"I asked for a guitar for Christmas when I was four. I got one, but it was one of those plastic ones with buttons, not a real one"
"Playing guitar always just looked really cool to me"
Elaine started writing songs at 11 after growing up on a diet of Paul Simon, with ‘Negotiations and Love Songs’ being an integral part of her upbringing.
“It still means a lot to me now,” she says.
Her parents were fans of Irish music, with Christy Moore and Mary Black being popular around the house. It formed a solid foundation for the songwriter to work on and focus on playing guitar, which she always thought looked “really cool”.
Elaine played with Dublin rockers The Riot Tapes before they dissolved. The soft music she plays now is worlds apart from the thunderous Riot Tapes but the same strong vocal and stage presence shine through.
Her experiences in tiny venues playing to small crowds helped her confidence to grow but now with a different genre of music being played, the smaller venues are viewed as a positive. “A lot of my songs are quiet and a bit sad."
The intimate gigs are what I crave now
"It was definitely an accident that I worked it out."
Old school stereo systems were packed with a myriad of features that you had to really know them to learn about. Elaine’s childhood spent singing into the microphone grew into her recording her own music soon after.
“I started recording in my teens on my stereo system. When I figured out how to record guitar with it and put them together I started doing that. “I worked it out by fluke; it isn’t like today when you can just Google it.”
“I sent off tapes to BMG and I thought this was good stuff. They got back to me and wished me all the best, I still have the letter. Nowadays you don’t get that.” Elaine used Mixcraft to record her own songs after that, giving her a unique experience in recording outside of a run of the mill recording studio like most people did.
"It was me writing songs and telling myself how I was feeling"
For someone who has been writing music for most of her life, it took a long time for Elaine to step onto the stage herself.
“I didn’t start performing until I was in my 20s. It wasn’t enough anymore to be writing to myself and listening to myself, I was at the stage where I felt comfortable enough to take the step"
“Nobody could believe it because I never really put it out there. It was quite private, stuff I was writing was subconscious. It was me writing songs and telling myself how I was feeling. When you write anything you’re incredibly vulnerable and I guess it took me that long to really feel comfortable to put it out there.”
“It was just something that I felt I needed to do.” ELLYD will return to Whelan’s in support of her highly anticipated new single, ‘Close’ on June 29th.
When you write anything you’re incredibly vulnerable and I guess it took me that long to really feel comfortable to put it out there.