FEATURE
" I like having that freedom to see what the song becomes " but it is fascinating . Her music is filled with influences , but also has a unique sound all of its own . I was curious to know how Kate herself would describe her sound , to someone who had never heard it before . “ It ’ s so hard to describe your own music . I ’ ve heard people say about my music , and I feel it makes sense to me , that it ’ s straddling genres . The term Americana is now used as a genre that will encompass country , folk , blues , bluegrass , rock , pop . I don ’ t fit neatly into any of those so I guess I fit into Americana as it ’ s a fluid genre . I guess some of my songs are quite folky and some of them are quite country , some of them have a rocky feel , some of them have a bluesier feel . I like having that freedom to see what the song becomes . Sometimes it changes quite dramatically . Like ‘ Holding The Whole Thing ’ was originally quite a slow song , but became one of my rockier songs . I think it ’ s more important what the song becomes .
FEATURE
" I like having that freedom to see what the song becomes " but it is fascinating . Her music is filled with influences , but also has a unique sound all of its own . I was curious to know how Kate herself would describe her sound , to someone who had never heard it before . “ It ’ s so hard to describe your own music . I ’ ve heard people say about my music , and I feel it makes sense to me , that it ’ s straddling genres . The term Americana is now used as a genre that will encompass country , folk , blues , bluegrass , rock , pop . I don ’ t fit neatly into any of those so I guess I fit into Americana as it ’ s a fluid genre . I guess some of my songs are quite folky and some of them are quite country , some of them have a rocky feel , some of them have a bluesier feel . I like having that freedom to see what the song becomes . Sometimes it changes quite dramatically . Like ‘ Holding The Whole Thing ’ was originally quite a slow song , but became one of my rockier songs . I think it ’ s more important what the song becomes .
“ I have loads of music influences . A lot of the old classics . I think my first musical love was Bob Dylan , absolutely and still is . There are lots of others – Emmylou Harris , Johnny Cash , Nanci Griffith , Mary Chapin Carpenter . A lot of new contemporary people I ’ m enjoying listening to – First Aid Kit , I love , Jason Isbell , Tift Merritt . But I wouldn ’ t say that any one of those people influenced what I write . It ’ s more that what they made me feel was what music can do . The power it has to put you in this emotional space that I think comes from the writer and through the lyrics and the melody and how they mesh together , how they are anchored in that space you get put into and its incredibly powerful . I think me
as a listener that ’ s what I love about music , so then me as a writer is always trying to do that . The biggest influence is the emotional power of something , whether it be the melody or lyric . So , when I hear it in something I ’ m playing around with or thought of that ’ s what I want to build on .”
' Carve Me Out ' is Ellis ’ debut album , released earlier this year . It is a deeply heartfelt and very carefully considered body of work . “ I ’ d written these songs over several years . This has been a long time in the making ,” Kate tells me . “ I started in New York , then came over here , I had young kids and I sort of took a break from song writing for a bit , to take care of the kids . I think it ’ s almost a bit unusual for an album to take this long . But the benefit of it is that I ’ ve sat with some of these songs for a very long time and we were able to decide what was going to make it on to the album from a great big group of songs and really pick the best ones . Let those songs develop both from the writing side of things and then record . We started in NY with a friend of mine who had his own studio , we recorded several songs and felt that some of them needed something else , so Sometimes it ’ s easier than others . Sometimes the whole song comes .” Incredibly personal and moving , Kate reveals the circumstances behind ‘ Carve Me Out ’ the title track . “ The whole song came out the day after my mother died . It was just whole in 20 minutes . That ’ s unusual , that only comes when there ’ s a really strong emotion attached to it . Whereas other songs a big chunk of it will come out and you ’ ll work on the rest of it over time . Or maybe just the music comes first and then you play with it , something will come into your head that ’ s coming from the melody , an association , something that feels like it fits . Sometimes , more rarely