Eiza Murphy Embraces the Ephemeral Nature of Relationships on New Single "Stepping Stone"

Los Angeles-based Eiza Murphy accepts and adapts to the fleeting nature of romantic relationships with her new song “Stepping Stone.” It’s the latest track to be shared from her forthcoming debut EP following previous singles “This is Goodbye” and “Conman.” The Irish singer/songwriter and producer has also found time between releasing her own music to lend her pen out to fellow artists like Kenzie (“Anatomy”) and Alan Walker (“Sickly Sweet”).

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“We got a shelf life, we’re on a self-timer,” Murphy sullenly confesses in the new single’s opening moments. “Yeah, we’re good for now, but won’t be good forever.” Her piercing vocals find themselves caught between a somber but resonant piano melody. One that eventually gives way to simmering electronica, distorting her vocals into emphatic fragments, and the stirring call of commiserating strings.

“Stepping Stone” laments over the inevitable goodbyes we eventually gift to people we once believed we were irrevocably attached to. But Murphy chooses to orient the song around sentiments that exist apart from the heartbreak that comes with such a devastating sundering. Instead, she faces down and recognizes the reality that not everyone who enters your life — no matter how positively profound an impact they have on you — is meant to remain a prominent piece of it forever.

“It’s not a hard pill that I’ve been trying to swallow,” she sings. “I’m only here to try and fill up your hollow.” No matter how bittersweet it might seem, sometimes the relationships and connections we make are just stepping stones in our journey. There to support and urge us forward as we grow as people. Or as she puts it in the track’s closing seconds: “We’re not meant to be, but just temporarily / I lean on you, you lean on me.”

“I wrote this song because sometimes I feel like relationships and friendships are valued based on how long they last,” Murphy explained. “I’ve had people come in and out of my life in a perfect way, and I wanted to write about that. I think some people are meant to only be in your life for a while, and I don’t think that always has to be a bad thing.”