Elba Sessions

We had fun putting a wee video together last month when Andrea Marini was in the studio, so our resident Steven Spielberg whipped out the camera again when Sparrow & The Workshop came a calling last week to film them playing ‘Old Habits’ from the album Spitting Daggers. We hope you enjoy. The full interview and tracks will be up in audio format as soon as!

We posted a video from Andrea’s recent visit to Elba last week and here we now have the full podcast.

Andrea was one of our first guests in the pod and nearly two years ago, he told us about plans to record an album. Two years down the line, the album is done and has just been released. It’s a really lovely listen, the songs have been elevated with some big arrangements yet there’s still a subtlety and understated feel to all the songs. A personal favourite for me is Paris which builds and builds gradually speeding up.

Anyway, enough gushing from me, to the podcast. We’re using mixcloud for a change this month, just to try it out and i think I rather like it!

Andrea plays a headline show at Mono, Kings Court, Glasgow on Wed 28th September and it’s free entry.

Another month and another new presenter for the podcast. This month it was Kim’s turn to pose the questions and our guest down the Hidden Lane at Elba was Mike Nisbet.

It’s fair to say that we got a bit giddy when we heard the new tracks by Mike Nisbet a few months back, we’ve now wrapped our ears around the new album, titled ‘Vagrant’, and it doesn’t disappoint. Mike popped by Elba a few weeks back to chat about why it was so great to tour with Washington Irving, writing songs whilst not really having a fixed home, whether the East coast are a bit more melancholic than the West and his forthcoming album and the launch for it, which takes place at The Ivy on Argyle Street, Glasgow next week (Thurs 9th June).

More info on the launch can be found here at the Facebook event page and to stream/buy the album, just manoeuvre your mice or trackpads here.

Mike Nisbet (June 2011) by elbasessions

This month’s podcast comes with a bit of a twist on the usual format. You can call it laziness if you want (!) but we thought we’d mix it up a bit when Anny Celsi, Duncan Maitland and Nelson Bragg rolled up to Elba Studios. Instead of Chris or Stephen asking the questions, we thought it would be nice to hear what musicians would ask each other so in some sort of ‘meeting of the minds’ style of thing, Anny, Nelson and Duncan quizzed each other on music, first bands and whether Nelson prefers pushing Anny around Europe on a pushcart or if it’s better to push Brian Wilson around when he drums in his band.

Anny was over from the US playing some shows around Europe after last year’s jaunt was curtailed by some light mist caused by volcanic ash in Iceland, remember that eh! Joining her on the tour was Nelson Bragg who in his spare time plays in Brian Wilson’s (of Beach Boys fame) band.

You can check out more info about Anny here

Anny Celsi Podcast by elbasessions

There can be many factors which delay Elba from confirming a podcast with someone to actually recording the pod. It’s generally to do with when the studio is available and has a free slot for some podcasting but sometimes it can be all about location. In January, we were lucky enough that AJ Roach was in Glasgow rather than Brooklyn, last February we had a relatively short couple of hours to record King James as they passed through Glasgow and we collared Conor Mason on his two day soiree to Glasgow for some shows at the tail end of 2009.

Location can’t be blamed however for this podcast. When booking RM Hubbert for an Elba Presents gig last May I enquired whether or not he fancied popping into the studio for a chat and to play a couple of tunes. Yes was the near instantaneous response,

“where are you based?” he enquired

“The Hidden Lane, it’s just off Argyle Street. Do you know it?”

“I have an office there” came the reply

Well, this should be easy I thought…

Leap forward 9 months and we have finally got it recorded, and it couldn’t have been better timing. Following on from last years highly acclaimed album First & Last, he is just about to embark on a lengthy jaunt across Europe supporting Mogwai, his album is being re-released on Chemikal Underground and he is currently recording the follow up to First & Last with a veritable feast of collaborators which is being produced by Alex Kapranos.

You can listen to the resulting podcast below and download using the wee arrow.

