Elmor Interview - December 2009
by
Jodie Humphries
Photo's by Simon Lawrence
Guildford five-piece Elmor, are Luke on vocals/guitar, Tristan on guitar, Andy on keyboard and sax, Richard on drums and John on bass. Prior to their gig at Metropolis in Bristol, four of the band took time out to have a chat with me about life in the band and the recent luck they’ve had. Elmor are a band I only know due to receiving one of their CDs back in 2007 when I was doing some reviewing for Unsigned Magazine. At the time their CD stuck out, so I kept a mental note of their name until I came across it again a few months ago when I received the gig listings for Metropolis.
Since I interviewed Elmor at the end of October, I’ve spotted them in a number of different places, gaining the media coverage they deserve. I even came across them in my morning copy of Metro after they were part of the celebrations for the 50 years of the famous street, Carnaby Street. The guys were invited to play by Henri Lloyd, as they are the sound of their HL jeans campaign.
I started off by asking the guys how they know each other; Andy explained, “It kicked off five years ago when myself and Luke became friends. John, our bass player joined at the same time as me after a random meeting through people we both knew.” Luke added, “I had a band for years, when our keyboard player left, Andy took over and it grew from there. We had to fire several drummers before we found Richard.” Richard said “I joined the band through getting an email off Luke on my last week of college. I replied and met them for a beer, then had a little audition and got the gig. My first session was then auditioning Tristan.” When the current line-up was complete, you’d expect it to just be a little gig for Elmor, but no; their first gig was actually supporting The Futureheads.
Asking how the band would describe their sound, I wasn’t greeted by the usual groans I usually associate with this question. Richard said, “We always say that it’s rock with a melodical pop vibe.” Luke explained that their sound has evolved as their line-up has changed. “Our sound has come alive since these Richard and Tristan joined, it’s a lot more rocking, they were just the missing links really – it was what we were trying to sound like. If we hadn’t taken the risk and fired other people then we wouldn’t have the sound we have.” Richard states that, “I think our sound has improved as much as we have as individuals.” To which Tristan replied, “That’s what I like about joining bands that are better than me in ability, it gives you more aims to progress as a musician.”
As the band said they have evolved so much, I asked if any of them would listen to the band if they weren’t in it, they all agreed they would, while Tristan said, “I would now definitely. Myself personally, I think we’ve created the sound of an idea band. It’s got all the influences from the bands I love. So I defiantly would, but I might be a bit bias,” he laughed. Leading onto their influences, Richard explained how bringing all their influences together create their sound. “I think our different influences are what gives us a unique sound, because as a collective we’re inspired by so much different music. We all bring different angles to our song writing.” Luke said that, “Every song we write could always go a million different ways.”
Talking about Guildford, where the band are from, I asked them about the music scene there. Andy said, “The music scene in Guildford is ok, there’s the ACM – a very well known contemporary music college. There seems to be a lot of bands, but not so many venues. Despite this the music is strong and there’s a lot of talent showing through.” Elmor are lucky that they’re able to play outside of Guildford, playing places like London and Bristol where there are very strong scenes growing.
A couple of days before I interviewed the band, they’d played at Wembley as part of the NFL League in front of 23,000 people. Talking about it, Tristan said, “It was frickin’ awesome – mind blowing! We haven’t really come down from it yet.” Talking about how they ended up playing to that many people, Tristan said, “We only found out a few days before we played. The only reason we got short-listed for it was because of the Vodafone Awards. It’s interesting how everything has progressed since them.” Asking them about their involvement in the Vodafone awards, Luke said, “We did an unsigned competition last year called ‘Live and Unsigned’, which we got through to final for. After that we got a random email saying we’d been nominated for the Vodafone Music Awards for best unsigned band. We can credit that with our sponsorship with Henri Lloyd too, which is pretty cool.”
An LMS interview wouldn’t be the same without me asking the band what their ideal line-up for a gig would be. As usual there was the usual debate before they decided to have one each, although I don’t think Richard was still entirely sure of his final choice by the end of the interview. As I think the line-up stood, it was “Marvin Gaye fronting the Funk Brothers” for Richard, “Muse” for Andy, “Jimi Hendrix” for Tristan and “The Who” for Luke. Staying with bands, I asked what the first ever CD or tape was they bought. For Richard it was “Nirvana – Nevermind.” Tristan said, “Naughty By Nature, but I can’t remember what it was called.” (Tristan didn’t state who it was!) Luke said, “I think mine was Will Smith – Boom Boom, Shake the Room on cassette.” And finally, Andy said “On cassette was probably Five Star – Between the Lines, or Jason Donovan, I was given that…..!” He was quick to add.
Asking what makes any of them want to be a musician, they all agreed its passion for music. Tristan said, “Love of music - it’s just in you man. It’s a different way of expressing yourself, as you can get things off your chest through music. Playing live is great, we’re entertainers.” As a band, Elmor certainly work hard and know where they want to be. I had to ask if they find that everyday life gets in the way of the band at times as it does for so many others. Richard said, “The band is our main priority, but everyday life does get in the way, especially when it comes to work and getting the time off. Everyday life is quite difficult with music, but you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth and focus.” Richard went on to explain that “We’re working with our booking agent to avoid having to miss time off work, so that we can do loads of good gigs, but so that it fits around our life schedule. Asking if having a booking agent helps them, they agreed that it does, especially Andy who used to previously do the bookings. Tristan said, “Especially as we’re getting paid now as well, that’s what we’re searching out for, and why when we come to places like this and get this (referring to their stocked mini fridge at Metropolis), because he works hard for us to get these things.”
As a band that have been together a few years, I asked them what advice they would offer younger bands. Andy said, “Make sure everyone in the band fits the bill for what you’ll be doing.” While Luke said, “Be prepared to make sacrifices, that’s what we had to do.” Talking about what could be done to help unsigned bands, Luke said, “I don’t know, everyone’s doing their own thing these days. The way the industry is changing is people like Henri Lloyd are using unsigned acts because the talent is so strong. There are a lot of unsigned bands who are equally as good as signed bands, or even better. The bottom line is there’s just no money at the moment in the music industry, that’s why people aren’t getting signed, it’s not because they’re no good. I think everyone like Radio One is helping by doing their own thing. Someone just needs to give record companies more money - that would help unsigned bands.”
And finally asking what the ideal future would be for the band, Andy said, “Have it as a full-time career.” While Tristan said, “Make enough money that we can do it full-time and call it our job.” Richard said, “Regular recordings, playing gigs, getting paid for it and living a nice life.” Let’s hope for these guys that this wish comes true for them as they’re working hard to set the music world alight with their indie pop tunes.
