ernest ellis says...

Ernest Ellis first grabbed our attention with the single ‘Bad Blood’ which projected him into the touring circuit with the likes of Evan Dando and The Paper Scissors. Recently, he’s been hiding out in the wilds, recording his debut album, Hunting. We caught up with Roland Ellis, the front man of the solo-project-with-band that is Ernest Ellis.

Covered: singing in the bath, turning 25, musical bones and supporting Florence.

Kat Hartmann: So, how’s everything on the back of last week’s album release? Is it nice to finally have it out there?

Roland Ellis: It is, yes. It’s my first album and it’s exciting that it’s finally out. It was quite a long process to record it and I’m pretty proud of it.

KH: Fabulous. There’s a lot of buzz surrounding you and your band at the moment. What does it feel like sitting where you are, in the middle of it all?

RE: I don’t really feel any of it. It’s weird because I’ve been writing songs for a fair while. I turn 25 on Monday and it’s taking me a while to put something out. It’s nice to have people interested in what you’re doing and that can’t be a bad thing right?

KH: Definitely. Let’s take things back a few months to when you were recording the album. What inspired the decision to recording it on a large property in Orange?

RE: My co-producer, Tim Carr, and I really didn’t want to record in studios where we could avoid it. I’ve recorded a bunch of stuff in studios and I just got sick of it. We wanted to go out somewhere that was remote. We took a mobile studio with us. That was the reason; to get out of the studio and to be somewhere that was more exciting and less sterile and studio bases often are.

KH: God bless you, technology!

RE: (Laughs) Yeah, I’m not big on technology.

KH: It allows you to move yourself to locations that you may not previously have been able to…

RE: Exactly, you’re right there. You can take everything out to where you want to record. You can set up anywhere. We even recorded vocals with me lying in the bathtub. That’s a testament to technology these days.

KH: Ah, yes, the infamous bathtub recording session. I’m actually interested to hear more about that. What motivated that decision?

RE: I was in a bit of a mood. I didn’t want to leave the bathroom to record my vocals and Tim, as he always is, was accommodating and set up mics in there, and I liked the sound of the reverb so we just recorded a bunch of songs in there; four or five songs were vocally recorded in the bathroom.

KH: Getting back to the location, how removed were you from other folks?

RE: Pretty removed. There was no one out there except for myself, Tim, my co-producer; Mat Gardner, my drummer; and Ben Morgan, my bass player. It was just the four of us out there, and a bunch of goats, so it was pretty remote.

KH: How did that impact the recording process for you personally?

RE: Things tend to get a bit weird when you’re by yourself for a long period of time. Just around the same people for a long period of time. I think things get strange, and when they get strange, they get interesting. We decided to do a bunch of different things [with the music]. We recorded some drums outside. Some ideas really did work and some really didn’t work but what it does is it really empowers you to use the space that you have and to essentially explore and make the most of it. Whereas if you’re in a studio, it feels like a production line.

KH: Tell me about recording the drum part for ‘Heading for the Cold’. I believe that was the one recorded on top of a mountain. Can you tell me about that?

RE: It sounds something from Anchorman doesn’t it? “On top of a mountain”… Maybe that’s been dramatised. We took the drum kit outside, away from the house and carried it up the hill. Took out a power generator, a bunch of mics and recorded some drums up there. It was probably pointless in some ways - and maybe we could have done it inside the big warehouse - but it was in between a bunch of hills so we wanted to get, if possible, that echo from the other hill. It did work for that song. We tried it for something else and it didn’t quite work. Some things work, some things don’t but the important thing for me is that we were trying a bunch of different stuff.

KH: I’m interested in learning a little bit about you as a young artist - or, as your dad described it, the David-Bowie inspired artists – I believe it was a desire to learn Neil Young’s ‘On The Beach’ that first motivated you to pick up a guitar. Tell me about that.

RE: It’s not actually that song. That’s one of my favourite songs but it was actually Tom Waits’ ‘Downtown Train’. I heard it in the car with my dad on the way to school when I was about 12. I stole a guitar from my good friend. Well, he let me use it. The next day, I learn how to play that song and that’s how I got into music. My dad is an avid music fan and he would never let me just listen to singles. He’d wake me up everyday with a different record and to sit me down and explain what the record is about. When you’re five years old that sort of stuff is tedious but I grew into it and I grew to really love it. Those are some of my best memories.

