Eighteen year-old Bristolian singer/songwriter/producer Ellen Davies, AKA /please/, talks to us about her dreamy music, Bonnie Tyler and her upcoming live debut gigs.
TSOC: Hi Ellen, where did the name /please/ come from? Is there a story behind it or is it perhaps a well mannered request for us to listen to your music?
Ellen: hi! to be honest, there really isn't a story behind the name /please/, in fact i have absolutely no recollection of coming up with the name! i've thought before that perhaps i should make something up but i haven't thought of anything good!
TSOC: Your sound defies easy categorisation. From ethereal, dreampop-like melodies, to minimal classical pieces, right through to solid pop song structures, I can hear a lot going on. What are your influences? Do you have a particular sound in mind when recording or is this not something you think about too much?
Ellen: that's a really nice thing to say. it'd be impossible for me to write what my influences are and feel satisfied with my answer. but in terms of sound, what works best for me is to just record ridiculous amounts of different instruments, vocal lines, phrases etc, and hope things start to come together. usually keeping that up for the right amount of hours in one sitting gets me so tired the sound for a song seems to develop of it's own accord! that sounds quite whimsical, i don't mean it like that.
TSOC: You're very much in charge of the project but with such an array of sounds on show, do you have anybody else helping you out? How does the recording process work?
Ellen: no, i do everything myself! it's important to me that i can listen to /please/ songs and know that they're completely my own work. (i think i've kind of answered the recording process bit in 2!)
TSOC: I suppose that last question leads naturally into this, how do you approach the live set up? Have you played many gigs? Do you have stand-in musicians or can you manage the pressure alone?
Ellen: i've got my first couple of gigs towards the end of this month. i'll be playing alone, and have spent the last couple of months quite fraughtly trying to figure out how i'm going to go about that, i think i'm about there now. worryingly i still can't talk about how it's going to work with a huge amount of certainty but it'll definitely involve guitar loops, my voice, some keyboard, the details are a bit hazy.
TSOC: I stumbled across a track of yours called 'Partial Eclipse' on Youtube, an excellent reworking of the 80s power ballad 'Total Eclipse Of The Heart'. How did that come about? Are you a secret Bonnie Tyler fan at heart? Are there any other songs you've sampled or would like to in the future?
Ellen: well i'd got listening to power ballads a couple of weeks prior to recording it on a 20 hour coach journey back from berlin to keep myself feeling alive, by the time i was home i had fallen in love with bonnie tyler. shortly after, i got asked by a great label called art is hard records to submit a track to their bi-weekly singles club, it was a really big thing for me and for some weird reason i decided it would be a good idea to record a 'rethink' of total eclipse of the heart for them, i was actually really happy with how that song worked out. i haven't considered trying anything similar since, it's a nice idea stealing a great vocal line and putting it in your own song but you probably couldn't get away with it if you did it that often! i have some covers on the way though.
TSOC: Bristol is a city that's perhaps best known musically for its underground, trip-hop/electronic scene that was so dominant in the 90s, with the likes of Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky all becoming global stars. In recent years music magazines and websites have cited it as being the most vibrant city for music - most notably the NME awarding it 'most musical city' in 2010 after a whole host of new guitar bands emerged onto blog sites everywhere. Has the musical heritage, either past or present had any impact on you?
Ellen: i love bristol, and it is a really great city for music, but i've never been an active part of any kind of local musician scene or anything like that, and i don't really feel like living here has impacted my style. maybe i'd feel differently if i moved, i'm not sure!
TSOC: Which new artists are you excited about right now? Any tips for the future?
Ellen: i'm listening to a lot of moses gold and patchwork, they're both incredible-my 'tips for 2013'!
TSOC: Are you in the process of writing or recording any new material at the moment? What does 2013 hold for /please/?
Ellen: i keep saying i'm taking a vague hiatus this month in that sense, concentrating mainly on getting my live show completely sorted out, but i can see so many nearly there-songs i've been working on my desktop right now.. i've got so much i want to do this year. i definitely want to put out a physical release i'm happy, definitely want to start seriously playing shows.
TSOC: Music in 2012 is more accessible than ever, with artists able to distribute new music to their fans within minutes after recording if they wish. As a new artist would you tend to agree with with this or do you feel music has been devalued with the advent of illegal downloading and file sharing networks?
Ellen: that's very difficult, particularly because i'd be absolutely nowhere without the internet musically. music becoming so accessible has to be a very good thing, and i THINK i think it's worth less artists being able to make a living for the sake of more artists actually being heard and loved. i'm constantly fascinated by the internet.
TSOC: Last of all, a light-hearted question that everybody likes to get asked. It's festival season and you're curating. /please/ are headlining and you can choose 5 other artists, dead or alive. Who would you choose?
Ellen: it would be elliott smith, carissa's wierd, slowdive, kate bush.. the fifth i really cannot decide, i'm ridiculously over thinking this and whatever i write i will regret so i'm leaving it with four!
/please/'s website
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