Blog 3 Recording the Album

The recording of our album First Light was an amazing experience filled with moments of laughter, fear, frustration but most of all elation. We recorded the whole thing in four days, which I am immensely proud of. We did it in Richard Niles’ studio in West London, a nice leafy suburb where a nearby café served portions of greasy food and sandwiches that would keep a family of five alive for a week. (Needless to say we went there every day) Most of the album was recorded live, with just the vocals and mandolin and violin laid down separately. We did that for two reasons – to keep the live feel and also to keep studio time down.

I always feel like I just belong when I am in the studio. It is cosy and safe and the sound is so clear and beautiful. I close my eyes and imagine I am performing to a packed out stadium. Before we recorded the album I really had no idea what being in a professional studio with a top producer, engineer and musicians would be like. As well as the band we brought in Richard Cottle (keyboards) and Maartin Allcock (mandolin) to record some parts.

I had this vision of everyone being very cool and a little bit daunting but I was totally wrong (sorry guys). They were just normal. Richard Niles, my producer is a lovely lovely man who not only turned my songs into diamonds but gave me lots of sound advice too. He is a very quirky little guy with a slightly strange and raunchy sense of humour who you just want to put in your pocket and take away with you. He is (and openly admits himself) a genius when it comes to all things music. 

All nerves of recording with the enormously successful Richard Cottle disappear as soon as he rocked up with an ancient tiny Yamaha keyboard with shoe laces attached to it under one arm, and a rickety old keyboard stand under the other. He parked himself on a set of step ladders (as we’d run out of stools), kicked off his shoes (something about growing up in a field in Wales), plugged himself into his Macbook Pro and was good to go! I could not believe it. What my eyes showed me did not match to what me ears were hearing. OMG does that man know how to play a keyboard! No airs, no graces, just pure professionalism, Welsh charm and incredible musicianship. And he does a good Irish accent to (even if it was meant to be Scottish).

During recording we were all perched on various arms of chairs and plugged into the desk, except the acoustic guitar and drums, which were in their own sound booths. The violin and any acoustic piano were laid down after in the live rooms too. Finally the vocals were laid down – all ten songs, including backing vocals were recorded in a day! That is not normal!

It was exhausting and seemed to go in a flash but we have the finished article to prove it wasn’t a dream. Ben Fenner the sound engineer is just unbelievable. The sound he has created is so sweet and so is he.

So much love to spread, so little time. The album is a heartfelt, feel good album. Go and buy it, you won’t regret it.

Thanks for reading. 

Elly xx

Blog 2 Album Photoshoot

Finally, after weeks of e-mailing and planning, the day of the photoshoot arrived! Ok so we all knows how important great images are for a website and album cover but let me tell you… it takes a lot of preparation! More than I realised but we wanted to go the extra mile so we found a very amazing photographer, Nick, (Nick IDM) to work with, who was a total joy to work with. Man, he has his head screwed on.

Anyway, as I was saying, finally the morning of the shoot arrived. Jim and I went on ahead of the rest of the band to go and pick up Nick, our make up artist Jenni and our stylist, Laurne from Braknell train station – en route to our destination. Operation: First Light. Shoot Location: Windsor Forrest. Tim, Tom and Nathan gave us a head-start to get make-up done and then followed us in Tom’s girlfriend’s (Ruth) car. (Tom managed to write his car off two days earlier by driving into something big and hard, enough said.)

Well, we couldn’t have asked for a better day. Sunny, bright and breezy! I was just finishing getting my make-up done, crammed in the back seat of Jim’s car when the boys pulled up in Ruth’s tiny teeny cream Fiat 500 convertible with the roof down and arms draped over the doors – and that was just so they could fit in it! We all grabbed the bags from the cars and headed into the forest.

We set up our stuff in a little clearing in the woods where we were doing the shoot and made up a little dressing room in the trees. We didn’t half get some funny looks and curious comments from passing dog-walkers. The boys guarded the stuff while Nick and I found a sunny spot to do some head shots. I was getting used to the funny looks and the kids on bikes all slowing down to have a good look by the end of it. It was fun.

