A Bristol singer and her Bristol band are looking at a top 40 entry into the UK Album Charts this week. Elles Bailey jokes that she probably won't come close to Tears for Fears when the full album chart is announced on Friday.
The Bristol singer, who was actually only a village away from the hometown of the 80s duo when she spoke to Bristol Live this morning (March 1, 2022) has had quite the 18 months and said her "fingers were crossed" in the hopes that her new album - which she self-released despite getting an offer of a record deal - will indeed make it.
She's hoping that the people of Bristol can help push her new album 'Shining In The Half Light' into the top 20 or even the top 10. In the mid-week album chart, announced last night, she discovered that her latest release was at number 11 - just a place or two behind Adele.
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She said: "It all feels pretty nervy at the moment. You hear this mid-week album chart and it's not the official chart, so it's all to play for until the end of the week.
"I can't really say that I'm going up against Tears for Fears because I think they're sailing on. It feels pretty nuts to be able to say that in the same breath - I'm in the same charts as Tears for Fears.
"The final total is done at the end of play on Thursday I think. I mean, to be honest, I have no idea how any of this works really which is just absolutely nuts.
"It would be amazing to try and keep this album as high as possible. I'm pushing for a top 10, man! Come on - let's get this Bristol artist and this album in the top 10.
"It would just be an amazing story for grassroots music. I have the best fan base in the world. It's because of them that I'm here and I'm sitting so high in the charts right now because they got behind this album and they supported it from the word go."
'We've not been in the same boat but we have been in the same storm'
'Shining in the Half Light' is a particularly special album for Elles as it is, not only self-released by her, but it's also the first album she's made in the UK. She also made it during a global pandemic and while growing (and literally giving birth to) her first baby, her son called Jasper.
The singer, who has worked a lot in America before, describes the album as being a bit of a dedication to the people that have played a part in her story over the past 18 months as well as a way of providing a "connection in a time of isolation". The album, having been created during the Covid-19 pandemic, carries the themes that people across the world were feeling during points of lockdown.
She told Bristol Live: "It's all about the people who got in front of a camera in lockdown season one, the original lockdown, but also throughout the last 18 months and thought 'ok this isn't the glamorous life we're used to living - the touring life - but we still want to create connection' and so it's those people that spread love in a time of heartbreak and a connection in a time of isolation, hope, quite frankly, in a time of hopelessness.
"That is what the title track is all about. The thing for me is that it wasn't just artists connecting with fans.
"It was about fans connecting with each other and so many people were so, so lonely and it was these musical streams, or these comedy streams or these entertainment streams that were bringing people together in this time of isolation and I watched fans of mine and also fans of other bands become friends with each other because they all had this mutual love of Blues music or Americana music or rock music.
"Since then I know a lot of them have met up with each other and they would never have met had it not been for that situation that we were in. I just think it's all about clinging onto the silver linings.
"It's been a really rough time and, quite frankly we've not been in the same boat but we have all been in the same storm and we all have different versions of this collective experience that we've all experienced some way together even though we were apart. It's very mad.
"But basically the album is a celebration of those silver linings and doing what we can to shine in the half light."
'I was listening to the first mixes of the album while in the early stages of labour!'
Elles was on the road at the time of the first lockdown in March 2020 and remembers seeing venues shutting their doors and tour buses parked up awaiting the go ahead for their next travels - whenever that might have been. But while the world locked up, the singer got involved in streaming and helped with festivals.
She even programmed huge lockdown festivals which she described as an "amazing" experience. She said: "I love supporting and championing other musicians so it was great to be able to do that while we were all at home by ourselves."
One of the most poignant reasons why Elles holds her latest album very close to her heart, though, is the fact that it was the one she produced while also pregnant with her first child. She was working right to the cusp of when a pregnancy can interfere with a singing voice - she even listened to the first mix of the album in full in order to give her feedback, while in the early stages of labour.
She told Bristol Live: "I was six and a half months pregnant when we tracked the album and then I have incredible gospel inspired backing vocals on this record and I was meant to be in the studio with the singers, helping my producer co-produce those vocals. On the day before I was due to be there I developed something called Obstetric cholestasis and I ended up in St Mike's [St Michael's Hospital] where I had incredible care throughout my whole pregnancy and birth (so huge shout-out to the midwives and doctors there)."
Elles ended up co-producing the backing vocals from a hospital bed using an app on her phone called 'Audio Moves', along with FaceTime. It meant she could hear what was going on live in the studio.
She also made the sensible decision to order the vinyls for her record a year in advance (also from her hospital bed) to ensure that they made it in time for January 2022, because she knew due to the world's situation that there was a vinyl shortage at the time.
