No. 19 - 🔌 Interview with ELIO edition 🔌
Back in June, I interviewed Toronto pop singer ELIO, who recently dropped ELIO and Friends: the Remixes, for a feature that I wrote about the proliferation of remixes, cover songs and “reimaginings” of existing material during the pandemic. Because of the nature of the story I was writing I only got to use a few quotes from our convo so I thought I’d share the whole thing (lightly edited) below.
I saw on your Instagram that you’re in Los Angeles right now. Do you split your time between Toronto and L.A. usually?
I'm usually here half [of the year] and half [of the year] in Toronto for the most part.
Is L.A. where you go to work or do you do that in Toronto as well?
I mostly come here. I'll write pretty much every day and get in sessions and stuff, and then come back to Toronto and kind of just produce it out and figure out whether I want to be on an EP or a single or whatever and then just finish it there.
So how did you decide what would go on Can You Hear Me Now?
I think it's just the songs that you always end up going back to. I like to listen to a lot of my demos. On this trip, probably by the end of the three weeks on the plane ride back, I'll listen to all the songs. Or while I’m doing kind of mundane things I'll just listen while I’m cooking or driving or whatever and whichever ones really stand out, I'll usually just pick those ones. If they're super meaningful, that always helps as well. I think it's like just a combination of if they're genuine and true to me as an artist, and also catchy and fun.
Were all of the tracks written around the same time or did they come from various sessions?
I wrote most of them the last time I was in L.A. There's one called “Fabric” that I actually wrote like, three years ago. That was the only one that was really dated. But it felt so important to release it because it was me before I started doing music just being sad about not being able to do music and working a shitty part-time job. It was kind of funny and also really nice to have at the end of the EP.
Was an EP always the goal? Or did things get cut short because of you having to come back to Toronto on short notice last year?
I wanted to do an EP - the idea of doing an album is a little daunting. When you're doing an album, it can be hard to really release 12 or more perfect songs. So I think right now, where I am in my career, EPs are definitely the way to go for me.
And now you’ve expanded a seven-track EP into a 10-track remix record.
Yeah, that was really fun. We wanted to do something for the first EP that I released last year [u and me, but mostly me]. We did a deluxe thing where I did different versions of the songs, usually stripped-down versions or an orchestral version, and it was really fun to do. So. I decided on a remix EP, but not like where you just send a track to a DJ and get back a remix in that sense. Everyone involved was either friends or artists that I really, really love. It was just giving them the song and telling them to do whatever they wanted to do with it
Why did you not want to go the route of just giving all the stems to a DJ to remake how they wanted?
I don't listen to a lot of remixes because I'd rather just listen to the original song. I felt like having these artists bring their own thing, adding their special thing to it, it's almost like a feature, and it kind of makes it a brand new song that has its own identity from the original, which I think is really cool.
You did a deluxe edition of your first EP and the remix version of Can You Hear Me Now? Are these sorts of follow-ups planned out beforehand?
No. I usually just get bored. If I could release a song every week, I totally would. But people would get very tired of that, I'm sure. I just want to be doing something all of the time and obviously, during quarantine, it was really hard to keep really busy. This is a really great way to kind of have something happening, but also stay in touch and connect with other artists, which I think was really hard to do this year as well without touring.
Have you done a lot of touring in the past?
No, I've done no touring. I hope to finally go on tour, hopefully, next year.
With you not having really had a chance to tour, is it hard to promote releases like this?
I don't really know anything different so I have no idea. It's definitely interesting because I feel like I have so many connections with people who listen to my music on Instagram. We’ll DM and some of them we’re like friends. It's gonna be really exciting to be able to tour and actually see a real person who likes my music. But I think the music kind of speaks for itself whether you're touring or not. If people find your music and they like it then that's just, that's great.
Do you think that the remix EP would exist if you'd been able to tour?
Probably not. It was a really hard thing to put together, following up and sending stems and getting artwork and all that stuff for not only myself but other artists. It was a lot of work and I don't think if I was on tour, I'd be doing it at all.
So it's not just dumping product onto DPSs just to have something out there. There is a lot of effort that goes into something like this.
Totally Yeah. And I'm addicted to releasing stuff and getting creative, and videos, and artwork and stuff. So yeah, it was a really great way to do it and also collaborate with my friends. Most of them are friends and the rest of them were people that I really loved. It was really cool to reach out to the people that I loved and have them listen to the songs and the EP and like them so much that they would actually do stuff on it.
Which artists did you not already know personally?
Chase Atlantic, I’ve been a massive fan of them for a few years and We sent them the parts to “Hurts 2 Hate Somebody” and they really liked it. They were literally my most-streamed artist of like 2019 so to have that was really cool.
Were they aware of you when you reached out to them?
I think a little bit. We talked like once or twice just over Instagram but I don't think they knew too much. It was really cool. And then No Rome obviously was on it as well which is amazing.
How personal are those songs to you in the sense of how much of what you're singing about is something that you experienced?
Honestly, the only song on that record that wasn't something I've personally experienced was “Charger.” Writing that was actually a breath of fresh air because I felt so much pressure to write something that was so relatable and true to me. I think I needed to release “Charger” because it’s just a really fun song and that's it. It's a cool concept that I had a lot of fun writing. I don't think you have to really personally crazy relate to what you're singing about, in order to genuinely write a song about it. But most stuff is stuff that I go through.
That's so interesting because that song is so specific that it's hard to imagine it not being a lived experience.
Yeah, it's like this whole story. Some of my favorite artists... I don't know if you know Andy Shauf, but he has these whole albums that are just stories of different people and different lives and stuff. I think it's really cool. I think it's just as validating as writing from your own personal experience, if not harder.
