Roots singer-songwriter, Elles Bailey is about to release her fourth studio album, 'Beneath the Neon Glow'. Elles is a British artist who can jump between genres with ease. With her distinctive vocals and stunning songs, it's no wonder she took home a hat trick of awards at this year's UK Blues Awards.
We caught up with Elles to find out more about her music.
Photogroupie: You recently played Glastonbury. How was that experience? Did it feel daunting to play somewhere so large?
Elles Bailey: I wasn't really daunted by the gig itself, because, I definitely felt ready to play Glastonbury, but I did feel daunted by the general size. I was going as a punter as well as performing, and it's the first time I've ever been to Glastonbury. I was nervous about that and also there were a lot of logistics.
I'm used to driving up to the backstage of a festival, playing the gig, going out to meet people, doing signings, getting back in the van and leaving and that was not the case with Glastonbury, and people were arriving at all different times. So I was more like daunted by that. But it was so, so fun. I am now a Glastonbury convert. I need to figure out how to go there every year. I've walked miles and miles and miles. I’ve never been so tired.
Photogroupie: You just need one of those little golf buggies.
Elles Bailey: Yeah, exactly. That'd be the dream.
Photogroupie: You've got a new album coming out now ‘Beneath the Neon Glow’. It's a bit different to stuff you've done before. Was that a conscious decision?
Elles Bailey: I've always danced around lots of different genres. I feel even from my first album I've made it very clear that I'm an artist that isn't just going to be confined to one thing.
What I did as a conscious decision when writing ‘Beneath the Neon Glow’ is (that) I really wanted to stretch my songwriting. I wanted to make sure that the lyrics were as best as they could be. I worked hard on melodies. I pushed my voice in a way that I've not pushed it before, into places that I'm not naturally very comfortable. I feel like that's been a great thing. So maybe that’s why people are saying it's sort of different from stuff that I've done before.
My last album, ‘Shining in the Half Light’ which we’ve been touring for the last three years - I love that record so much, but It's a very easy album for me to sing. ‘Beneath the Neon Glow’ is definitely harder. So I've really, really worked hard on my voice to make sure that it's up to scratch, and it can do the job.
Photogroupie: There seem to be a couple of themes running through the new album, talk us through those.
Elles Bailey: I think I just write about what I know and what is honest to me. I mean, I love those first opening songs: ‘Enjoy the Ride’, ‘Ballad of a Broken Dream’ and ‘Leave the light On', and they're all really, really personal, and they're all actually about my journey as a musician. ‘Enjoy the Ride’, it's like there is no destination in this musical creative journey that we take. Taylor Swift is proof of that. She reached the top of the mountain, and then she finds another mountain to climb. There is no destination. It's a journey, you've got to enjoy the journey, so that's ‘Enjoy the Ride’, and it's really autobiographical.
Then ‘Ballad of a Broken Dream’ is about this musical creative path and the toil that it can take on your mental health. ‘Ballad’ is not my journey, but it's about being a musician. We follow the story of an incredible talent that has ended up playing in dive bars where no one knows his name, and it's a really heartbreaking story, but it really discusses the battles with mental health that he's had.
‘Leave the Light On’ is again exactly about me. It's my story, and it's about the incredible person that stays at home and allows me to go and travel and realise my dream and supports that. It's so important that artists have a good strong support system around them. So those three opening songs set up the story of the album.
Photogroupie: Has your writing changed since you became a mum?
Elles Bailey: Yeah, lots of people ask me that. I do think you just feel things differently. When you become a parent, I think there's suddenly a fear that you hold. There's like this incredible love and this incredible fear, that sort of dance around together, and I'm sure that does come out in my writing.
On ‘Beneath the Neon Glow’ there's actually no song specific to being a parent. If you want that, I'd check out ‘Spinning Stopped’ from the deluxe version of ‘Shining in the Half Light’. I very much think it’s embedded in my songwriting in songs like songs like ‘Turn Off the News’, and stuff like that is entwined with love and fear. And my gosh! What kind of a world is my son going to grow up in? And all of that type of stuff.
Photogroupie: ‘1972’ is clearly about simpler times. And are you a nostalgic person?
Elles Bailey: I think the general essence of the inspiration of the music that I make today, considering most of it is rooted in early blues, roots rock and roll, that's where the influences have come from. So yeah, I think just by the essence of that I am a nostalgic person. But I'm also like forward thinking as well. I want to learn from the past and do what we can to make the future better.