When we eventually wrapped up and Nick managed to get all the shots we needed, the sun was going down and it was getting a bit chilly so we stopped at Oxford Services on the way home for some hot food to warm ourselves up. It was there that I discovered what Jim had been up to when I was getting my head shots done. Honestly, you can’t take your eye off him for one minute and he’s up to no good! I found out that Jim had been telling people going past that Kylie Minogue was doing a photoshoot and that they had been told that they weren’t allowed to walk past during it, which was why they were all standing there in the woods. That’s why one little boy on a bike suddenly turned into a gang of little boys all cycling past and peering to try and catch a glimpse of Kylie aka me! I can’t imagine Kylie standing in a muddy bog with no shoes on!

All in a day’s work! They photos came out amazingly and we all had a great day.

Thanks for reading.

Elly xx

Hello and welcome to our new website. We are Elly’s Band. We are made up of Jim, Tim, Tom and Nathan. (We tried to get Nathan to change his name to Dom but he was having none of it.) And our newest member is Dave, affectionately referred to as our Canadian Hippy, who brings the delights of a lively violin and some mean mandolin licks. And then of course there’s me, Elly. My real name is Eilidh but I decided to get rid of all the extra letters that I don’t need when I’m singing. I’m from the west coast of Scotland, on the beautiful Ayrshire coast where it rains a lot but you get the best sunsets I have ever seen. Next time I am home I will take a picture for you all to see. I moved south to Banbury in Oxfordshire a few years ago where I met my band, one by one.

I’d like to introduce you to each of us since this is our first blog and many of you won’t know us yet.

Jim, who was first to join the band plays acoustic guitar. In the very beginning, Jim and I used to play as a duo before we grew the band up. Jim is a straight talking, fiery Scottish man who likes to swear a lot and likes other people who like to swear a lot too, like Gordon Ramsay. He is the most kind and generous man I know and is the driving force behind Elly’s Band. Jim is obsessed with getting great sound and is a technical genius (in my eyes anyway as I am a technophobe). He loves all things Protools, Logic, plug-ins etc and will happily talk for hours on end about it all. He is a rare breed and also a talented musician. He’s been playing guitar for decades and he is, to me as a singer, absolutely amazing to perform with. He is an incredibly versatile acoustic guitarist who adds life and feel to the band

Tom came next. We met him via a mutual friend, Chris Hammond, who we sometimes collaborate with on songs. Tom is an incredibly talented pianist (also a very good guitar player) who has grown and blossomed as a musician during the years he has been in the band. Beware! Tom’s piano solos in our new album may make you wish your parents had forced you to keep up your piano lessons! Tom also likes beer and once wrapped his car around a tree just so he didn’t have to drive to a gig.

Nathan is a breath of fresh air and if he were a flower he would be a daisy! He is always happy and smiling and always first to volunteer help. He is hard work, enthusiasm and commitment personified. Nathan plays drums and, like all drummers, he likes to play them nice and loud. However, he has learned the art of brushes, hot rods and something new called ‘light and shade.’ He is like a very stylish metronome that sizzles with flare and panache… so reliable and a great band member. He also eats far too many MacDonalds’ for a growing young man.

Tim was actually the first person I met when I moved to Banbury as he taught me how to play guitar! Tim is quite simply obsessed with the guitar. He teaches it, he eats it, he sleeps it. He is always learning something new or writing some new piece. He has an amazing ear and produces beautiful guitar solos that will make your heart beat harder. (He was my inspiration when I first started learning guitar, up there with Bob Dylan and James Taylor!) Tim is very quiet, very reserved and very tall.

Dave is our very own Canadian ‘hippy’ (in recognition of his perpetually happy laid-back state) who has toured with some great bands, including The Popes (formally The Pogues). He is a lovely happy smiley man who is great fun to have in the band. He brings animation and liveliness to our performances and you can’t help but smile back. He has mad, long, frizzy hair, which also adds to his ‘hippy’ vibe.

And then there’s me, Elly. Singing and music is what I love and although I am a fairly quiet person on the outside, I am so incredibly determined and strong when my mind is set on something. I started learning bass a year or so ago because we could find a bass player that worked. Now it works really well and after a lot of hard work I am happy to consider myself a singer and a bass player. Not just a singer who plays bass. I also play the piano, cello, sax and acoustic guitar (or varying abilities, not all great). Singing and writing songs makes me feel alive and performing them gives me so much happiness. Ok, I don’t want to get drawn into the cheesy stuff that makes the X-Factor but needless to say… “this is my dream...”

Thanks for reading,

Elly xx