Music > Interviews

Interview with Ellen and the Escapades

04/01/12

Some talent shows help you achieve the coveted reward of singing to a nation of millions of musically-apathetic while they shove their Saturday night takeaways down their mouths that rest gaping at the TV screen redundantly anyway – hey, myself included – but some competitions give artists the opportunity to play live, in front of thousands, but thousands of the right people, a music loving assembly of festival goers. Both are entirely valid, but just the latter happened to Ellen and the Escapades, their Emerging Talent win affording them a slot at the music mecca, Glastonbury, and it’s been a steady climb since…

You’re coming to Norwich next month [at time of writing], but it’s fair to say that you’ve done your fair share of touring… Yeah, we’ve done a fair bit! Yeah, we’ve been really busy, mainly since the start of the summer, because we had a whole load of festivals over the summer and also we’ve been recording our album, and since then we’ve done a tour as well, so things are quietening down now for Christmas. We’re looking forward to starting again next year.

We can’t escape the fact that Christmas is almost upon us. Are you feeling part of the countdown? I love Christmas, so I’m someone who’s looking forward to it, and having some time off, and some family time and stuff. Jeff, in the band, is originally from California, so he’s managed to get back for Christmas as well, so everyone’s kinda winding down a bit.

You were part of the 405 and Green Man advent calendar… Yeah, that was really nice; I remember they put that video up a little while ago and then it kinda disappeared, so we were kinda like, ‘Oh, what’s going on?!’ Then they put up all these kind of videos that are really cool, as this advent calendar thing, so it’s been nice to watch them back really.

What’s it like to be perceived as a daily treat?! Yeah, it’s really good, yeah!

Green Man is one of many of the festivals you found yourself at this summer; there are enough festivals now for people to enjoy quite a select line-up… Do the more folk specific festivals suit you, or do you prefer to play to a mass audience who may not be aware of you yet? The thing is, there are so many different ones that are so diverse as well, especially like Glastonbury, and we played Bestival this year as well, so a lot of them we’ve played are so varied, so you’ve no idea what you’re gonna get from one act to the next and it’s a really nice way for people to discover you who wouldn’t necessarily have stumbled across you otherwise. But it’s always really nice to do the more folkier, I guess kinda acoustic, folky pop festivals, because more people might enjoy us, as that’s what they’re into. It’s good to get a good variety of both, I think.

There won’t be many acts that have graced Glastonbury before they’d released an album… That’s a hell of a feat for 2011 for you, isn’t it? Yeah, I know it’s mad; we’ve played twice now and we’ve only just recorded our album! I think for a lot of the big festivals we’ve done, it’s been kinda amazing to get on them in the way we have done.

Stages like the BBC Introducing stage have afforded bands those kind of opportunities. They’ve been helpful in your area, haven’t they? Yeah, well I think when we first started out, quite early on, Alan Raw and Katie Noon on BBC West Yorkshire and Humberside Raw Talent were really supportive of us from the start. I think Alan actually put us forward for the Leeds / Reading Introducing stage in 2009, so that’s how we got to play that really.

Talking of Leeds, it’s a city that’s not lumbered with a specific music genre; Indie sits comfortably next to soul, and there’s a lot of dance production… No, it’s really, really diverse; there’s such a lot of stuff and I think it’s really nice because there are a lot of people, a lot of different promoters and people involved in the different genres who run their own nights, so it’s good – whatever you’re in to, you’re definitely gonna find something that you’ll easily like, or that you wanna go and watch, or discover new bands that are being put on. So yeah, it’s really strong for music, but there’s not one vibe that’s coming out of Leeds.

And of course you guys studied in Leeds for a year… Yeah, well what happened was that the rest of the band – apart from myself – were doing a BTEC at Leeds College of Music and I ended up joining in the second year of that, so that was the only year we were all together on that, but then some of the guys ended up staying on to do degrees and stuff, and some of them left, so we were only together for one year on the course, and then I don’t think we became a band officially until some of us had left.

There are pros and cons to studying your art form, aren’t there? I think obviously creative subjects, there’s some of it that you think you can’t really be taught, but I think I mainly used it just as a networking thing and they were always great for meeting people, those sorts of courses, and I think I probably got a lot more from just talking to different people, and ending up meeting them and playing with them than I necessarily learnt on the course itself. So yeah, it definitely has its pros and cons, but it’s also just a lot of fun. I really enjoyed going to the LCM, definitely.

Were you able to learn about the industry as well as the form? Yeah, that was one of the really interesting parts actually; there was a lady called Charlotte Orba, who ran the Music Industry module and that was always really interesting – I used to enjoy that quite a lot.

You released your EP on your own imprint; I read a quote from one of you that said you ‘have to be prepared to self release your own music’… does this ring true for your album plans? Erm, well I think we’re still open to different stuff at the moment, but I think our management are talking to a couple of different labels and stuff, so I think there’s a potential for us to put something out on a label. I think we really would like to be able to do that if we can, but we’re definitely preparing to put it out by ourselves, just in case nothing comes of that. But it’s actually quite fun learning about that kind of stuff and preparing to do it by yourself; you just learn a lot along the way, and you’ve got a good understanding of how it works then as well.

For many bands I speak to, their current band isn’t their first; what were your first forays into music, and have you always come out with the same kind of output… No, I used to be in a band called 16-Bit Revival, which is like a poppy, Indie, slightly emo band, which is quite funny because it’s nothing like what I’m in now. I just used to play keyboards and acoustic guitar, and not do any singing. Then me and Chris, who’s our keyboard player - we used to do a few gigs just as a duo before we got the band together as well, so we played a bit before we became Ellen and the Escapades.

It’s funny, so many artists that I speak to become emo, pop-punk bands, and I always wonder how these bands lead on to so many good things?! They probably just teach you that that’s not what you want to do, haha!

I was wondering, with you having one American member of the band, is that correct? Are you able to share the varying sounds of British / American folk? Yeah, it’s really nice actually, because I sometimes watch bands, like British bands, who have that kind of Americana vibe going on, and I think maybe it’s a little contrived, but for us it feels genuine ‘cause Jeff’s the real deal and he naturally brings that sort of element across! But me and Chris especially, we listen to a lot of American singer-songwriters like Carol King and Bob Dylan, James Taylor and those sorts of people, who are American folk singers and stuff, so we have got that sort of vibe anyway, and then we have the music that we grew up listening to – stuff like The Beatles and that British sort of stuff, so yeah, it’s nice to have a mix of everything.

I remember interviewing Midlake and they were talking about how much they were influenced by Fairport Convention and all this British folk music… Yeah, it’s definitely dependent on what you listen to; I love Midlake and I can definitely hear  the British influence on Midlake there – I’m a big fan of them. 

Going back to the album – is this something we can look forward to soon? The plan is at the moment that it’s gonna come out in April properly; we’ve done this thing called Pledge music, where people who pledge can pre-order it a bit early. I think the digital version’s coming out in February to those people, and you can still pledge, so there’s still a chance to get it early, but the actual thing is scheduled to come out properly in April. There’ll be a single before that as well.

Having just the EP, we can’t be certain of any other slight musical directions, although I’m loving the diversity of ‘Yours to Keep’… I think on the album, it’s made up of new and old stuff, so a lot of the recordings we’ve put out in the past are kind of – not necessarily rushed, but we’ve developed a lot and we’re still sort of playing those songs, so a lot of them, we’ve kinda rearranged a bit and re-recorded. We feel obviously that they sound a lot better now, and most of those songs are gonna be on the album, with new songs as well. I guess the newer stuff has got a bit more of a darker side to it for sure, so hopefully people will like it. There’s a really wide variety of stuff on it though… And if it doesn’t compromise you at all, what label would you imagine you’d love to be on? Oh god, I don’t know; we kinda like really admire a lot of the larger, independent labels like Bella Union, or Sub Pop and 4AD and those kinda things, but with a label, I think it’s a really personal thing, you know, with your relationship with them, and theirs with you.

I’m not going to ask you about how you feel about shows like the X Factor, but with the winners covering the Damien Rice song, ‘Cannonball’, I wondered how you’d feel if you’d written a song, and then it was used in such a commercial aspect? God, I don’t know how I’d feel about it really; I guess it’d have its pros and cons – a lot of people would hear it, and maybe they’d think it was an original tune, or whatever, but I don’t know, I really honestly don’t know how I’d feel. I just sort of think of it as a totally different world, and if people like it, if it entertains them, that’s fine with me.

You came to Norwich very recently for the Norwich Sound & Vision festival, but are you looking forward to coming again? Yeah, definitely – we’ve played there twice now; both gigs I really enjoyed. We did that one with Josh T. Pearson at the Arts Centre, which is where we’re playing again I think, and the one for the Sound & Vision was at the Bicycle Shop, which is actually the hottest gig I’ve ever done in my life! That was really cool though… 

What would you like from us as a crowd, when you come back? I always like it when crowds are friendly! I like it when they’re attentive and don’t talk too much, but interact with you – I always enjoy that. Both times we’ve played, we really enjoyed it because the crowd’s been exactly that, so I don’t see why it’d be any different.

Emma Garwood

Ellen and the Escapades come to Norwich Arts Centre on January 16th. For tickets, go to www.norwichartscentre.co.uk. For the uncut version of this interview, go to Outlineonline.co.uk