Around the time Elder Island was releasing their 2019 debut album, The Omnitone Collection, they got to do something that a lot of musicians dream of doing: quit their day jobs.
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“That’s when we started doing the band full time,” vocalist Katy Sargent tells American Songwriter. Video calling via Zoom from their home base in Bristol, U.K., Sargent was sandwiched between her bandmates, Luke Thornton and David Havard, on a grey sofa against a blank white wall. Jumping in, Havard added that the period in wake of The Omnitone Collection was when the band “started allowing ourselves to take it seriously. We were fully booked with tours after that album came out, playing headlining shows outside the U.K.—it grew very quickly, actually.”
Considering the thematic lyricism, dark synthscapes and alluring dance grooves of Elder Island’s debut, it makes sense that things started taking off for them. Between their highly devoted approach to songwriting and their intuitive ability to hone in their sound, the record is a snapshot of a trio that’s perfectly in sync, working lock-in-step to craft something melodic, meaningful and masterful. Now, on May 28, the band is back with their sophomore full-length: Swimming Static.
With the success of Omnitone and its corresponding tour under their belts, the band’s time leading up to writing Swimming Static was as rewarding personally as it was musically. “It was incredibly surreal to suddenly be touring around the world, playing in places where you didn’t even know they had your music but they’re already singing it back to you in a different language,” Sargent said. “It’s an incredible feeling, but it was very surreal at the same time.”
Once the surrealness of it all started to fade, the “incredible feeling” part and the “quit their day jobs” part started coming together, allowing the trio to do another thing a lot of musicians dream of doing: getting inspired and write songs. Good songs. And with the stress of balancing their passions with their economic security erased, they were able to step into a whole new headspace, creatively.
“It definitely allowed for the project to be more peaceful,” Thornton said. “You can’t time it very well when you do a full day’s work at a job and then come back and have to do another full day’s work making music. Getting rid of the day job allowed for us to think bigger and more creatively about the task at hand—especially touring. We had such a niche, electronic act in that way that the setup is very technical, so maintaining and understanding our instruments was work every night. That was challenging unto itself. Before, we would have technical issues every time we went out to play—now, we’re able to polish everything.”
Having the time—especially through the pandemic—and space to approach songwriting and record-making from a more intentional place gave Elder Island the footing to create something dynamic and compelling, with a captivating human touch to boot. Really, it seems as if the urgency and magic buzz from the post-Omnitone tour make their way onto Swimming Static, endowing it with an unmistakable liveliness.
“We had just finished our big tour,” Thornton said. “We had a day off and then dove right into a studio mindset. Every day, we set up the studio so that everything was making noise, everything was working and every piece of equipment could be turned on, played and processed straight away. So, every day after that, we’d go in, hit ‘record’ and just play. We did that for four weeks straight. We had around 50 or 60 sessions, I think. There were a lot of ideas that we came up with, which we could then use as sonic soundscapes to take inspiration from or as the chord structures for more-solid songs. From that point, we’d work out of those initial sessions, just following the ones that worked or inspired the most ideas. We’d splice them up, make them more cohesive, keep the best bits. After that, we’d just keep processing back and forth until it became a strong song.”
As simple as this process seems, it’s merited some of Elder Island’s most vibey work to date, like the pulsing trance of “Small Plastic Heart” or the dark, anthemic refrain of “Feral.” In a lot of ways, even though Swimming Static has the energy and elation from their Omnitone tour fueling it, it’s a more cohesive and comprehensive studio album than their previous efforts. Whereas before, their songs came together under the glow of stage lights, now, the band was only following their inspiration and each other.
“All of the initial sessions were basically just the three of us in there, playing everything synchronized,” Thornton said. “It’s all based on instruments feeding loopers, essentially, which is all synchronized with itself. So, we can walk around, play instruments, catch loops and work on it. It was very freeing to be quick and open. There’s something about the raw feeling of a track. Sometimes you’ll walk in with ideas, but most of the time—especially for this record—we were very open every day. Something could be calm and pensive in the morning, but a big dance track by the afternoon. We could do four songs a day, even.”
Ultimately, the tracks that ended up making the final cut of Swimming Static come together to show a newer and more confident Elder Island. While The Omnitone Collection introduced listeners to the band’s raw talent, their work now demonstrates their adeptness for depth, lyrically and musically. Swimming Static flows, breathes and soars.
Yet, for as exciting and fulfilling as this effort has been, the trio remains grounded. While they may not have to work day jobs anymore, that doesn’t mean that they’re entirely immune from the everyday annoyances faced by musicians.
“I can’t wait for this record to be out for us to listen to because I don’t have a format where I can listen to it continuously yet,” Thornton said with a candid smile. “I just have it on Dropbox, so if I want to listen to the whole thing, I have to exit out after each track and hit ‘play’ on the next one. I’ve only listened to it a few times as a full, flowing album. It’s a very different sensation to play it in the format it’s meant to be in.”
Concluding on a more serious note, Thornton added “I like the idea of our old fans listening to it and going ‘Okay, this is a new chapter.’ For new people, I just hope they go ‘Okay, let’s listen back to this. This was really deep.’ We just can’t wait for people to hear it.”
Elder Island’s new album Swimming Static is out now and available everywhere. Watch the music video for the track “Feral” below:
