Category Music
Published April 20, 2025
Flowers: Poppies and Daisies, by Odilon Redon
Remember how love felt in your late teens and early twenties? The constant push and pull of trying to justify emotional compromises and wanting to disappear in someone completely. We all felt it. Mistaking toxicity for passion, we jumped head-first into a relationship that we knew deep down would end in tragedy. Holding on to any indication of affection, we would convince ourselves that it is worth it and break our backs to make it work.
This is the feeling that Evelia’s new EP On Your Roof transforms into a soft mix of indie rock sounds. As the singer’s touching lyrics and melodic voice slowly consume us, we close our eyes and travel back to a time when we stood, tears in our eyes, and said goodbye to something we thought was our life’s greatest love story.
“I wrote this EP in the aftermath of my first real breakup when I found myself begging for something across these tracks. In my early twenties, I navigated what I wouldn’t stand for in a relationship and how I let that define me,” Evelia shares on her journey of writing the songs that pull on our heartstrings as we reflect the universal fragility of young love and the lessons it carries.
The melodies of On Your Roof grip you early on. Perfectly paired with insightful lyrics, they take the listener on a journey of highs and lows, hitting all the right notes and keeping them engaged and invested, eventually leading to a generous emotional payoff. The atmospheric instrumental matched by Evelia’s voice paints a full picture.
On the process of putting together the compelling sound of On Your Roof, Evelia shares: “These songs were penned alone in my bedroom and later brought to a band in Athens that helped shape the sonic threads, taking the music from acoustic ballads to polished, indie rock songs.”
The Rind by Evelia, Single Cover Art, photo by Kendall Pratt
“Guess that’s what I get when I keep you always on my mind”, Evelia sings in The Rind, the first song of her latest EP. The lyrics perfectly encapsulated the mind-bending self-awareness that comes with a tumultuous love story that lives within the songs of On Your Roof. It is this kind of awareness that sets Evelia apart from other songs that tell the tale of first love and longing.
The first track of the EP introduces us to the romantic struggle that the younger version of the singer found herself in.
The second (Molars) and third (You Are Not To Me Who You Were Before) tracks take us deeper into the story of the relationship, with lyrics like “Come back to me” and “It is hard not to sanctify your name” reminding us of the incredibly vulnerable and, at times, the seemingly impossible process of getting over and letting go.
Finally, we get to *On Your Roof—*the final song. With a more upbeat tone and lyrics like “You made it hard to stay”, we happily see Evelia reflect, realise and begin to move on.
It is not just the longing for the unattainable and the heartbreak of the unavoidable that Evelia’s EP turns into rhythmic ballads; it is also a feeling of rebirth, the bittersweet joy of finding yourself not with a person but without.
Through the moments that feel so painful at the time, a light shines through, and we begin to build a better version of ourselves. We re-examine our boundaries and gain insight into how valuable we truly are. As we grow we look back to the experiences that triggered so many conflicting emotions and see them as memories that shaped a better us.
Evelia at her Live Show, photo by Ben Forte
On Your Roof makes you feel the heartache through the songs. We experience it for the first time as we listen to Evelia’s all-consuming lyrics. Yet, in between these lyrics, we find hope.
An artist who took the pain of a break up and turned it into a beautiful new EP brings a smile and softly reminds us that any emotion can be reimagined and channelled into something new and amazing.
“I hope that you listen to this project and are reminded of being 20 and madly in love—that you recall the brutal push and pull of making a dying relationship work and remember the first time, fresh from heartbreak, that you found yourself,” Evelia shares.
You can listen to On Your Roof on Spotify: Evelia
You can also check out the artist on YouTube: @E.veli.a
Keep up with the artist on Instagram: @e.veli.a
And TikTok: @e.veli.a