Being a new mum has meant that Elles, who is living with her parents while her home in Bristol is renovated, has only been out and about in the city once since her son's birth - for dinner with her partner. She says she is "very much looking forward to" catching more live music soon - which just so happens to be a fellow Bristolian and one of Elles' very good friends, Martin Harley, who cowrote an album track with Elles and is playing at St Georges on March 9.
Throughout her interview with Bristol Live, she was full of praise and admiration for others who have been a part of her journey, or "story" as she dubs it - both locally in Bristol and from other parts of the world.
She describes how designer Vera Black and the creative team from Milk and Bone helped make her feel more confident in front of a camera after giving birth, as well as how they worked together to provide album and single artwork in the form of styled shoots, which were then transformed into graphics.
'Bristol's a badass place to be'
Elles' son, now 11 months old, has gone along with Elles to a couple of music festivals, but she says that when she is touring she is lucky enough to only be away from Jasper for a few days at a time, before she returns for a few more days and heads off again.
Just last night Elles returned home to perform at Bristol's Rough Trade which she described as being "amazing" and "so nice to be back in my hometown and give it a bit of a hometown musical hug".
She also owes a lot to Bristol venues and called Bristol a "badass place to be" for a musician.
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She said: "I think Bristol has the most incredible, eclectic music scene. There's loads of different voices. It's beautiful, it's diverse, it's inclusive. It's a really really lovely scene and it represents.
"For me what I love about the Bristol music scene is that there are so many Americana and Blues session musicians, so the fact that Joe Wilkins, Jonny Henderson, Matthew Jones play in my band and they're all part of this album - I feel very blessed to have such high class session musicians play on this record. And they're all from Bristol.
"I've sold out the Thekla but I'm going back a few years - The Bristol Fringe have been a massive support of myself and this journey. I played my first ever sold out show at The Bristol Fringe and they gave me, way before any of this, a residency there in 2013.
"I used to play there every Saturday night. I have so many great memories of The Bristol Fringe and they allowed me to film the 'Sunshine City' music video there and the 'Riding Out the Storm' video there so hands down, even though I now play in much bigger venues, I do love the Bristol Fringe and just how supportive they've been of me on this journey."
'Riding Out the Storm' is, Elles says, her "most personal song on the album" and even more special because it was written alongside one of her session musicians, Joe Wilkins. Elles describes him as being "part of this story for the last seven or eight years" and says she owes him "because of his talents and the way he has helped guide me as an artist".
'When it comes to a future record deal - never say never'
Elles was actually playing Thekla on the first gig of the tour when, on the same day, she was offered a "traditional record deal" which she described as being "amazing" and "exactly what we were looking for", but said that in the end she just "couldn't let go".
She added: "This is an album that I made in lockdown while growing my first baby. It was, in itself, just part of the story and I wasn't ready to let this go yet, let control go.
"So I decided to self release and instead I partnered with the other record label and worked with them doing digital distribution, so it's a really nice story. The label have been a huge huge part of this story and I'm so grateful to them for all their help and advice and trying to make sense of my madness!"
Elles wanted to self release and wanted every sale to be chart eligible, but she wasn't sure how she was going to do it without going through a third party. She says that, thankfully, her distributor who put her in Rough Trade Records and HMV had just started something which meant they were able to create a pre-order campaign for her where every sale would be reported to the charts.
However, to do this, they weren't able to plug into her website so, while on tour, Elles built a whole new website on a whole different platform in three weeks - even learning how to code so that every sale could be chart eligible.
She said: "Because I've been running that pre-order campaign for the album since November, that's why this album has entered so highly into the charts."
And when it came to the question of whether she would snap up a record deal if it was offered to her again, she said: "Never say never. This has quite frankly been the hardest thing I've ever had to do, releasing this album. Just before I was walking on stage last night I was on the phone to a distribution warehouse trying to get more stock to fulfill all the orders.
"When you're trying to stand on stage and you're also trying to do all the business, it's been really really hard. If the right offer comes along I'd definitely consider it.
'A West Country story' - the future for Elles
The future for Elles Bailey, or the next chapter in her story, she hopes will start with a top 40, top 20 or even top 10 album - while she finishes off her current small in-store tour, and attends an album release party in London.
Then, she says, its festival season, before she heads to Europe in 2023 and she'll announce some "really exciting news" later in the year.
She told Bristol Live: "And then I guess I'm going to have to do a new album. There's something really scary about releasing an album and then you're like 'oh what next?', 'what's the next chapter going to be like?', 'what am I going to say next time?' so we'll see about that.
"I've got to start working on this new record but I have incredible co-writers that I work with here in Bristol - Ash Tucker has co-written three tracks on the album, Will Edmunds has co-written three tracks on the album, Joe Wilkins has a cut in the record as well - all from Bristol.
"It's very much a West Country story."
You can download Elles new album, 'Shining in the Half Light' here.
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