RM Hubbert Podcast – Feb 2011 by elbasessions

You can see all of the Mogwai support dates on his website here but if Luxembourg is a bit of a trek for a wet evening you can catch him play the Arches along with the brilliant Finn LeMarinel on February 26th at The Arches in Glasgow.

With the new year arriving, Stephen and Chris have been quick off the mark in getting some podcasts sorted to bring to you this year. We know that we’ve been a little irregular of late and I can’t promise we won’t be again in the future (!!!) but over the next few weeks we’ll be chatting to some people, and we’re pretty excited by them!

Anyhoo, without further ado, please let me introduce our first podcastee of the year, not to mention our most international to date, AJ Roach.

Hailing from Brooklyn, via Virginia, AJ Roach is over in Scotland at the moment to play a couple of shows at this years Celtic Connections festival including an appearance at the excellent Hazy Recollections night featuring Rick Redbeard, Rachel Sermanni, Humbert Humbert and Elba favourites Kitty The Lion.

AJ dropped by Elba to talk about his forthcoming album, the second coming of the ice age in Edinburgh and the difference between playdoh and ‘pleistoceine’ (trust me, i’ve spelled that correctly for the purpose!)

AJ Roach Podcast – Jan 2011 by elbasessions

You can catch AJ this weekend at the following locations;

Sat 15th Jan – Tron Theatre (info here)

Sun 16th Jan – Hazy Recollections at The ABC (info here)

Too keep up with the latest news just point your browser to http://www.roachmusic.com

Enjoy!!!

Tying in nicely with October’s shindig celebrating Elba’s first birthday we asked back the subject of our first podcast Dean Owens, to check up on what he had done with the last year and a bit and to see what the next few months held for him.

Dean Owens Second Podcast – Dec 2010 by elbasessions

Dean’s forthcoming charity single ‘Snowglobe’ will be available for download at all of your usual high quality download outlets from Monday December 6th. It will, as Dean mentions in the podcast be in support of the Mind charity who help people take control of their mental health. It’s a great cause and is definitely worthy of your support and attention, especially at this time of the year.

Thanks again to Dean for popping in to see us!

A new month means it’s a good time to release our latest Elba Sessions podcast. Our heid honcho, Stephen chatted to his namesake about influences from the Beatles to Edwin Morgan, how he goes about writing music and plans for the future, including a shiny new EP recorded right here at Elba and hopefully some more shows.

You may have caught Stephen playing at Elba Sessions Presents…(Nine) in August, we put him on as part of our ‘people you may not have heard of’ series so here’s another opportunity for you to acquaint yourself with the man and his songs!

DOWNLOAD HERE

Just when we’d got the podcasts up on the Elba Sessions website, all shiny and available for download…they went silent. We hadn’t given up on doing them, simply, life gets busy and more importantly, Elba Studios got busy. Indeed, a mixture of work, life and a little bit of play restricted us to blog posting and putting on the Elba Sessions gigs. Thankfully, we cleared space in our diary for one of our favourite new acquaintances.

Not content with just having them along to headline June’s Elba Sessions gig, we thought we’d also drag them into the studio and ask those really probing questions…well, within reason!

So without further ado, here we go, June’s podcast with the fabulous Blue Sky Archives…

Blue Sky Archives June 2010 podcast by elbasessions

Blue Sky Archives EP is available for purchase here

We spent a brilliant 8 hours with Laurence and Johny of King James last Friday (19th Feb) culminating in an effortlessly awesome set at Elba Sessions Presents…at The Liquid Ship. After a gruelling overnight drive from London, looking a little startled, we welcomed them into Elba Studios to have a wee chat and let them play a couple of their songs.

Also, we’re pretty happy that for your comfort and pleasure, this is the first Elba podcast that you can download, so you can always have us handy on your portable music device.

King James Podcast by elbasessions

King James the album will be out soon so keep checking the Lynched Recordings site for further info.

King James
Thirty Pounds of Bone
Diamond Family Archive

I think I speak for us all when I say the sooner we see them back up north the better!