In fact, the first podcast was recorded in July 2009 with Dean Owens of The Felsons. Stephen, the owner of Elba Studios had decided in an effort to get people in to the studio and to give himself a bit more practice, he would invite people in to have a chat about their songwriting, play a couple of songs and then upload the resulting effort to the grand old dinosaur that is Myspace. At the time, Stephen was only in the studio part time so this was a good opportunity to get more bands recording in the studio. Stephen then called on Chris, to do the talking on the podcasts and they recorded a podcast in August ’09 with Pearl & The Puppets.

Myself and Chris had been speaking about putting on our own gigs for literally years, probably since our days at school in Aberdeen, and joining up with Stephen on the back of the studio podcasts seemed the perfect opportunity to do so. We used the Elba name and with the kind help of Dochan McMillan of The Free Candy Sessions, we started our monthly residency at The Liquid Ship in Glasgow’s West End in October 2009.

The blog was a totally different beast altogether. This was a personal thing that I’d been wanting to start for quite a while and this seemed like a good opportunity to get off my backside and do it, plus, i didn’t have to sit for hours thinking of a name I’d come to regret, I just used Elba Sessions! The first blog post went up at the tail end of August 2009 and was a video of a Bill Callahan Black Cab Session. It stayed as the first post whilst we figured out design and layout and ever since it’s contained the odd post here and there, sometimes it’s more regular than other times but life can get busy! We also have had friends who have helped out along the way, Steph sometimes takes pretty pictures and Kim will often write pretty words.

As we come to the end of year one, it’s been nice to reflect on everything that we have seen and done and our birthday gig is really a tribute to our debut year. The premise of the gig was to have the great and the good that we have featured on Elba Sessions, whether it be podcast, gig or blog, over the last year and get them together for a special gig at The Liquid Ship. Unfortunately we couldn’t ask everyone, there was quite simply too many people and we didn’t quite have it in us to organise a five day festival but we’re proud of the line up and hope that you will join us to celebrate a good year, where we have met so many good people who have helped us out, whether it be a mention on their blog, sending us some music to listen to or even the odd follow friday on twitter!!

Without further ado, here’s the poster for our Birthday Night, please come and say hello, we’re a shy bunch really, but a pint or two usually straightens me and Chris out!! It’s free entry as usual and due to the size of line up it’ll be a sharp 9pm start!

Facebook Event Page Here

We’re looking forward to doing this again next year and are especially looking forward to the challenges of keeping it all together for the next year as life gets hectic. Stephen is packed out in the studio and myself and Chris find ourselves in charge of staff in our dayjobs (daunting). I’m also following the blogger Peenko’s good example and will be a father around Christmas time. Maybe the baby can design the posters????

Album of The Year – May I have 3? Or even 4? This is nigh on impossible to choose just one, I’m afraid as Checkmate Savage by Phantom Band, the God Help The Girl album, Zoey Van Goey’s ‘The Cage Was Unlocked All Along’ were all out…so how do you choose between them? Not to mention Bill Callahan record….! Sorry I’m quite bad at making decisions on stuff like this….!

Things You’re Look forward to in 2010 – Releasing our first proper single and playing some great shows, in Edinburgh and in King Tuts again in January. We were in Chemikal Underground’s Chem 19 studios in November and the songs for our first single are just getting mastered now, so should be released in the New Year. Can’t wait!

Follow Maple Leaves at the following for latest gigs and newses…

www.myspace.com/mapleleavesmusic

@mapleleavesband (twitter)

Facebook group – Maple Leaves

Personally I struggled a bit, not to choose the ten so much, but more to order it from 10 to 1. Looking back at my choices, I’ll stick with my Number 1 and possibly the first few places but to be honest, if any of my top 10 were at number 1, I’d have no complaints at all. Here is how Stephen, Chris and myself voted…

(note: Stephen ducks out slightly by nominating an unreleased album, but we’ll let him off for that and you’ll notice I favoured counting down from 10 to 1, to build suspense and all, wheras my fellow amigos went straight in with a number 1!)

Phil Elba

10. Cuddly Shark – Cuddly Shark
9.Le Reno Amps – Tear It Open
8.Bruce Springsteen – Working On A Dream
7.The Cinematics – Love and Terror
6. Brakes – Touchdown
5. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
4. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
3. Sufjan Stevens – The BQE
2. Phantom Band – Checkmate Savage
1. Titus Andronicus – The Airing of Grievances

Stephen Elba

1. De Rosa – Prevention
2. My Latest Novel – Deaths and Entrances.
3. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career.
4. Idlewild – Post Electric Blues.
5. Conor Mason – When its Over
6. Le Reno Amps – Tear it Open
7. LAU – Arc Light
8. bat for lashes – two Suns
9. Daniel Wylie – Fake your own death (wont be released until 2010 but i have heard the tracks and they are ace!)
10. Cuddly Shark – Cuddly Shark

Chris Elba

1. Wilco – Wilco (the album)
2. Richmond Fontaine – We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River
3. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
4. Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream
5. De Rosa – Prevention
6. Bob Dylan – Together Through Life
7. Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
8. The Low Anthem – Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
9. Sufjan Stevens – The BQE
10. Le Reno Amps – Tear It Open

I was pretty pleased that 4 of mine were included in the Top 20 and having seen the spreadsheet where the maths was done, a couple just missed out. I think The Phantom Band were worthy winners though, being voted for by predominantly scottish blogs and writers it’s fitting that a Scottish band should win it, who would have doubted that one would!

And here’s how the masses voted!

1. The Phantom Band – Checkmate Savage (61)
2. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion (54)
3. De Rosa – Prevention (53)
4. King Creosote – Flick the V’s (51)
5. Withered Hand – Good News (45)
6. The Twilight Sad – Forget The Night Ahead (43)
7. We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls (40)
8. Beerjacket – Animosity (38)
9. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More (32)
9. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career (32)
11. My Latest Novel – Deaths and Entrances (28)
11. Malcolm Middleton – Waxing Gibbous (28)
13. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – s/t (25)
14. You Already Know – s/t (24)
14. Broken Records – Until the Earth Begins to Part (24)
16. The XX – s/t (23)
17. The Antlers – Hospice (21)
18. Sufjan Stevens – The BQE (19)
18. And So I Watch You From Afar (19)
20. Wilco – The Album (18)

You can praise/blame/thank the following for their input!

17 Seconds, AyeTunes, Dear Scotland, Earz Mag, Elba Sessions, Glasgow Podcart, Hooligans Lament, Jim Gellatly, JocknRoll, Jockrock, Kowalskiy, Last Years Girl, Love Shack Baby, Manic Pop Thrills, My Portiswasp Says, Off the Beaten Tracks, The Popcop, Products of a Gaseous Brain, Song By Toad, The Daily Growl, The Spill, The Steinberg Principle, The Vinyl Villain and Under the Radar.

And once again, well done to Peenko for organising all of this!

A short and sweet entry today, here’s Andrea’s answers. We’d like to think favourite gig that he played was at The Liquid Ship but far be it from us to put words in his mouth!!!

Album of The Year – Sometimes I Wish I Were An Eagle, Bill Callahan

Hopes for 2010/Things You’re Looking Forward To -Looking forward to finishing my record and hearing the new Vampire Weekend record

All of Andrea’s previous material can be downloaded for absolutely nowt on his bandcamp page.