Melbourne-based indie artist Elle Graham is one young lady with a blindingly bright future. Loved by her hometown of Townsville and recognised for her ethereal track ‘Bluebird’ which placed in QSong’s top ten finals in 2009, Elle’s limitless potential is obvious.
At only 19, the self-confessed ‘closet songwriter’ has only been performing live for around two years. During this time, music lovers have come in droves to see her perform. Elle’s music blends soft vocal harmonies and piano compositions to create an ambient atmosphere.
In this interview, I spoke to Elle about her developing sound, forthcoming album and her exciting plans for the future. Enjoy, and be sure to explore her music at the links below, where you can also buy her debut EP & album “Woods”
- Words by Tanya Anderson -
Q. You have been writing music for years now and have come a long way, developing your own lovely sound. What were your first few tracks like?
Elle: My first ever track was written at age 14, sitting in our Queenslander [home] one evening in North Ward with my new program that I downloaded online for free – Audacity! It was absolutely dreadful sound quality, but driven and passionate. I finished [the track] ‘Window’ later that evening with piano, egg shakers and a glockenspiel played with a ruler wrapped in a hairband to dampen it (I couldn’t find any beaters). It may have also been raining in the background.
The track is cute though, and was a great memory. My dad played guitar in it, and I had mutiple vocal harmonies. I put it on my iPod that night and showed all my friends the next day. It was ridiculously exciting.
The first ‘real’ track I recorded was ['Bluebird'] with a dear friend Mitch Nordine mid-2009 year for the QSong awards. It was fun too, recording again at 16. We were just starting to work together. I brought out my song book and played him some of my work and he told me we should definitely look at recording an EP, to which I replied, “a what?”
The track turned out to be a really great few days in between senior year assessment – the ambience in the track was supplied by school children on their lunch break playing soccer. We sat in his garden on chairs in his Kirwan home with microphones rather creepily leaning in palm trees, picking up sounds that Mitch later reversed and played subtly in the background of the track!
Q. Sounds like a fun experience! You recently travelled to Melbourne to record your new album. How did this experience differ from recording your debut EP?
Elle: The Melbourne trip was a big adventure for me – not just for the recordings that we had planned to get done, but to get away from home and experience three weeks of being independent. [I had to deal with] being a baby bird from the north in a large city of culture with public transport that actually works!
Mitch and I have always had a rather adventurous recording style, for example, the previously mentioned deckchairs afternoon spent on ‘Bluebird’ (above), or the nights of laughter recording ‘Window’ for the last EP. I love working with him because of his innovation and new ideas, so I didn’t expect this to be a general “sit in this little room and play the piano and sing until we’re done” kinda deal.
I arrived in Melbourne without a place to record, meaning no piano to record on, or basically any plans set in stone about what tracks I would try to complete. We recorded in music stores in the city, sneaking into a university campus pretending to be a student there so that we could ‘borrow’ their grand piano on the top floor to record for the afternoon.
The whole experience was completely different to Townsville because we’ve both come a long way. One thing that can be noted is that recording the tracks took around five days for nine tracks’ worth of piano and vocals, as opposed to the EP which took months, and was only five little tracks. We’ve sped up the process quite a bit.
Q. I’m sure it’s been a brilliant learning curve, and it’s great to see your hard work being recognised. Tell me about your involvement with the prestigious QSong awards.
Elle: ‘Bluebird’ was shortlisted in the top ten in 2009 which was awesome since it took three days to record to reach the deadline. If anything, it inspired the EP as I’d never even considered recording and had no clue about digital sound, having been a classical singer/pianist/percussionist growing up. QSong was a brilliant confidence boost for me, having been a closet songwriter. It was the start of a beautiful journey.
Q. It’s also a journey we’ll happily follow you on. Another year is coming to an end and your sights are set on Melbourne. Can you tell me a bit more about your plans for 2012?
Elle: When Mitch and I recorded in Melbourne I fell in love with the city. Even though it was raining and I was freezing… I fell for her charm completely.
Last year during the time I was down Melbourne University had its yearly open day. I went for a walk around the Parkville campus to check it out but automatically gravitated towards the Victorian College of the Arts in South Melbourne. VCA was previously a stand-alone college that has now been integrated into Melbourne Uni. I looked at their music courses and straight away had my heart set on their Bachelor of Music (Composition) course. The guides let slip that the whole campus was doing a big shift in 2012, and evidently the courses were getting more digital and modern. This year they just released a new course called “Bachelor of Contemporary Music Composition” – Words can’t even express how excited I was when I read those words on the website. The outline features electives that make my heart sing. I can’t wait!
Q. Wow, I’m so excited for you – all the best! Lastly, what can you tell me about the forthcoming album ‘Woods’?
Elle: The concept of the woods was rather simple because I was trying to be independent, living off the money I earnt being a waitress for the past few months, traveling around with friends and working out all my problems alone. In this forest of tall sky scapers, wearing my red barkins coat. I felt like I was in some kind of fairytale.
I wanted that as a theme, as it helps people realize that everything about this set of recordings is homemade by a set of seventeen/eighteen year olds. Which is quite young in the grand scheme of things. It’s raw and it’s what we’re creating now. I could work on these tracks for years and years and still never be entirely happy with them. That’s just the positives of having deadlines, really. Also, I had an extremely fun time journaling in my notebooks over the little red concept. Along with the Cereal Box Crew, this initial concept of the forest and the journey from home evolved into a magical launch – old tree branches covered in fairy lights, hand-made costumes and hoods, even nestor the wolf accompanying me on the viola… The whole experience was beautiful.
CONTACTING ELLE:
The easiest way to contact is through FACEBOOK
Note. If you’d like to use any of the music downloaded from Bandcamp/Itunes/or Amazon for your blog/short film/photography slide-show or other medium, feel free to contact Elle on Facebook.
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