Ernest Ellis released his highly-anticipated new record, Cold Desire last week. We caught up with him to have a chat and find out more about the new album; how it all came about; and whether or not we’ll see him out on the road around the country in the coming months.
What was the inspiration behind new album Cold Desire?
I really wanted to go in and make an honest uncompromising record, put myself under the microscope lyrically in a more meaningful and honest way than I’ve done in the past. What came out was sleaze, subconscious ‘cold desires’ I guess you could say. Not sure what that says about me as a person or about my thought processes. Maybe I’m not very good or moralistic, but I at least feel vindicated by the fact that I’ve now been honest on a record.
And what’s the story behind that cover art?
Just a photo taken when I was in Sicily last year. No orchestration or thought that it might end up on the cover of an album or anything. It’s just me behaving naturally, which is probably a worry. I liked it for its colours, and because its creepiness sort of reflects the thematic direction of the record. I look at it and feel ambivalent, like, it’s a nice shot in many respects but I’m also hit by the off-putting sleaze factor. I like that feeling of being torn one way and the other rather than just being clear cut about something.
You’re three albums in now, have you found yourself approaching the recording process differently on this album to your first?
Definitely. You understand the process better with experience, by that I mean you become less parochial in terms of production. But I think you also get to a point—at least I did—where you realise that you just want to be honest with yourself.
You just want to make things that ring true in a personal sense rather than worrying about other external factors that might weigh on making an album. I think I approach it now, along with the rest of my band, with the idea that we’re just going to make music we love and whatever else happens happens. It’s a much more enjoyable process for me now because I’m just thinking about the music I’m making and not worrying about how it might be received.
You released your last two albums in a reasonably short space of time, were you conscious of maybe taking a bit more time with this record?
Not really, it just happened that way. I took a step back from music after the last one to focus on some other things, but I naturally gravitated back to writing songs and we started working on a new record after a year or so on hiatus. It was slower because we took more time on the production, I’m getting more and more pedantic about that. But I wasn’t conscious of working slowly as part of the process.
How did you approach the songwriting on this album?
Without any formula. I muck around with a guitar or piano or a melody and sometimes a song comes out and sometimes nothing comes out. I labour over the lyrics for a long time, but the fundamentals of a song, melody and structure usually happen really quickly and sporadically. I’ve never consciously thought about undertaking a ‘songwriting process’, that’d be too prosaic and deathly for the form I think. I just let it happen when it wants, and thankfully that’s fairly regularly in my case.
Did you already have a stockpile of songs to work from?
As soon as I finished writing each song from Cold Desire I was in recording it. Songs get stale if you leave them on a stockpile for too long, they need to be recorded while the ideas are still exciting.
What is your favourite track from the new record and why?
I don’t really have one, genuinely like all of them. Maybe “Pale Horse” is the one I like most right now but it changes all the time.
You eased back into live preforming with a couple of shows supporting Okkervil River, and some headlining shows with Machine Translations how did they go?
Those shows were really great. Never been happier with our lineup as a live group. I mean we added saxophone recently and that’s always going to elevate things a million fold.
Are there plans in the works for a larger national tour?
We’re looking to put something together in April/May that’s possibly going to take us out of music venues and into some less conventional spaces around the country. It’s shaping up as a great concept that I can’t really talk too much about now but I’ll keep you posted.
What does the rest of 2014 have in store for you?
Looking into some good opportunities in Europe at the moment, so hopefully we can get a release there and head over for some touring. Otherwise we’ll be working at promoting our record here and getting back into the studio for some more recording.
Cold Desire is out now via Spunk Records.
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