Hearing about a band or artist's influences and inspirations are all well and good, but sometimes, you just want to get to the nitty-gritty in an interview - like, 'what's your favourite takeaway dish'?
Our new Q&A series sees us throwing rapidfire questions at musicians to get their most instinctive answers. There's no beating around the bush here - just honest, straightforward insights into their creative minds.
ELM describe themselves as '4 stunning queers, playing classy pop' and they've proved themselves with some seriously accomplished singles already.
Their latest, 'Golden', is another uplifting, danceable synth-pop offering with shades of Years & Years.
We caught up with them to chat about their influences, inspirations and their love of a spice bag.
1. What’s the music that you listened to growing up, that you still listen to today?
What makes the ELM entity so special is the fact so much of our early influences are so vastly different. These always stay with us and at our core you’ll see: Dylan, our absolute pop queen, Gary, sporting the rare combo of '80s synth pop and classical music, Ca, who comes from the post-punk grunge world and Aidan, our lover of heart-wrenching singer-songwriters with some pop-punk thrown in for good measure. We’re all coming from different places historically yet there’s so much new music that we all vibe off together. We’re huge fans of Marina, AllieX, Robyn and ALMA. Together we’re a hot mess of musical knowledge that projects pop bangers.
2. In three words, describe the minute before you walk on stage.
V urgent wee.
3. How do you wind down after a gig?
It’s really important that we have a place to all come together away from the mayhem. We are the worst rock’n’roll stars ever. We want a bit of silence to let the dust settle after the bomb just exploded. Oh, and red wine would be good too.
4. What’s the one song you wish you’d written or recorded first?
Birdy - 'Find Me'. Organic, uplifting pop banger bringing you through every emotion.
5. You can only have three albums on your phone/in your house at any one time - what three would you pick for today?
In the Haus of ELM:
Allie X - Super Sunset
Marina - Froot
St Vincent - MASSEDUCATION
6. Name one record, one book and one film that everyone should hear / read / see.
RECORD: Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass - 'Whipped Cream & Other Delights'
BOOK - Harry Potter (Aidan is obsessed and would have killed us for saying any different.)
FILM - Paris Is Burning (which inspired our track ‘PARIS’)
7. Pick the director and lead actor(s) for a biopic about your life.
DIRECTOR - Baz Luhrmann
DYLAN - Judy Garland
CA - Jim Carrey
AIDAN - Emma Watson
GARY - Stephen Fry
8. You’re ordering take-away, what do you get?
SPICE BAGS x1000000
9. Describe your perfect day off.
Playing a festival in the sun is the PERFECT DAY. Forget days off, we have our dream job x
10. Describe your gig in three words.
Free From Judgement.
BONUS QUESTION: Recommend a podcast and tell us why we should subscribe to it.
I’m Grand Mam’ - as we have moved to the big smoke of LDN to become the true sensations we’re born to be, we relate too much to this podcast of two queer Irish Londoners navigating life in London. G A A A S S S S.
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'Golden' is out now.
