Elijah Bone stories....
The truth of it is that Ive never blogged before..this dear reader is my first faltering attempt.....the subject of this soon to be regular blog is a band I am lead singer in....Elijah Bone....in fact the only singer...but as EB seems to be growing daily into something we all had hoped for we will be looking for other musicians ( and singers ) to support the current sound ..
The line up as it stands is a measly but quite unusual three
So in no particular order we have
Andy Holt....the ringmaster and holder of the keys.....
Andy was one of the founder members of Reno...whose " Thinking about the good times " was released world wide on the Jive label and was described as an instant classic...Nancy Sinatra sang on one of the tracks with remixes by Basement Jaxx and Groove Armarda on the " Costa it's a beautiful day " first single....I sang and wrote the words and melodies for that one and remember the cold spring day of its recording...I think I even took my dog Skully round to the studio that day and as we listened back we thought " jeez this could do something..it really could " the record company were ecstatic and we were told to get our passports for a summer tour with Groove Armarda ....it never happened and Reno were ditched after one album a casualty of one of the biggest record company buyouts in music history....
Andy's many " jobs " with Elijah Bone include ( wait for it ).....
Producer ..engineer...writer..programmer ....guitar ..bass ...keyboards and anything else that needs to be played...He can sing as well ( I've heard him) ...so if he's got any free time in between doing all that I may persuade him yet....I think in every band there is a driving force and I would describe him as that.....he see's the big picture and will accept nothing but perfection especially from me ....I have sent him ideas that at the time to me have seemed like a stoke of genius ..a chance to take the band in a different direction ...such as " how about me singing in pigeon French " ..rejected....or
" you must be sick of hearing my voice by now " " how about I completely change it "...rejected.....I take all this rejection quite stoically because under neath I know he's right and god knows what takes me to all these weird places......
Anyway that's him......The leader.....
Next in command has to be Tristan Brady Jacobs and he doesn't even play anything !
Tris fascinates me and at some of our band meetings I just sit and look at him.....I don't even understand the questions let alone the answers.....
The story goes something like this ..
Andy " Dave ...we need to get some vids and artwork done ..any ideas "
I hadn't seen Tris for years but he is all over social media with ideas/ plans/ artwork/ commentary and anything else you could mention...so I got in touch via Facebook and two weeks later there we were in his artists studio being looked at by all sorts of crazy mannequins and day glo masks.....before I knew it I had a camera in my hand and with Tris shouting " just shoot ..anything...." It was on this first meeting that I took some of the shots you see on this site ..
I'm really glad that EB is not really your regular band....I have all sorts of mad ideas that I want Tris to give life to but he has more.....I don't think I've ever met any one who talks with genuine authority on such diverse subjects....Tris will be playing live ( he is an accomplished percussionist ) but has suggested some quite surreal ideas for our live performances ( we start rehearsals soon )...Tris will be performing a spoken piece over a soundscape that is currently under production....so as they say..
that's him....and then there's me
David Barrett...ex Dick Smith Band frontman and singer and writer ... I write all the words ..melodies and harmonies.... One of our biggest challenges over the next few months is how are we going to reproduce the vocals...as when you listen to the tracks you will realise I do a lot of harmonies and counter lines..it's something I love to do ...inspired by my favourite bands like mamas and papas ..the Byrds .....etc....I love melody and can be heard to shout " that's it " when I get a good one together....ambition.....to write a classic song...something that other people would like to cover... So that's it for now...but I like this blogging thing..it's good fun, Dave