Elle S'appelle interview

“Do you think”, ventures Andy, bassist with Elle S’appelle, as we head down Wood Street looking for a quiet bar, “that that restaurant over there (A Passage to India) has to specify that they’re a take-away service so people don’t think it’s an actual secret passage to India?” His bandmates double up with laughter. New Noise is similarly amused, but the comment is perhaps indicative of the macabre observations that drift out of the songs of Elle S’appelle. Fairytale and mystery are among Andy's main interests and he cites Road Dahl, Hans Christian Andersen and The Brothers Grimm as main sources of inspiration. The idea for a band that expressed these thoughts, he says, had been floating around in his head for a while:

“I was in Guild of Defiants and we were having drummer problems so it was time for something new. I knew Owen was a good drummer and knew of Lucy through a mutual friend, but they were both in bands already so I approached them and said I’d really like it if I could have them all to myself for Elle S’appelle. Things started to slot into place straight away. We put ‘She Sells Sea Shells’ on myspace and were so happy with it that we slowly but surely dropped everything else to concentrate on the band.”

It was a bold move for a band in its infancy, but they are quick to point out that because they formed the band around a clear concept, rather than the other way around, they were always confident it would work out. The idea was to form a band devoid of rhythm guitar, just a bass, drums and a Hammond organ fed through a guitar amp to produce a dirty, distorted sound.

Lucy and Andy often sing different parts in the same song, as if playing characters in a story. Their voices compliment each other superbly well; Lucy’s is light and dulcet while Andy projects his, singing from the pit of his stomach and loud enough to be heard outside most venues.

Sharing and working towards a common goal gave them a considerable edge over most other Liverpool bands. Having worked at local rehearsal studio Crash, Andy saw these bands come and go quicker than you can say ‘My Vitriol’ and was conscious of the pitfalls of starting a band as a means to an end:

“Working in Crash I saw loads of bands come through the doors that had life spans of about six months – groups of mates who would just get together and see what happened. They were trying to push square pegs into round holes, and I definitely didn’t want to do that.”

Their hard work paid off almost immediately when singles label Moshi Moshi, who have championed the music of Friendly Fires, Hot Club de Paris and, notably, Kate Nash, e-mailed them asking if they could release ‘Little Flame’ for them. The original presses sold out in a matter of weeks. The single is the format which has proved to be the most lucrative for them so far. When pressed for information on their hotly-anticipated début album, keyboardist Lucy says:

“We’re just happy to release singles at the moment, because it’s a good way of expanding your fan base. If you stagger your releases, more people get to hear your music.”

The band have been on the road since the year began and are just about to embark on a joint tour with Go Faster, another local group that have recently been making waves. After that, says Andy, they plan to take some time out to write new songs so that when they decide to bring an album out, they’ll have a deep pool of material to choose from. They exude an air of self-assuredness which is seldom found in a city where every Tom, Dick and Harry is looking for a way into the industry. So confident are they that their method will pay dividends, you get the feeling that success is searching for Elle S’appelle, not the other way round.

“So what do you think about being compared to Freddie Mercury?” Andy throws me a look of mild embarrassment, which turns out to be humility, because he is flattered that many people have made the same assertion. When he opens his mouth to sing the first verse of the new single and live anthem ‘Monkeyshine’ at tonight’s gig, it’s easy to see why. The reception from the audience is subdued but positive and the band expect a similar reaction on the road. As Lucy points out:

“The first time you play a new place, you can’t expect people to like you straight away. You just have to keep going back there and after a while, word gets around and more and more people show up.”

This is Elle S’appelle all over. They have known what they wanted from day one and they are prepared to work hard to get it.