Interview: Elles Bailey

Interview: Elles Bailey

By Martine Ehrenclou

Elles Bailey, the smokey voiced singer-songwriter and multi award-winner, has powered her way to the forefront of the British blues and roots scene. Winning a triple victory at the UK Blues Awards 2023 (Artist of the Year, Vocalist of the Year, and Album of the Year), this is her fifth award this year alone. She picked up Artist of the Year, and Live Act of the Year at The UK Americana Awards 2023 in addition to her third time winning Artist of the Year (2020, 2021 and now 2023). She is now inducted into the UK Blues Hall of Fame.

Elles Bailey blends blues, Americana and rock.  Her success is not a surprise really given her bevy of hit songs and albums and touring more than most. But it’s her rich, soulful vocals and insightful songwriting that draw people in. With five studio albums to her name in addition to an expanded edition to the critically acclaimed Shining In the Half Light, Bailey is set to release a new single “Devil Claims His Prize” on July 13th. See here

Elles Bailey joined me on Zoom from her home in the UK. As we started, her door got stuck and she shared that her house was in a state of disrepair as a result of a faulty remodel. All while while raising a very young child and managing a successful music career as an independent artist.

Rock & Blues Muse
Congratulations on all your awards. So exciting. Tell me about it.

Elles Bailey
Yeah, I’m not going to lie, it’s really surreal. The Artist of the Year and Live Act of the Year was at the Americana Awards, which was late January. I’d just flown in from New Zealand and I was so jet-lagged. I was so tired and delirious and I was like, “I’ve won? What?” It was amazing. There was such a beautiful ceremony and loads of incredible acts like Judy Collins and Robert Plant and The Water Boys. It was pretty incredible. And then the UK Blues Awards was a lovely ceremony as well. I feel very blessed.

Rock & Blues Muse
Do you have new music news? Maybe a new single or something?

Elles
Yeah, I have a new single coming out. It comes out July 13th. It’s a real roots rocker. It was written with an amazing artist called Brandy Sedan. We went to Arkansas as part of a songwriting retreat, called House of Songs. I did that in 2019. It’s taken me four years to record and get the single ready. But I’m so excited about it. She’s one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. The single is really gospel inspired, but it’s also really gritty and dirty. It’s written about greed, greed…those people in power. And the idea is you can’t take it with you when the devil claims his prize, so. It’s called “Devil Claims His Prize.” 

Rock & Blues Muse
How did it come about after four years in the making?

Elles
I really liked the song, but I didn’t want to record it just yet. Quite a few things happened in ’21and ’22 when I was confronted by some personal issues to do with some very greedy people. And I just kept coming back to that song and referencing that. I felt like the song reinvented itself for me, because of some personal issues that I was going through, which happened to have something to do with our house, which when I just realized the door has fallen off, I was like, “Oh, yay.” (Laughs)

Rock & Blues Muse
(Laughs) So sorry.

Elles
Yeah. We did the whole house as well. We had a two-week-old. It was during the pandemic, having a baby.

Rock & Blues Muse
Oh my. That’s a lot. Been there. (Laughs). You’re busy. You’re just coming off a big tour and shows with some amazing people, Lukas Nelson and others.

Elles
Yeah, that was incredible. And then both myself and Lucas went to play Black Deer with Bonnie Raitt and Amanda Shires. Alli Russell and Amethyst Kiah. So it was an amazing… Bonny Light Horseman, oh my gosh, just stunning. And then, yeah, we did the tour, the main headline tour, which was basically the Shining in the Half Light tour, because we didn’t get to tour it last year, so it was really a celebration of that. But throwing in a few sort of old favorites from the back catalog, and that just went really well. I think it sort of touring post pandemic is a little bit like this, because I hope people come and people have got used to staying at home and watching TV.

But they really did. My fans totally showed up and were amazing and blew me away. It was basically full houses for the whole tour. It was amazing. And then I went to Germany with Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, and it was great to go back and actually tour another country, because I’ve spent a lot of time here in the UK. And then I’ve also done some shows, shows and festivals in Holland. It’s been really good.

Rock & Blues Muse
I think people are so excited to get back out there and see live music again and go to concerts and have that full on experience.

Elles
Yeah, it’s great. And then right now it’s festival season, which is actually busy, but not too much. And that’s quite nice. Because I’ve been very busy, so I’m spending some time at home and we started hanging pictures on the walls.

Rock & Blues Muse
You’re an independent musician, so you juggle a lot of things, I would imagine.

Elles
Yeah. I used to find the juggle okay, but since becoming a mother, I’m finding it much, much harder. As the project has grown so much as well, I just sometimes feel like I’m drowning at the moment. I’m booking five people in five different flights for five different shows, and it’s just like, oh my gosh. And waiting on promoters to come back to tour managers. And the delays are causing the flight to double in price. And it’s like, “We emailed you a month ago.”

I’m being brutally honest with you– as an independent musician, it can be really, really hard. But then on the flip side, I’m an artist that I’ve grown my fan base by getting out on the road and putting on a show, and I love to get as close to the audience as possible. That real live in the moment, connection is nothing that you can ever recreate. I love doing it and I love meeting my fans and play going to different countries. It is amazing.

The late nights, I’m not a huge fan of. I think Jamie Lee Curtis, she was like, “Bands should do matinee performances like they do with the theater.” And I was like, “Yes, we should.” I remember Joanne Shaw Taylor commented as well, and we were all like, “We’ll sign up to the matinee performances. Sounds great.”

Rock & Blues Muse
Sounds good to me. You handle everything for your tours and probably the recording. Do you have anyone helping you?

Elles
Yeah. I do have a big team as well, but on some stuff I still pick up. And I do have tour managers and stuff like that, but sometimes it’s just quicker for me to do it.

Rock & Blues Muse
Do you think you’re an entrepreneur at heart?

Elles
Oh, a 100%. Yeah. My whole family are entrepreneurs and business and that kind of thing.

Rock & Blues Muse
It can’t be easy being on the road and being responsible for so much stuff.

Elles
I do have tour managers but I really enjoy it. It is really great. The post-pandemic touring, the expense of that is astronomical. But it’s the same for everyone. I’m in a lucky position, because I can do it and I can put the money down on the flights, but people don’t get paid until after the show. You’re putting down a lot of money to fly somewhere that you’re not going to see until a month after the show. That’s fine because I’ve gotten to the level I am. But what about artists that aren’t at that level yet, that don’t have the kind of cashflow?

 
Rock & Blues Muse
Do you love being on the road? There must be something that’s very appealing to you about being on the move.

Elles
I do really. I enjoy the travel aspect. I’m just really interested in people and different cultures and even different areas across the UK. We are so different all over. And I think that’s wonderful. And it’s really important to visit places and get an understanding for how people live and that their cultures and stuff like that. really enjoy that about traveling.

Rock & Blues Muse
You have a beautiful voice. How do you keep it in shape when you’re performing as much as you do?

Elles
Thank you. I’ve had to be really careful this year. And actually the one reason why I don’t song write on the road, is because I find songwriting really taxes my voice. Because you’re trying things rather than doing the same shapes every night. Doing the same set. Your voice knows what it’s doing. You can hear I’m quite husky now because I’m doing loads of songwriting. I do have to be really careful. I tend to not drink on tour. I try to get to bed and sleep for as long as possible, which is just great for mental wellbeing as well. And I’ve just started using in-ear monitors. I lost my voice in February for the whole of February. Bearing in mind the tour was starting in March and I was just like, “How am I going to do this tour?” I’ve got 18 shows, there’s so much riding on my voice working. And I used in-ear monitors and loads of vocal warmups and it was a game changer. It was pretty good quite quickly. The one thing that does tax my voice is when you go out and meet people after the show and do signings. I can really understand why a lot of artists aren’t doing that anymore. Because that’s when you hurt your voice.

Rock & Blues Muse
When you’re talking to people, you mean?

Elles
When you talk just after the show, you’re talking over the noise of people. There might be music in the background. People are wanting signatures. So sometimes I’ll have to talk really quietly. Or you need sort of 10 minutes to warm your voice down. Because you have to warm your voice down as well and do lots of funny shapes and stuff.

Rock & Blues Muse
That’s so interesting. I never thought that. I bet a lot of people haven’t thought about that either.
You said you’re doing a lot of songwriting right now. Is this for a new album that’s coming up?

Elles
Yeah, I’ve got to make the new album and start the new chapter. I’ve written loads and loads of stuff–I tend to write 40 songs per album.

Rock & Blues Muse
Wow. Do you have a theme for this new album?

Elles
Yeah, it’s starting to get a theme, I think. It feels very current–I don’t want to go too much into it because it’s still in the early days. There does feel like there’s a theme. I think there’s a title. I’d written the first song in February. About four weeks after finishing it, I then wrote another one that was kind of like the answer to it. And I thought, I think this is the song that opens it. I’ve written the song that closes the album. Now I just got to connect them.

Rock & Blues Muse
I don’t want to push you to reveal anything if you’re not comfortable. Do you want to tell me a little bit about what’s coming up for you with festival season?

Elles
Yeah, so I’m opening for Jools Holland on July 16th. Super exciting. That’s Kew the Music in London. And I’m playing Maid of Stone Festival  with Airborne and Skindred and Kris Barras, Kira Mac, Glenn Hughes and loads of other artists. That should be amazing. I’ve got some blues festivals that I’m playing as well. I’m headlining the Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival here in the UK and that’s awesome because they were the first ever festival that gave me my first ever festival slot. To come back and headline it’s pretty special.

And then I’m going to do Americana Fest in Nashville September 19th-the 23rd. It’s a showcase festival similar to South by Southwest.

For more information on Elles Bailey see her website HERE

“Devil Claims His Prize”