TCB

Scene Stealers: Eliza Wren

Austin singer-songwriter Eliza Wren, now 22, was all of 8 when she went to her sister's piano recital and decided on her own career path shortly thereafter.

"They announced the next song the person was going to play was written by Mozart when he was 9," says Wren. "I was thinking, 'Man, I'm 8. I can beat that record.' So I started writing songs from then on."

How did that first one sound?

"I can still remember it," the Austin native swears. "I mean, it's not great, but it's all right. Better than some of the next ones I wrote."

These days, the songs Wren writes are considerably more accomplished. The McCallum High School grad's 2003 debut, Peradventure, is an airy, charming affair reminiscent of Throwing Muse Kristin Hersh or Belly's Tanya Donelly. If she sounds seasoned beyond her years, it's because her musical signposts consist of "older stuff" like Tom Waits, Serge Gainsbourg, the Kinks, and the 13th Floor Elevators.

"The Beatles are what got me started on it," says Wren, "but I've kind of washed them out of my system."

Wren's voice also graces Pony, the new disc by local group Hallicrafters, but here, it's mysterious and ethereal, like the Cocteau Twins stranded deep in an Appalachian holler. She joined the group after an especially serendipitous appearance on local station KOOP.

"Somebody who was on the same show was talking about how their uncle was looking for a singer," she says. "They had this vision of a little girl with a butcher knife walking down a dark hallway or something like that."

Was that a compliment?

"When I was a little kid, I always liked ghosts and stuff like that," reveals Wren. "Everything I liked -- movies, music -- was really dark, and I never knew why. But I was always really happy; it wasn't like I was disturbed or anything. So I felt pretty at home with that."

Eliza Wren plays Friday, May 16, at Flipnotics.