Is it hard to take something that's so personal, give it to another artist and have them put their twist on it, or potentially alter the meaning behind it?
No, I think because of the artists that I picked. I had so much trust in them to do whatever they wanted to do. If it was just someone that was, you know, pitched to me or a great career move or something, I would have definitely been a little more skeptical. But now I really trust and love these artists. I could almost hear the remixes before I even got them.
Did you have specific songs in mind or did you let them choose?
The Adam Melchor one, I just knew that Adam had to have that song. He messaged me when I came out and he said that he really loved that song specifically. But for the most part, I kind of gave them the song that I would love for them to do. I think a couple of them, they picked, which was also really cool.
Charli XCX added a verse to “Charger” and is mentioned in a lot of your press materials. What exactly is the relationship between you two?
She's my manager. I have three managers: her, Twiggy [Rowley] and Sam [Pringle]. I've been working with them for like two years now and they're truly the dream team, all three of them. They all bring something really special.
Did you specifically want her on “Charger?”
We sat down before I left L.A. in March 2020 and we listened to all the songs that we did there and “Charger” was her favorite. So yeah, I knew it was destined for Charli.
What do have on the horizon now? You’re in L.A. writing. Is this for a new totally new batch of songs, or are you working on stuff that you’ve had for a while?
It's all-new songs. It’s really nice to write every day and in person, because I haven't done that for so long. It's new songs for singles, maybe an EP - I’m not too sure yet. It's like a taste of normality, which has been great.
Have you enjoyed the experience of collaborating with other artists? Like, do you think this is something you’ll continue to do?
For the right project, I think. I don't know if I would do it for every single one, or in a big batch like this. But it was definitely really, really great and fun to do and it's, it's made me want to have more features and on original songs which I was kind of a little scared of before.
Why were you scared of that before?
All my songs are just very personal and close to my heart. Especially as a new artist, I felt like I really had to come out of the gates being really genuine. Like, “this is me in a song” type of stuff. I think now that people kind of know who I am generally as an artist I feel more free to experiment.
ELIO and Friends: The Remixes is out now.
Kool Kids Self-promotion Club
bby is back in print
As mentioned above, for the summer issue of Exclaim! (the one with Montreal soul artist Chiiild on the cover), I spoke with members of The OBGMs, Dizzy and ELIO about the struggles — and creative rewards — of keeping pace in an industry dominated by streaming algorithms and how that’s fed the recent proliferation of covers and remixes.
Kool Kids Recommendation Club
Mysterious UK group/collective/project Sault just dropped their fifth album in 25 months. After last year’s stunning twofer Untitled (Rise) and Untitled (Black Is) he/she/they resume the odd-numbered counting they started with Five and Seven. Nine hit the interwebs on June 25 and will apparently only be available for 99 days (scarcity is the new cultural cache!). Get it while it’s hot.
A self-described “loud gay band from Portland, OR,” Alien Boy released a real sleeper pick back in 2018. Sleeping Lessons scratched a lot of itches for me - emo, shoegaze, fuzzy guitar rock in general - but the band have been pretty quiet since. “The Way I Feel” is the first taste of Don’t Know What I Am, which is out in August.
Throughout the pandemic, I’ve struggled with music that requires me to slow down and just listen, my attention more easily maintained by stuff that’s fast, loud and just generally more immediate. Ellis, from Hamilton, ON is a great example of the rewards that come from that former kind of listening: music that’s small and intimate on the surface, but blossoms with repeat (and attentive) listens. “Hell,” featuring fellow Southern Ontarian Chastity (who I once saw play in a barn in his native Whitby), is a standout from her recent EP nothing is sacred anymore, which I highly recommend.
I highlighted Angel Du$t a band made up members of Trapped Under Ice and Turnstile a couple of issues back. I described Turnstile as “a great HC band for folks who don’t like HC bands.” Now the band have re-emerged to prove my point: the songs they’ve shared from their forthcoming LP Glow On (out August 27th) are pulling from a variety of styles, including hip hop (check out the cadence of the verses on “No Surprise”) and one even features indie R&B hero Blood Orange. “Mystery” is my fav so far - you can check it out below as part of their Turnstile Love Connection EP (all of which looks like it will be included on Glow On).
Holy Fuck member Brian Borcherdt once described his band Lids to me as a summary “of all the things I’ve ever been interested in musically” and its easy to see why. Lids are the most straight down the line “rock band” he’s had a hand in. Of course, when a group is round out by members of Metz and Constantines, everything is relative. It took six years for the trio to follow-up their debut seven-inch with this new 45 from Sub Pop. “Furniture,” the record’s A-side, doesn’t disappoint.
Midwife, aka Denver-based multi-instrumentalist Madeline Johnston, calls her sound as “heaven metal” and it’s easy to see why. Her song build into crashing crescendos, taking listeners closer to God (or whatever otherworldly being they might believe in) along the way. It’s not that far removed from the heavy shoegaze/black gaze thing that a lot of bands are doing at the moment (Nothing, Deafheaven et al), but there’s a bit more beauty and a lot less brutality to it. “2020,” from her new album Luminol, repurposes the chorus to the Offspring’s 1997 alt-rock fist pumper “Gone Away” repeating it until it becomes a mantra. “And it feeeeeeellllss/And it feeeels like/Heaven’s so far away…”
Ian Gormely is a freelance music journalist based in Toronto.
Hit up koolkidsmusicclub@gmail.com for questions, criticisms and submissions.