KH: Is your father a musician himself or just an avid music fan?

RE: My dad does not have a musical bone in his body. There’s not one musician in my entire extended family so I don’t know where I got it from. My grandfather tries to play the violin but he’s probably the worst violinist I’ve ever heard.

KH: So he won’t be appearing on any Ernest Ellis albums?

RE: (Laughs) No, he won’t. Maybe!

KH: You are a self-confessed control freak. How does that impact the way you write and record music?
 
RE: I just have a very specific vision with my songs and I want to achieve and gain from it. My band is very important. From a live perspective, Keita plays keys, Mat on drums and Ben on bass. And on the recording, Mat and Ben also play on all the songs, so they contributed their part. I really don’t understand when artists aren’t in control of their own art, when they need someone else to write something for them. I just need to do it myself. I can’t consciously let things out of my control. Maybe that’s a problem in some ways, it is in some aspects of life, but it works for me and I have my co-producer, Tim, who’s really patient with me, wants to hear things a million times, and make mundane changes. It works for me. It’s anxiety and stress inducing but it works.

KH: Can you tell us about that collaborative process of co-producing Hunting with the aforementioned Tim Carr?

RE: Yeah, Tim accommodates me perfectly. I have the ideas and the songs, I know what I want to hear and he makes that happen. He gets great sound and he’s very patient. You kind of have to be able to deal with me I think, in that respect. He’s very patient and it just works, you know? I don’t know if I could really work with many other people because he just seems to get what I’m trying to do and makes it happen for me, so it’s great. It’s a great partnership in that sense.

KH: He’s the yin to your yang?

RE: Yeah, in a way! He just makes it happen and my band is fantastic as well. A lot of credit to them for their playing and their patience.

KH: Speaking of your band, how did you come to be playing together?

RE: We’re just friends. I signed a record deal on my own with Ernest Ellis and I just need those guys. I thought they were great players, asked them to play with me and we’ve been a band for a year and a half now. It is Ernest Ellis and that’s me, but there’s also a band behind that and it’s important to the whole project.

KH: You’re about to kick things up a notch on the touring front. An east coast tour to promote the album launch, a Splendour In The Grass debut and the shows supporting Florence And The Machine next month. Firstly, let’s talk about the Florence support. That’s quite the slot. I know a lot of bands who would have given their right arm for it. How are you feeling about playing those shows?

RE: I’m really excited! It’s three shows at the Enmore and one at the Hordern. It’s a great opportunity to play to a lot of people and to play alongside an artist that has got a lot of hype at the moment, a lot of talk. I think: Triple J audience. That’s a good thing for us. I’m looking forward to playing at the Enmore because it’s one of my favourite venues and I’ve never played there.

KH: And Splendour? The 10th anniversary line-up is pretty impressive.

RE: Obviously I’m excited to play, that will be fantastic. I’m really excited to see The Strokes, mainly because I’ve never seen them before. I queued up for about four hours with a buddy of mine at five in the morning, just trying to get tickets to the Gaelic Club show they did out here years ago. I was 18 and we’re waiting at the front, big Strokes fans and we got knocked back, you know it’s terrible! So I’ve never seen The Strokes and I’m really excited to see them. The Pixies, obviously, Grizzly Bear, Band of Horses – it’s such a great line-up – Paul Kelly. You inevitably forget someone, you know what I mean? You say someone different every time you talk about that line-up. It’s pretty damn impressive!

KH: Lastly, can our readers in the US and UK expect to see you on their shores any time soon?

RE: I hope so. We’ve been talking to our label – well, I’ve been talking to Fergus at my label – about how much I would love to go to SXSW next year. So hopefully, we’re going to get to do that. I’d love to do that – I would really love to move over there for a while if I possibly can. So, hopefully next year I’ll get over there.

ernest ellis, roland ellis, interviews, bad blood, tim carr, mat gardner, ben morgan