The Bill:-
James McVey
Paper Aeroplanes : The Day We Ran Into The Sea
Ellie Williams
Jamie Abbott

Ellie’s Set List:-
Unseen
Under Your Skin
Firefly
Lay
Fine

After my last report on Ellie playing in Exeter with her band I now get the chance to saunter ‘up the road’ and catch her playing solo at The Troubadour in London. Being far less nervous than last time we also get the chance to chew the fat for a while before she’s on, with Adam and ‘Dad’ (who’s doing ALL the driving – aren’t parents just the best eh!).

Before I move on to Ellie I’ve just got to mention Paper Aeroplanes. Usually a duo but today a solo performance and it was magical – so much so that I picked up a copy of their album. Check ‘em out on mySpace to see for yourselves!

Another brilliant performance of Unseen sets the tone nicely and the crowd is showing deference with suitable silence, which is unusual for the Troubadour in my experience!
I shouldn’t have worried about my own pet peeve of samey piano-girl performances all seamlessly running into one another as Ellie worked through her set. Maybe it’s the old familiarity doing it’s thang, but I didn’t get the feeling of deja-vu I so often get in these circumstances even though I’m not (yet!) that familiar with Under Your Skin! … Firefly we already know is a top tune but I’m growing ever fonder of Ellie’s Lay too. Routed in sadness there’s an underlying feeling of strength, the strength to get through it, to prevail against the misery, the a hand reaching out offering succour. Beautiful. Finishing off with another new(ish) one to me, Fine, which is better than fine (oh come on, I didn’t do anything cheesy with Under Your Skin! Gimme a break!) ended a superb short set – that’s 6 hours of driving for 5 songs but totally worth it from my end!

Thanks for coming up to the big smoke Els …

UBG

50K MM: Where are you from?
Ellie: I was ‘born and bred’ here in Exeter, Devon in the Southwest of England. I have travelled a little bit, but Exeter has always been my home.

50K MM: How would you describe yourself in three words?
Ellie: Happy, Sad, Dreamer

50K MM: Where are you coming from artistically, what are your influences?
Ellie: Growing up I was really lucky as I listened to a lot of different music. My parents had mostly(!) good taste, and this was peppered with two older sisters who would record the top 40 chart show on a Sunday and we would learn all the words. For me though, people that left a lasting impression would be bands like The Carpenters, Mamas and Papas, Roberta Flack, Kate Bush and even a little bit of Mike Oldfield. At the moment I’m listening to people like Imogen Heap, Lamb, This Album Leaf, Shawn Colvin, Sara McLachlan, Bic Runga and Annie Lennox. Thats a bit one sided actually, I’m also listening to male artists such as Surfjan Stevens and Joshua Radin. I don’t really have a particular genre of music that I listen to or won’t listen to. Anything can move me. Sometimes it might be a piece of incidental music on something like Neighbours (Aussie soap) that moves me. Yes-I am quite, quite sad!

50K MM: How would you describe your music?
Ellie: Do you know what, I really struggle with this question. I would actually like a bit of help here from anyone reading this. I generally just bluff my way through with something like singer-songwriter type acoustic stuff. As you can see it is not the most eloquent description.

50K MM: How did you find the way to Sellaband? How has SellaBand changed your life? What were your experiences on your (short) way to 50k?
Ellie: I actually found Sellaband as my husband Steve pointed out an article to me on a tech news site called VNUnet.com (now V3.co.uk). I was at a bit of a low ebb when it came to my music, and was considering just settling down to my day job and putting this particular dream to bed. I was really skeptical at first, but Steve encouraged me to do a little research and then I found there were lots of articles praising SAB, in particular the larger UK papers such as The Telegraph and The Guardian. I thought that it must be reputable by being mentioned in those papers, so I decided to give it a try! I uploaded the three songs, which at the time were Fin’s Song, Firefly and Unseen. All three of which made it on to the album.

The 50 day period now to be honest seems like a blur and a distant memory. It is amazing though when I come to look back on it. I remember the excitement of initially checking my computer every few hours to see if anyone had sent me a message and to see if any parts had been sold. As the days went on, whilst I was at work, I would get texts from various members of my family saying- ‘Oh my god, you just sold 5 parts’ or ‘someone has just bought 20 parts in you!’. It was a time for being glued to the computer as soon as I got home from work, until about 1am and then not being able to sleep as I was so excited. This only increased and in those last few days, I think I slept for about 3 hours. It was so amazing. In between this I was trying to get as much ‘outside’ support as I could and tried to bring new people onto SAB. I met so many people on SAB, artists and believers, and so many that I am in regular contact with, or that I have been lucky enough to meet. It is hard sometimes, keeping up with everything that needs to be done, and sometimes the relationships can suffer because of that. For the main part though, I think my believers know that I am doing my best. I haven’t come from a stage school, I wasn’t spotted at a young age, I have no previous experience in this industry or running my own business and in this current age you cannot just be a musician anymore. You have to be your own business manager, promoter and accountant.

