You know that breathless, can’t eat, can’t sleep, reach for the stars, over the fence, world series kind of love that everyone’s looking for — at least if the movies are to be believed? Toronto singer/songwriter Liza knows something about it, too. Or at least she knows about how great the start of a relationship can feel and how quickly that can change. Her new EP, DONE IS DONE chronicles that relationship (or, as she calls it, situationship) trajectory — describing the beginning, evolution, and eventual end of a romance over the EP’s six-track run, an album that she wrote in breakup real-time during quarantine.
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This EP, like the artist’s sound as a whole, leans into R&B and Neo-Soul, influenced by artists like Brandy, Stevie Wonder, and Aster Aweke; it's brimming with sultry beats and H.E.R-esque vocals with a side of slow heartbreak. The first track, “ROLLA," she penned when thinking of her then-new partner gave her straight-up butterflies. “But over time, as I wrote more songs that described what was actually happening, my initial hope of an EP about love didn’t seem so realistic,” she tells Refinery29 over email. “DONE IS DONE,” the title of the EP, was the last track created for the project, chosen because — Liza says — it encapsulates what the entire record is about: knowing when something is over.
“To me, DONE IS DONE is about accepting the end of something even without closure and learning how to let go and move on from a given situation. It’s allowing yourself to see the end and allowing yourself to grow and learn from a situation/relationship.”
The release of this EP may mark the beginning of a new chapter for Liza, but the singer is definitely someone you’ve heard before. If her silky smooth vocals and buttery tone sound familiar, that’s probably because they are — punctuating your favourite shows or popping up on a musician’s latest album. In 2019, Liza’s vocals were sampled on fellow Canadian Daniel Caesar's song “COMPLEXITIES,” and in March 2021, her song “Here to Stay” was featured on season 3 of Grown-ish. (The latter came during a pretty intense moment between Zoey and her love interest Aaron in a scene that Liza says mirrored the meaning of the song perfectly.)
With the release of her EP, Liza is excited to get back to live shows and gunning to have her music on more TV screens and in more films. First up on her bucket list is a hardly surprising choice; along with any of the Marvel movies, HBO’s Euphoria or Netflix’s You, Liza knows one place where her music would fit in perfectly: on the soundtrack to the romance of one of TV’s most divisive couples: “Issa Rae’s Insecure is definitely up there for me.” (Can totally see Issa and Lawrence making up — and making out — to these tunes).