Life just keeps getting busier for the super-talented Estère, who will bring her ‘electric blue witch-hop’ to the Electric Avenue stage in February. Cityscape falls under her spell.

You’ve had a whirlwind of a year performing globally. How does performing abroad compare to performing on home soil? I think when you perform abroad there's an extra layer of anticipation and uncertainty in the emotions that come with touring. When you're going somewhere for the first time and you know all your friends and family are on the other side of the world, you can feel a great sense of vastness. I enjoy touring wherever I go but playing in New Zealand has a special feeling of warmth and familiarity.

Before you went solo, you were in the collective Brockaflowersaurus-Rex & The Blueberry Biscuits, which is a rad name – how did that name come to be? We all had studied either at university or high school together and formed the band as a means to get to play huge music together. It was fun.

You’ve crafted this extraordinary and heady mix of music you call “electric blue witch-hop” – how did this come about? I like to think of music as a witch’s cauldron. This and that get stirred into the pot. The result is a magic concoction. So when I started making music, I recognised that I couldn't easily fit a 'genre box' over the many elements that went into what I was writing. I just alluded to the electronic, hazy blue, magic, beat-driven nature of my craft by calling it electric blue witch-hop.

What’s on the cards for 2019? It’s starting off with a couple of festivals in both New Zealand and Australia. I'll be playing at Electric Avenue Festival in February as well as St Kilda and Bendigo Festival in Australia. I'll be continuing to tour my latest release, ‘My Design, On Others' Lives’, globally. I'll also be looking to write/record a new record.

How did it feel having Bic Runga ask you to appear on stage with her? It felt very nice. She is very nice. And what a songwriter!

Who are your top music influences that get the creative juices flowing? It always changes but at the moment I've been listening a lot to this amazing Catalonian artist called Rosaliá, an Italian producer called Clap! Clap!, Fleet Foxes and Mitski. All of them suit a different mood, and I'm learning a lot about song structure and production ideas from listening to them.

Person you’d love to collaborate with? Rosaliá. She seems like she's an incarnated goddess of song!

You have a unique sense of style – who is your style icon? Thank you. Hmmm – probably my grandma. I like how she is very decisive about what she will wear. It's inspiring. She likes to wear big rings, sleek black clothing that is always elegantly tailored. She has a bob – kind of like Edna Mode (the designer in The Incredibles). I think people who express their aesthetic in an honest and creative way are always style-inspiring!

One day I’ll… Record an album high up in the Canadian Mountains.

Electric Avenue Music Festival
Hagley Park, February 23 2019
electricavenuefestival.co.nz