Inspired #229 - ELLiS·D
Hailing from Brighton, UK solo artist ELLiS·D has just released his new single ‘Nature’s Game’ - released via his own DIY label Change The F*cking Records. He took a moment to talk us about the inspirations behind his music.
Who are your top three musical inspirations?
O Sees, Savages, Nick Cave.
O Sees are the best live act I’ve ever seen as well as the most frequent, and I’ll keep going to see them at every opportunity until either John Dwyer or I drop dead. Every show has melted my little face off, and they just keep going ! Each new album is just as incredible as the last - and even if you don’t like one , there’ll be another to get stuck into within a few months. They inspired me to always give everything you can with each gig , put as much energy into it as you can muster and the audience will reciprocate. Savages are much in the same vain - their performances are other-worldly, ferocious, beautifully haunting and backed up by stunning records.
And Nick Cave is just the don, isn’t he?
Is there a certain film that inspires you?
I watched ‘The Elephant Man’ for the first time only last week and found it really moving. I tend to enjoy films and books with a more melancholic undertone as it helps me put my life into perspective a lot more than narratives with, say, a rags to riches or against-all-odds type of inspirational feel. I think it’s really important to keep reminding yourself of what you have, rather than what you don’t, in order to stave off despondency over things that you feel maybe aren’t going your way, and films that express themes of alienation in that sense often help me do so, as well as rouse feelings of compassion.
What city do you find the most inspiring?
I’ve been fortunate enough to see some incredible places over the past few years whilst touring - Bordeaux, Ljubljana and New York are particular standouts - but having grown up and lived in Brighton for my entire life so far, I’d feel like I’m cheating on my home if I said anywhere else ! It really is a wonderful place - it’s true what they say about it feeling like a bubble cut off from the rest of the UK, with so many like-minded people and a real sense of artistic community. It’s not without its problems for sure, but it’s had a profound effect on me as a person and continues to inspire me all the time.
Who is the most inspiring person to you?
Ty Segall has been one of my biggest musical heroes over the years and inspired me heavily to go it alone as a solo artist when I started up - I admire the way he writes, performs and produces all of his records as well as starting up his own label, which also inspired me to go for it with my own DIY label ‘Change The F*cking Records’ earlier this year. I have to give a special mention to my parents as well for always continuing to support me in my decision to try and form a career in music.
What were your inspirations when writing your new track?
Like most of my songs I built ‘Nature’s Game’ around an initial drum pattern before layering melodies over the top, playing around with a beat for a couple of weeks before moulding a structure around it. My drumming style is heavily influenced by Jaki Leibezeit of CAN, I’d been listening to their album ‘Tago Mago’ on repeat at the time and I wanted to incorporate elements of his funky metronomic style in the context of something more post-punk and indie orientated.
In terms of the lyrics, I’m deeply immersed in ideas surrounding how we manage to build and maintain lasting relationships at this time, it feels incredibly challenging but I think the rewards for doing so will be even sweeter when we come out the other side of the pandemic. A lot of artists right now talk about how they want to avoid making a so-called ‘lockdown record’ - but for me it feels impossible to ignore the elephant in the room. The song is inspired mostly by conversations with friends and family about how the past 12 months has shaped the nature of our most intimate relationships, and the sacrifices we need to make for each other in order to make them work. It’s not a strictly personal song, a lot of the narrative is fictional to some degree, but it also incorporates feelings I believe many of us are experiencing right now.
How would you like to inspire people?
Broadly speaking as an artist it would be wonderful simply to pass on the inspiration to create in any form - looking at what someone else is doing and using it as motivation to think ‘well, if they can do it, why can’t I?’. One thing that has been lost over the past 12 months is the healthy competitive nature between artists in a particular scene that comes from watching each other perform - going to see a friend or a peer’s band play live and seeing them blow the roof off the stage is one of our greatest tools of inspiration as it leaves you thinking ‘damn, that was unbelievable - I’ve got to up my game!’, and so perpetuates a continuous cycle of artists not necessarily trying to out do each other, but using each others talent to inspire us to create better and better work all the time.