Tuesday 8 May 2018

INTERVIEW: Little Brother Eli

Alongside the likes of Catgod who I interviewed recently (read that one here) Little Brother Eli are one of my favourite local musical discoveries to emerge from my time in Oxford over the past few years. They've got a new song coming out on the 18th May as well as a bunch of festivals this Summer so I interviewed them to catch up with everything LBE, check it out below and keep an ear out for the single!


First things first, introductions! Who are Little Brother Eli and how long has the band been going?

We are a 4 piece disco rock outfit originating from Oxford. We started the band wayyy back in 2013 (back when we all still had hair…)

You’ve got a brand new tune called Our Kind Of Love coming out on the 18th May. Tell us a little about the story behind the tune… was the writing and recording process any different to your previous releases?

We really just wanted to try something totally new this year. We’d done the blues rock thing to death and it was time for us to be more of ourselves in a recording. The song was originally a piano ballard, but Josh funked it up on the bass, Adam added the chorus harmonies and all of a sudden it turned into a real dance track. We went into the studio and recorded it just as we played it at rehearsal - we’re really excited about showing the world this one.

This is the second new single of 2018, following up Tooth which seemed to be received really well with a sold out hometown launch gig and lots of positive reviews from blogs and fans alike. Do you have an EP or album in the pipeline? I certainly hope so!

We don’t have any album plans yet, but we have recorded a heap of singles and deciding which ones to put out is hard. The reasoning behind why we don’t want to put out an album quite yet is purely creative - there is often a long gap between recording and releasing an album because it’s such a large body of work. We wanted to keep things fresh by recording the music we’re into right now and releasing it quickly (not what we were into 8 months ago).


I’m really enjoying the video of you performing the track live at a Sofar Sounds show in Bath earlier this year. (For those who don’t know, Sofar Sounds is a series of gigs in spaces you wouldn’t usually expect to hear live music, where the audience signs up without knowing which artists they’re going to see.) You guys seem to get around to lots of Sofar shows - what do you enjoy about playing them? Personally, I think that in comparison with a traditional gig the more relaxed environment really helps to highlight Alex’s incredible vocal range and the beautiful harmonies you guys have!

Why thank you! You’re not fighting the sound in the venue at a Sofar Sounds show and you get a intimate atmosphere with the audience - so yeah we love them! However, there’s nothing like having Benji on the drums at an electric gig driving us forward.


Talking of gigs - what festivals plans do you have for the next few months?

A fair few: Truck Festival. The Great Escape. Lechlade. Woodstock Live. Smithdown Festival. Greenbelt Festival. There are a few still in the pipeline as well.

I know just as well as you guys that Oxford is a wonderful place to be, for many reasons and perhaps especially for its fantastically rich music and art scene. Which are your favourite local artists at the moment?

We’re super lucky to be where we are. Check out Chris Barker & The Premium Leisure! They played one of our monthly Eli Nights at The Monarch in Camden and were fantastic. Willie J Healey was on bass too (another Oxford monster musician).

Finally - what’s in your headphones at the minute? If I could recommend you one record at the moment it would probably be Empty Handed from Christof van der Ven - it’s beautiful!

Last rehearsal we were digging Superorganism’s self titled album. There are some pretty huge songs on there.

Follow Little Brother Eli online - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks Meg! Love this :D

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  2. Great interview Meg! I've been hooked on these for a while now and it's all thanks to you! :D

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