Sinead O’Brien has postponed her upcoming headline tour because of - well - you know. Yeah. The run was originally booked for March, but will now kick off in Birmingham on 18th October instead. You an find all the dates on readdork.com now.
Rising London post-punks deep tan have delivered their first new music of the year. Titled ‘camelot’, the new track comes alongside news of a debut EP, ‘creeping speedwells’, set for release via Practise Music on 4th June.
ELIO
E
lio is firmly on the thrilling cable car ride to the top of pop’s mountain. Just a year ago, we hadn’t yet heard a peep from her, but since she released her first song, the defining 21st-century pop anthem ‘My Friends Online’ last March, her rise has been swift and stunning. Now with a couple of A+ EPs behind her and a collab packed remix collection on the way, Elio is primed for stardom. “It has definitely been a journey,” she says from her home in snowy Toronto, Canada. “I only started releasing music in March, so it seems pretty fast,” she begins. “There were a good few years before sitting on those demos and just thrashing out what I wanted it to sound like. Even before that, I was in an alt-rock band in high school, and I pretty much exclusively listened to alternative and shoegaze and indie music until I found pop music and fell in love. It’s been a journey of trying to find out what would best represent me.” When she was bitten by the pop bug, Elio began to harness her formative artistic impulses honed at university into an alluring pop package creating all her own music videos, clothes, artwork and imagery, transforming songwriter Charlotte Grace Victoria into one of the most striking new stars around in Elio. Elio’s brand of high-energy is an intoxicating blend of bedroom produced beats and high-end pop gloss that combine together, giving her music a compelling and idiosyncratic quality. She equally knows her way around
part of my life. Lockdown a banger and a weepy and can really put that in everybody’s deploy both at will. For Elio lap so everybody is really her music is an expression of maintaining relationships her own character and how through their phone, which I in touch she is with a new think is really interesting that generation of pop fans. “It’s so people can relate to my music closely tied to me as a person because they’re going through that I don’t really think about the same thing.” it anymore,” she explains Following the huge success of her songwriting process. of her first hit Elio went on “What I love in so many artists two release two is when they take EP’s highlighting their world and the fluidity and who they are as a SOME breadth of her person and put it FACTS YOU sound with last MIGHT LIKE into everything. TO KNOW years ‘u and me, Whether it’s music ABOUT ELIO but mostly me” or visuals or even and this year’s talking to fans, She was born in Wales excellent ‘Can You which is really but emigrated to Hear Me Now?” important, and I Canada as a child. which features think that creates She taught herself ‘Charger’, her something special to write, record and biggest banger which people can produce all her own yet. The release relate to a lot music in her bedroom. marks a clear more.” development In the middle of She’s been writing for other artists including for the young a global pandemic, hip K-pop idols songwriter. “What’s there’s nothing Tomorrow X Together. nice with the more more relatable than recent EP is that being stuck with She loves her dog I’ve learned to only your phone Tessa. Tessa is a very collaborate a bit for company, and unique dog who is a better,” she says. perhaps that’s why German Shepherd/ Labrador/Border Collie “People have Elio’s ‘My Friends Cross. “There is not a helped me make Online’ struck such dog in the world that the songs a little a chord. “I released looks like Tessa,” she more concise. It ‘My Friends Online’ says. Dork cannot allows me to get in March when confirm this as we my point across the lockdown first cannot find a photo so you’ll just have to take more.” started happening,” Elio’s word for it and Perhaps the she explains. “The use your imagination main collaborator response was to picture what Tessa and biggest crazy. Everyone might look like. influence on Elio was going through aside from her that at that If Elio’s band was made up solely of animals, love of artists moment. I feel like she’d have Tessa the like Clairo, Kacey in my situation dog on drums., an Musgraves and because I usually elephant on bass as The 1975, is Charli travel a lot and their trunk would be XCX, who has I’m away from ideal for this and a acted as something my friends a lot, squirrel on guitar as of a mentor to living through my she thinks they are cute. her as part of her phone is a massive
FYI, Holly Humberstone has written a new song with Matty Healy. “I still can’t quite believe it, that I even got the chance to work with Matty, which is so cool,” she explained. Titled ‘Please Don’t Leave Just Yet’, it will be part of her next EP.
One year on from her breakout single ‘My Friends Online’, and Canada-viaWales newcomer Elio is one of the hottest names in future-facing pop. Words: Martyn Young. Photo: Becca Hamel.
management team and as a pop icon to emulate. “She’s part of my management team, which is really cool and special,” explains Elio. “That is a great weapon for me. Not only do I get to have really amazing managers, but I also have Charli, so I can send a demo, and she will give her thoughts with no holding back. I’ve been a fan of Charli forever, so just having someone that you respect as a songwriter giving you thoughts and feedback is amazing. She also knows when to step back a little. If she doesn’t love a song but thinks it’s important to me, she’ll say if it’s important to you, put it on there. I don’t want you to sit on songs that you feel should be on the record. I get to write with her, and I’m very lucky to do that.”
“I work with her every day, so there’s the Charli that I work with who I forget is actually Charli XCX” ELIO Their creative bond has now been strengthened even further with a Charli XCZ turbo-boosted remix of ‘Charger’ leading off a forthcoming remix album, which sees Elio working with the likes of No Rome, Silver Sphere and Chase Atlantic.
In short, it promises to be pop heaven with some of the most exciting names around appearing. “I get the songs back, and I’m obsessed with them. Everyone on the remix record, I’m either friends with or I’m a fan of,” exclaims Elio excitedly. “When I listened to the Charli remix I started freaking out and running around the room. I work with her every day, so there’s the Charli that I work with who I forget is actually Charli XCX,” she laughs. If working with one of the most pioneering artists in pop isn’t confidence-boosting enough, Elio used her latest EP to espouse a confident and positive attitude in difficult times. “This EP is looking at myself and my career and relationships and trying to work them all together,” she says. Having a positive attitude was a big thing for this EP as I’m naturally a very pessimistic person, which is really bad when you’re in the music industry as it’s a rollercoaster. It was me realising that resentfulness and competition is so stupid. There’s enough room for everyone to be happy. It was a step forward in songwriting and production but also for me as a person. The message is more positive, and less everything sucks.” Music can do a lot of things in 2021, and Elio’s pop sound is one in which boundaries don’t exist, and genres and sounds mesh with each other seamlessly. Her songs speak to what it’s like to be young in the modern age with all the unique worries and anxieties that come with it that marks her out as a new star for a new generation. P readdork.com 21.