WILD BELLE
GREENROOM
ISSUE 01
PAGE
09
PHOTO:
COLUMBIA RECORDS
MUSIC
RAISED OUTSIDE OF CHICAGO IN A MUSIC-CENTRIC FAMILY WHERE AS MUCH ARETHA
FRANKLIN WAS PLAYED AS SUN-RA, ELLIOT AND NATALIE BERGMAN FUSED THEIR
PARENTS’ MUSIC INFLUENCES WITH THEIR OWN MODERN POP SENSIBILITY TO CREATE
WILD BELLE. WITH NATALIE SINGING TALES OF BROKEN HEARTS AND ELLIOT AS THE
DO-EVERYTHING PRODUCER PROGRAMMING DRUM MACHINES, PLAYING KEYS AND
THE UBIQUITOUS BARITONE SAX, THEIR ADMITTEDLY REGGAE-INFLUENCED DEBUT
ALBUM ISLE HAS TAKEN THEM ACROSS THE U.S. AND EUROPE AND SECURED THEM A
MULTI-ALBUM DEAL WITH COLUMBIA RECORDS.
INTERVIEW AND WORDS
BY EAMON WHALEN
Elliot, you took Natalie on tour with your
former band Nomo when she was a teenager—
what was that like?
Elliot: It was a natural thing. Natalie was
musically gifted at such a young age and our
band was sort of open and free-wheeling.
Natalie was free one summer [2007], school
wasn’t in session, so we all hopped in the van. It
ended up being a really fun summer, we played a
bunch of festivals like the Montreal Jazz Festival
and Pitchfork Festival in Chicago. It was just a
great way to start collaborating in a looser way,
she definitely got used to the rhythms of being
on the road.
You guys have a lot of old-school influences
but you’re making modern pop music, how do
you balance those creative forces?
Elliot: You don’t want to try and recreate what
BELLE
WILD
somebody else has done because it will never
be as good. This is what we love and this is what
we are inspired by but we have to do our own
thing. We’re both drawn to the dirty and dusty
sound of how old records were recorded so how
we record is pretty simple. We usually record
drums with just a few mics. We like that oldschool approach to making a record, but also
work with modern tools like drum machines
and synthesizers to try and create sounds that
improvisation. [With Wild Belle] These are pop
songs, and you kind of have to fill in around that
structure. It’s much harder to be in Wild Belle
for me [laughs]. In Nomo I could do whatever
I wanted and no one would get mad at me, in
Wild Belle if I ever try to change anything it’s a
major disaster [laughs].
How does it differ from what you were doing
before, Natalie?
Natalie: It’s really just what I’ve been writing
my whole life and then enhanced in a way
that I wouldn’t have ever imagined. I brought a
bunch of demos to the studio and we dissected
them and added layer after layer to the songs
- synthesizers, Chamberlain strings, beat
machines. At the core there are still my little
pop demos but just enhanced and made crazy,
[laughs] into a party!
You guys are both well-traveled and take
people haven’t heard before. Pull from the past
while always looking toward the future; that’s
the line we try to walk.
Elliot, you’re coming from a band with more
of a free-wheeling style, to now making pop
songs, how is that change in structure been?
Elliot: The last band was much more open
- free jazz, all rhythmically based and open to
influences from around the world, but come
from a city with a rich musical history. How
has Chicago influenced the sound of Wild
Belle?
Elliot: We grew up listening to this great Chess
Records Blues box set—that was always stuck in
the car tape deck.
Natalie: Howlin’ Wolf, Etta James [both released
“Natalie was free one summer, school wasn’t in
session, so we all hopped in the van.”
records through Chess]. You put on her record
and I just can’t help but sing along to it. People
are probably like “alright, let’s listen to Etta
James now.” [Laughs] I just need to sing every
single word. I go into this dream land when I
listen to her. She and Sam Cooke are two artists
that I’ll hear their music and I’ll picture myself in
this old film. I’ll zone out and be in this romantic
love scene where I’m simultaneously singing the
music, but also dancing to it you know?
Elliot: Theres also an amazing Jazz tradition,
the AACM or the Jazz Ensemble of Chicago,
and even now there is a great experimental
Jazz scene in Chicago, so that’s just part of
the community that we came out of. It’s very
progressive and supportive of experimental
music and there are all these great spots around
Chicago where that’s that what they do.