We at Incendiary Towers were pretty impressed at the debut single from Elia, a new band from London. Funk-soul-flavoured pop guaranteed to get your feet moving. So we gave frontman Elia Rulli a call:
We at Incendiary Towers were pretty impressed at the debut single from Elia, a new band from London. Funk-soul-flavoured pop guaranteed to get your feet moving. So we gave frontman Elia Rulli a call:
IN: We received your single, I Control Your Heartbeat. Its pretty cool.
E: Thanks. We’re getting a great reaction so far. What’s interesting is that it seems to be getting across to a wide variety of tastes. Funk and soul people are getting it and people with more kind of pop sensibilities are also getting on it. I guess that makes sense cause its not straight up funk and its certainly not straight up pop.
IN: I’m hearing a bit of a Stevie Wonder influence? Is that fair to say?
E: Of course. Who on earth hasn’t been influenced by Stevie a bit?! I’m sure if you listen hard to some of the Slipknot stuff, there’s a sprinkling of Stevie in the harmonies.
IN: Haha! Quite. You have put this single out yourself, right? Looking across your website, social media, the quality of the single and the accompanying video, it all seems pretty accomplished… very slick for an unsigned artist.
E: You can sometimes accomplish more with passion and just pure hard work than with a blase attitude and money.
IN: Elia is both your name and the band’s name, right?
E: Yeah. I’m told Elia is a mix of Italian and Romanian names that my parents made up but then they are mad jazz musicians, so all bets are off.
IN: Your parents aren’t your everyday couple, though.
E: They’re musicians and worked with some amazing people like Quincy Jones and Duke Ellington. Feel free to mention that, if you think folks would be interested. It was great growing up running around the world with them and performing and recording. Gave me a good grounding for doing this now. The thing is that they are from the old school in many ways. I learnt a lot about old-school musicianship and music ethos from them but then obviously I am immersed in new-school technology.
IN: Watching the video for the single . You’ve got a pretty distinctive style. Does that bleed through to your live show?
E: The video is a mock Hammer Horror film. I think I’m not quite as intimidating or sinister on stage! And the band tend not to play blindfolded either. That’s all I want to give away for those who haven’t seen it yet. Our shows are a high energy experience, we kind of burst out of the speakers. We love throwing it out to people. There’s usually a second or two silence after the end of the first song before people erupt. They’re like – can I swear? – “Fuck!”. We definitely like to elicit that element to the show. By about halfway through the set people kind of relax and trust where we’re taking them and by the end, we’re all in a massive party together.
IN: It sounds like ‘live’ is where its at for you?
E: Yeah, it is, as much as we love writing and recording. People seeing us for the first time tend to be like “Oh, damn” cause they don’t know what to expect. We describe what we do as kind of funk-driven electro pop. That’s a wide base. But you know, we have the sweat and thrust of funk and we also hit the audience with the energy and impact of rock. The point is, you look at that on paper and it might seem mad… you listen to the actual music and see how those elements are naturally mixed and it just feels good.
IN: So what next for Elia?
E: Is it too early to mention the next single?
IN: Not at all.
E: The next one, Perfect Circles, is a real kind of mash-up. The engineer in the studio where we recorded the drums called it something like “Gene Krupa (ed: famous old-school jazz drummer) and Elvis doing Motown with Soft Cell. Which I guess is as good as I could do to describe it. Again, its that mix of old school and ‘now’ in terms of ethos. Everybody in the band generally share that love of rootsy funk as well as contemporary sounds.
IN: Well I’ll certainly look forward to hearing that! How are you finding the process of self-releasing? Do you see yourself continuing along the DIY route rather than seeking out a label? It seems like bands can pretty much cut out the middle man and go directly to their audience these days?
E: Well, we’d be happy in principle to collaborate with somebody on releases. Obviously a label could help us reach a bigger audience, but then, with digital, you have a global reach anyway. I suppose a label’s attitudes towards our music would be critical. No musician likes the idea of compromising the music.
IN: You are London based right? Any chance that audiences here in the Netherlands might get to see you soon?
E: We’d love that. Invite us over!
For more information see eliamusic.com