publicly gay, there will be people who don’t like that and make that clear. So that was initially a hurdle that I got over by finding a really incredible team. I also know that the music industry is very male-dominated. A lot of executives and things like that are men so I feel very fortunate to have my management team - the CEO of Quadio Records is a woman and the two men who are my main managers are incredible and support me and I know their values. It’s definitely still a roadblock when you’re a woman and also when you’re LGBT because it’s still very male-dominated as we all know, but it’s one of those things where I know the people who are helping me and I trust them, and I’ve sought out people who I know want the best for me so I think it’s very intentional.
Any advice for aspiring artists?
I used to be so caught up in what was going to make me unique and how I could make a brand for myself, and the less I panicked about that, the more I spent time with myself. I journaled, spent time with friends that I loved, and with my family, and just tried to write songs that felt true to me – that’s when things fell into place. So I think just seeing yourself as someone who is writing your own life journey rather than trying to micromanage every second of everything will open things up for you because that’s when you find your own voice, and your own voice by virtue of it being your own means that you’ll be different from other people.
What’s next for Eva Westphal?
I can hint that there is a particular cover of a song that I posted on TikTok in Spanish a while ago that I am planning on releasing and my mom is going to be singing harmonies on it, so I’m so excited to share that!