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Ridiculously compelling and theatrically emotive, Izzy is seemingly an embodiment of definitive pop: charismatic and with just enough risk-taking sauce to keep you guessing. Based on a made-for-TV, real life adventure about a unintentional solo trip to England, her EP Sunny In London is about making the most of bad dice rolls and sprinkling sugar on sour moments, and the benefit is a collection of songs that bop, bang and beat us into sticky melodic unison. Desperate to dig into this surreal story and more, we have the luck of her entertaining our invitation to the OnesToWatch content basement to share. The result are revealing, inspirational and very, very sunny:

OnesToWatch: Who are you? 


Izzy: I am Izzy Escobar. I am a fellow human. 

Congrats on that. 

Thank you. I chose to experience this human life through the lens of music. I'm a singer, songwriter, and artist. 

Why are you an artist? 

I feel like I've never known anything else. I started playing violin when I was four. I felt very understood by music, even though there were no words. I just felt like the tonality and melodies and songs just got me. I definitely was a bit more shy as a kid and I felt very misunderstood as many of us do. But whenever I was listening to music, it felt like a warm hug, like someone understood me. Something got me. I leaned into that and never looked back.
I've just ridden that wave of what I love, which has always been music. 

When was the first time you made music with the intent of finding an audience, sharing it with people, not your family or friends? 


I started writing when I was around six or so. I just would sit on the floor of my bedroom and write about things that would happen at school that day or things that were going on at home. It was genuinely my form of expression, even when I was really young. 


When did you start really trying to find an audience and build your brand? 

I don't even know if I've ever even been trying to find an audience, but more so just doing what I love and then seeing what happens naturally from that. I hope that by making the music that feels the most authentic to myself, the right people will surround me as a byproduct. 

Love that. Heaven forbid, all your musical talent leaves you. Do you have a plan B? Is there an alternate course for you? 

I don't believe in plan B. I believe in finding the boat and burning it. You find the boat, then you burn it. 

I love it. Let's get into your new project, Sunny in London. First question is, have you ever been to London? Have you ever seen the sun in London? 

Great question. Yeah, so the way the story goes, is I basically moved to a new city for love, which was New York City. And I lost it. A week before, I was supposed to go to London with my ex on a trip. And I don't know what came over me, because I had never traveled anywhere by myself, but I freaked out and decided to go to London by myself. I went. I was terrified. If you could see my journal entries that I wrote on that plane, I was like, what am I doing?
Like, this is insane. But I was determined to do a session every single day and write a song every single day in London. That's all I wanted to do, is write the record there. So I went to London, and I was obviously heartbroken, didn't know anyone, was on opposite time zones from my friends in the U.S., so I was not talking to anyone. I was just feeling everything. From a very individualistic perspective it was just me in my head. It was this mix between being heartbroken, but also meeting the most incredible people, making friends. I was going to new jazz clubs every night and really immersing myself with the London jazz scene. I ended up getting to sing at Ronnie Scott's while I was there. I went and played on BBC, heard myself on the radio for the first time. It was this contrast of being so devastated, but then also I was finding myself again and remembering who that ambitious, ballsy version of myself is, who leans into music and just has a love for singing and connection with other people. It was so ironic, because while I was in London, people would tell me, you're so lucky you came here this time.
It's sunny in London. I thought that that was such a sticky phrase. It just ended up becoming this metaphor that was like finding light in a dark place. And trying to figure out how to do that. 

How did you go about picking songs for this record? 

The number one priority to me was leaving this project knowing that every song is quality. I cared about each individual song just being really incredible. I cut the record mostly in New York City, actually. I wrote it and produced some in London, but the rest I cut in New York City with all live instrumentation. So it's like Jerry Barnes from Chic on bass, some of the most iconic musicians and jazz musicians in New York played on this record. Gregg Wattenberg produced it. And I feel like you can really feel that in the songs. You can feel its soul, you can feel its authenticity, its imperfections. That was really, really important for me. I remember asking Danny, my manager, “When do I know when I’m done with the project?” I had never done this before. And she was like, “Well, I think you'll know.” That always stuck with me because I feel like I did know at the end. I knew these six songs were the ones. I just had to follow my gut on that. It tracks my journey from heartbreak to self-realization in chronological order. For example, the song “Nevermine,” I was going back and forth to the bathroom, crying, coming back, singing, because it was happening in real time. 

Beautiful. Do you write already anticipating the next project? Or is each project its own moment in time? 

I would say everything's a moment in time. Things happen every day and you can't plan for that, so you never know. I have already started writing my next project and have the next concept, but I just love to be creative and create storylines and amplify those storylines. But when I write, I usually start from a form of freestyling and improv. So I freestyle over beats or piano progressions and based on how the progressions make me feel, words will come to me. It's this stream of consciousness thing. From there I'll edit. But I write from a form of improv. 

Wow. Very jazz. What's the worst idea or best idea on this record? And since they're always the same, what is it? 