The the song, ‘1972'. it is a slightly tongue-in-cheek craving for, like you said simpler times, but actually, it's a craving to live in the moment a bit more, We're all so tied to our smartphones, and how we're gonna present these moments that we capture in the lens to other people. And actually, it's just like “let's just put it down for a moment,” and I am so bad, I’m really, really trying to be better. And actually, as a parent it's starting to come out, like ‘the anxious generation’. Our kids are growing up with these devices that I most certainly didn't have when I was growing up and I wanna be better so that my son, hopefully, can grow up without just being surrounded by screens his whole life. Even though I do understand that there are so many benefits to technology, but we need to use it safely.
Photogroupie: Absolutely. That happens with gigs, doesn't it? People don't experience the gigs in the way that they used to. They’re just filming it and are not engaging with it.
Elles Bailey: I tried when I was at Glastonbury, to just live in the moment. Obviously, I did film bits and I've shared them on social media. But it was very much like, when I'm there I'm just gonna enjoy it.
I watched Coldplay, I’m a big Coldplay fan, and in one of the songs Chris (Martin) said, how about a hundred 1,000 people put their phones away for this? Not everyone did. But there were definitely a lot of people who put their phones in their pockets and their hands in the air and just lived in the moment.
Photogroupie: One track I love on the album is ‘Let it Burn, and it's got a different side to your vocal as well. How did that come together?
Elles Bailey: ‘Let it Burn’ is a gift of a song, and I say that because I wrote it with Katey Brooks. Now, Katey, you can hear on the album, which is very exciting. She does all the backing vocals on ‘Let it Burn’, 'If This is Love’ and ‘Love Yourself’, the rest of the backing vocals are done by Liam Cromby and Demi Marriner, three unbelievable artists. I'm so blessed to have shared their talents on this album.
Last year Katey had the slightly mad idea that she would write a song every single day and record it and share it. So, six months in she messaged me and said “do you want to be part of my song a day?” And I was like, Hell, yeah! So we set a date to get together and write a song and both of us cancelled. I think she was poorly and I was just exhausted. So we put another date in the diary, I think it was October 3rd and we're going into the studio in end of October. So it was very, very close to the wire.
I just got back from Nashville, and I was so tired, and I thought, do I cancel this song-write? And I thought I can't cancel it. I said to her like, How's the song a day going? And she's like, I've actually had to stop.
She did like 250 songs last year, which is crazy. But in the end she said her mental health was (suffering) it was too much, and she had to put herself first and that was a wise decision.
She came to me and she said, I've got a half a half-baked song. “Do you want to hear it?” And I was like “I'd love to hear it” and ‘Let it Burn, was half written.” She said, Do you want to finish this with me? And I was like, I most certainly want to finish this song with you. And I was like, “do you really want me to have this song?” She's like “I'd love for you to have this song!”
So I feel like, ‘Let it Burn’ is an absolute gift.
Photogroupie: It’s a brilliant song, even down to the crackling embers at the end.
Elles Bailey: Yeah. So we recorded to tape and everything live. And so the piano is tracked live with the band, and you can hear like the creaks of the room. It's so broken, and I just think it just fits so perfectly with the song.
Photogroupie: You’re now signed to a label, does that feel different from being an Indie artist?
Elles Bailey: So I'm still an Indie artist. I have licensed my album, so I still run my own label. I've licensed it to Cooking Vinyl and it's great because I'm not having to do the heavy lifting, which gives me more time with my family, which is what I needed and what I wanted and what I was craving.
I was losing it a little bit because it just got too big for one person to do, and I was finding that I was just constantly doing all the label stuff and not being an artist anymore. So it was the right decision to make. I'm really, really pleased. I'm still like very much in the driving seat and they're embracing that, so I like that.
Photogroupie: You've done a few covers over the years. On the ‘Wildfire’ Album you did an amazing rendition of Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake it Off’. Are you a Swiftie?
Elles Bailey: Oh, yeah, I saw the Era’s Tour! It was amazing. I've realized my memory is so rubbish because all that's in there is Taylor Swift lyrics that I didn’t know I knew.
Yeah, I’m a Swiftie, I think she's fabulous. I think what she's achieved as a woman in music is just unreal, and she makes artists like me believe that anything is possible. I think she's got a steely resilience.
Photogroupie: She certainly has.
Elles Bailey: And an amazing way to write songs. My gosh! Her lyrics are brilliant. She's a brilliant lyricist and storyteller.
Photogroupie: You recently did track with Scarlet Rebels on ‘Out of Time’. What other artists would you like to work with?