SAB really has changed my life, and I feel that that is in no way an overstatement. I was working in an office, singing in my bedroom and writing songs for my family to hear. In 18 months, I have gone from that person to giving up my regular day-job, replacing it with a part-time job, moved in with my dad to cut bills, radio and TV interviews, gigs and running my own small business. Nothing could have prepared me for what has happened, and I am still waiting for the moment for it to sink in, or for me to wake up. Or for the slap in the face that says ‘stop dreaming, and get back to a real job’!

50K MM: You had an overwhelming support from local radio stations and local press on your way to 50k … and still have, now that you’re going to release your album. Please tell us, how you brought them on board.
Ellie: I get asked by a lot of new artists or believers regularly-what was my secret, how did I do it? My honest answer? I just got out there and did it. I am quite a naive person really which I think worked in my favour. I didn’t have the knowledge of the business to know whether I was going to get laughed out of somebody’s office or not. So-I just sent emails to everyone that I could think of. Firstly, I sent an email to everyone I knew. EVERYONE. I just asked for help, and asked those people to …

Read full article in latest issue of 50K MUSIC MAG

What a great gig it was too!

First up was a guy called Cole Stacey doing his own brand of folky type stuff – and what a good voice he had too!

Ellie up next (and last), and did you know she suffers from nerves before a performance? I’ve heard that a lot of well established artists do too, so she’s in good company, but I’d have to say there was no evidence of nervousness when she opened with Unseen, which you may know is my favourite! This she played alone on the keyboards, but she had her band with her, in part or in whole, for other tracks and they sounded excellent. One of my problems with the whole “girl and a keyboard” genre is how samey the tracks can start to sound after you’ve heard a couple but Ellie’s (clever?) use of the band members simply stops this happening. There’s still the raw presence in the unaccompanied keyboards, but throw in Ellie singing to just an acoustic guitar on Firefly, Ellie on keys + acoustic, Ellie + full band, etc and you eliminate the problem entirely.

Enthusiastic cries of “MORE” from the crowd managed to entice an encore of another song from the album that I’d not heard and it’s another winner!

If that is a reflection of the forthcoming album then I’m even more eager to get my copy!

I’m really looking forward to the next Troubador gig in London now!
www.elliewilliams.co.uk

Most of her believers impatiently await her upcoming debut album … me too. To shorten the time of waiting I asked Ellie about what we can expect from her, from the album and the next months:

50K MM: What kind of Ellie Williams album can we expect?
Ellie: The album has 11 tracks on it, and I like to think they are fairly varied. There are some tracks that believers will recognize as we chose the three songs I had used originally on my profile. We worked really hard to keep the album true, which is more difficult than it sounds. This probably resulted in it taking slightly longer, as I wanted to put a band together who understood the songs, and not just use session musicians. (Although there is nothing wrong with that approach either). We haven’t tried to ‘rock’ up the songs or change them into something that they weren’t to begin with.

50K MM: Will it be a pure solo album or will we find something like “Sally Gardens”, a song you recorded together with Banshee, on it?
Ellie: The album is a totally solo album. I had such a great time recording the vocals for Sally Gardens, but we had already decided on the full track listing. It was a realy hard to task to whittle down the songs, and you need to do this fairly early on so that you have a definitive plan when you go into the studio. Having said that a couple of songs that I wrote in the last month before recording made it on too. I got very inspired playing with other people and having the freedom to concentrate on the music.

50K MM: When will the album be released? Do have plans for a listening session or a release party?
Ellie: The album will be released on Tuesday, October 13th. We do have plans for the listening session, which we are still working on and trying to finalise-will let you know as soon as they are. As for a launch party, it is likely we are going to try and do a series of ‘launch’ gigs. Locally to myself and also in London. Who knows we may even make it across the channel too-watch this space.

50K MM: What do you plan for the rest of this year and maybe next year? Will we see you on stage soon?
Ellie: Absolutely. My plan for the next 12 months is to really get out there and do as much gigging as is possible. It is hard because there is no budget for this, and we need to look at the practicalities of tours. This is something we are working hard on at the moment, and we are trying to secure an agent/ promotor. In the next 12 months though, I would certainly have hoped to get across the UK and some of Europe too.

50K MM: Can you tell us something about the album production process – your experiences, impressions, …? Did it meet your expectations?
Ellie: It is a hard question to answer as to whether it met my expectations. The truth is – I had no expectations. This was a whole new world to me. As my believers will know, I really was just singing and writing songs in my bedroom, and to suddenly be launch into this process was totally amazing and terrifying. I can tell you though, the first day of recording at The Angelic Union is a day I will never forget.

I walked into the live room, and saw this amazing white John Lennon style yamaha grand piano and my heart was in my mouth. I just wanted to sit down and play, and I honestly couldn’t believe how lucky I was. I looked around the room and had an overwhelming moment of disbelief. I thought about the previous six months and everything and everyone that had helped me to get to this moment.

I never want to let that moment go.

Thanks again to all of my believers who have been waiting so patiently for the album. I can’t tell you how quickly the 18 months have gone for me, it really just feels like a couple of months has passed. I really hope that you enjoy the album and I look forward to having a good old chat about it in the listening session.

Lots of love

www.elliewilliams.co.uk