Yeah, actually, I have an answer for this one. We were in the studio. This is the last song on the project, “Jackie O.” It was different from all of the other tracks, it was a bit more spacious, had strings, more ambient sonically. I started singing verse one, and thought “What if I wrote something about Jackie O?” I've always loved Jackie O. I think this would be a cool lyric. I sat with that and I remember being silent, sitting by the piano in the corner of the studio with Gregg, the producer, and then all of a sudden I was afraid that this might be a terrible idea. But eventually I decided to scratch the verse and make the Jackie O concept the chorus, and amplify that, using the O in her name as a melodic structure. I just thought that that would be really cool. That song, for the first two days, no one understood what was going on. Nobody got it, but it was probably one of the first times this has really happened where I had a true gut feeling within me every day I left the studio that was like, keep working on it. I would say now it's probably my favorite song on the project. 

Great story. Hopefully you don't have to have your love shot. That's always tough to date afterwards, you know? If everything works out the way you want it to with the EP, what does that look like? What are your goals? 

I want to be a household name. I definitely am one to shoot for the stars, and I think that all of us should. There's no limitations, nothing is impossible. I'm going to make another record after this, but I really just want to amplify this project, first and foremost, right now. The lyrics were so important – it talks about moving through your emotions, whether that be betrayal, heartbreak, joy, the art of surrendering, the art of aspiring to your highest version of yourself. Those are big topics, so I want to make sure that they get their time in the sun. I'll be going and touring London and Paris in the next few weeks. I would love to tour with a major pop girl in the coming new year. So that would definitely be a goal of mine. 

What about your audience? What do you want them to take from this project? 

I want them to take whatever... you know what I mean? I always thought that was a funny question because everyone has such a different framework and perspective and lens that they're coming from when they listen to a project. So I really just want them to take any sliver that hits them at their heart. I hope that they can find an ounce of sun.

Pivoting to some more alternate reality kind of questions.
If you could perform any place, any time, with anyone – dead or alive – do you have a dream concert? 

I would really love to perform with Lady Gaga. Her VMA performance of “Paparazzi,” that would be super iconic to do a duet situation there. 

No one's ever said that one. I love it. If all your friends are super hungry and we ambush you at home, can you whip up a meal and what is it? 

Well, they might get food poisoning. I'm just kidding. That's on them. I hate to say I'm vegan, but I just love animals. It's not me being annoying. I'll make you guys some tofu with rice and maybe some broccoli. 

You going to flavor the tofu at all? 


We'll see if I have any spices in my spice rack.

If you could be anywhere in the world right now, in your most relaxed state, where would it be? 

I would genuinely be in my bedroom. My space is so important to me. In my bedroom, candle lit, incense on, we're listening to some nice meditation music, that’s the most relaxed I could be. 

What is something you do to break away from music? 

I really love to meditate. I love to read. I just actually just watched this interview of Lana Del Rey. I went down like a YouTube rabbithole on her and saw this interview where she was talking about two books that changed her life and one of them was Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. The first thing I did was buy those books and that one was very formative in this process. I got a lot of my friends on it, so I would talk to them about each chapter. But yeah, basic things, hanging out with friends, meditating, eating some tofu, listening to some jazz… And I love to go for walks. Get a coffee. 

What's your take on jazz? There's some people arguing that there's a bit of a revival. Do you feel that way? 

I do. I think at the end of the day, music is always going to be changing. And you're always going to have elements of this and that, and I do think that the beauty of jazz is that it gets to live outside of the box. That is why I fell in love with it. This act of acting on musical instinct, whether you're playing a sax or keys or vocals or drums, you were able to act on that instinct. And also simultaneously be on one collective stream of consciousness with the band you're playing with and all have to, without speaking, let the music drive you. I think that'll always be such an integral part of jazz music that is still the through line. 

Very powerful. What Internet trend would you kill and why? 

I would kill hashtags. I wish I didn't have to use hashtags. I want to just throw a video out there, cold. Maybe no captions either. 

I love it. Come as you want. If there's one piece of advice you would give your younger self, what would it be? 

When I was younger, I felt very misunderstood and like I never fit in. It caused me to try to fit in a box and make myself smaller to fit in with a trend or what’s popular. I would just continue to tell my younger self to be authentically you because, it sounds kind of cheesy, but no one else is you and that is your superpower. So not getting into the trends, not getting into any outside noise, but just continuing to beat your own drum, I would tell her I would tell her that. 

Okay, last two questions. First, I’d like a non-music recommendation: an activity, book to read, movie to watch, place to go, etc. 

If you're in New York City, go to the Carlo. It's just such an iconic place with so many iconic people who have been there and so much history. They have a live piano player, which is great. 

Lastly, I’d like a music recommendation. Maybe an album people should revisit from the archives of pop? 

I love Taylor Swift. I grew up going to her concerts and now she's so huge and I think that that's amazing. So all of those records, 1989 I love. 


What about Taylor's newest record? 

Yeah, I really like the songs on there. 

Awesome. Anything else you want to shout out? 

I would just say, please stream my EP and let me know what your favorite song is. It's called Sunny in London, and I hope that you find your Sunny in London by listening to this record.