Elles Bailey: I would I'd love to work with Mavis Staples. I love Mavis. I'd love to do something with Bonnie Raitt. Brent Cobb, I'm a huge fan. I think he's utterly brilliant, and so I'd love to do something with him.
Photogroupie: I'd love to hear you and Bonnie Raitt. You've got a similar tonality to your voices.
Elles Bailey: Yeah, she's an amazing big hero of mine.
Photogroupie: Did you always want to be in music?
Elles Bailey: Yeah as Abba said I could. “I could sing before I could talk”, so I think it was just a destiny. And there's been no big breaks or anything like that. It has just been a beautiful journey, with lots of hard work. And I genuinely just enjoy that. But hands down. I was either going to be in a band or on the West End stage. I'm glad I went down this sort of path.
Photogroupie: Do you still fancy being on the West End stage doing the odd song and dance thing?
Elles Bailey: No. I think this is the right way for me. There's more expression for what I'd want, and what I want to say, and the creative freedom of being able to write as well. I think that’s very important to me.
Photogroupie: What artists do you like listening to yourself?
Elles Bailey: Gosh! Loads of different ones. I love Larkin Poe, I think they’re amazing. Brent Cobb, The Wood Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Imelda May. I love lots of old-school rock and roll and blues, then Taylor Swift. Actually, there is a lot of Taylor Swift in our household because it's something that my three-year-old son likes to listen to, as well and Sing The Official Soundtrack and Soundtrack Number 2. That is what is mainly on repeat in our house, and we have a little bit of a dance party.
Yeah, my top songs on Spotify are gonna be Taylor Swift and Sing this year.
Photogroupie: I remember reading that your Dad's record collection was instrumental in your music tastes, like all the stuff on Chess Records. Who were your early influences?
Elles Bailey: Yeah, yeah, definately. I like so much of what my Dad used to listen to, but also what he used to play. He was in a rock and roll band. He actually played Glastonbury in 1986, which is cool. Like lots of rock and roll as well. Jerry Lee, Chuck Berry, The Beatles. I love the Rolling Stones as well, he was a Rolling Stones fan and my Mum was a Beatles fan. The Eagles as well, The Nitty-Gritty Dirt Band, I was a big fan of them - I still am.
I didn't really listen to much Led Zep. I'm sure that they didn't cross my path until much later. But I do like Led Zeppelin as well.
Photogroupie: Fabulous band!
Elles Bailey: Yeah, I know. I know. I wouldn't necessarily call them an influence, but actually, I didn’t have much time with them in my early years. They sort of came to me a bit later. It was when it was when my dad's best friend joined a Led Zeppelin tribute band, and that was when I started to get to know the catalogue.
Photogroupie: So no versions of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ from you then?
Elles Bailey: No, not from me. However. I did get to join a symphonic orchestra at the London Palladium in 2022 and I got to sing a ‘Heartbreaker’ and ‘When the Levy Breaks’ with a monstrous orchestra behind. That was pretty amazing. Planet Rock put it together, it was great. Kris Barras was playing as well, along with Nathan James from Inglorious and Molly Marriott.
Photogroupie: The Palladium is a great venue for live music.
Elles Bailey: Yeah, really nice. I opened for Don McLean there as well. So I got to play the Palladium in October and November of 2022, which is pretty fun.
Photogroupie: What do you do when you're not making music?
Elles Bailey: I like running, although actually, I've been poorly on and off since just before Glastonbury, so I've hardly been able to run. But running is the thing that I do for me. The whole album was all of my mix. References came when I was running because that was the only time I was really able to listen to mixes. I often write as well when I'm running. The first verse of 'Leave the Light On' was written when I was running.
Photogroupie: You going out on the road later in the year with the new album. Tell us about that.
Elles Bailey: So we're playing record stores as a trio with Joe Wilkins on guitar and Demi Marriner on guitar on the week of release. Then the festival season will come to an end in September, and then the main tour starts on September 25th in Lincoln, and goes all the way until December 7th in Dublin, and we're going all over and into the Netherlands as well, and we'll be announcing some more dates in Europe for 2025, as well.
Photogroupie: So you're going to be pretty busy over the summer. Are you hoping to relax a bit before then?
Elles Bailey: Something like that, although I announced a bootleg edition which sold out in seconds. And I've spent the last 4 weeks, all of my downtime making CDs. So that's what I'm doing at the moment; there's been a lot of stickers involved!
Photo Rob Blackham
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