It might take some time but Euan Smillie shouldn't doubt his reach.
As one of the members of Elephant Sessions, he's experienced a steady growth from the band's home in the Scottish Highlands to their present fan base spanning multiple continents. Given the passionate fan base that flocks to their electric live shows, it was only a matter of time until they would begin to conquer the U.S. as well.
Now back at home in the U.K., Elephant Sessions recently toured the States for the first time, but it won't be their latest. As Smillie explains, they've been aiming for a proper run through the U.S. for some time but it's been difficult to make happen between cost and commitments (and a global pandemic didn't help the momentum either). But there are only so many ways to resist the band's imaginative Celtic folk/rock fusion before such walls will give way.
We recently had the chance to catch up with Smillie on the band's tour through the Midwest to hear more about their origins, their collaborative creativity, and their long-held dreams of hitting American shores.
Analogue: The Midwest can be tough, right? A lot of people only do East Coast and West Coast runs. How's this current tour going?
Euan Smillie: It's been good, thanks. Yeah, I mean, this is our first tour—our debut tour in the States. Normally, you anchor a tour around a couple of festivals and build from there. We've been trying to get out to Milwaukee Irish Fest for two or three years, but things kept falling through—pandemic, band injuries, you name it.
We built this tour around Milwaukee Irish Fest and added Iowa Irish Fest and a few other shows in between. It's about a three-week run, but as you said, it's a big place, and you can get lost trying to make progress. So, we thought we'd focus on a relatively small area and build from there.
The communities are great. The music scenes around here are brilliant, with solid followings in the places we've played. It's either community-based venues or areas with a real interest in Scottish or Irish music and culture. We're trying to tap into that and get our word out there.
Analogue: I'm glad you found your footing. You mentioned wanting to play Milwaukee Irish Fest for a while. Has coming to the States been a dream for a long time?
Euan: It has, yeah. It's such an exciting market. We've been a band for over 10 years and made great progress in the UK, Europe, and Australia, but for some reason, we never managed to get to the States. There's only so much time in the year, and it's hard to find the time, but it's always been a focus. It's a big market for us, with an incredible amount of music and a huge range of events. There are loads of Americana, bluegrass, and rootsy festivals we think we can cross into.
It's not our first time in the States, though. We played South by Southwest and did a showcase in Austin, plus Folk Alliance International in Kansas City. We've made a couple of trips out, did the odd festival a few years ago, and even squeezed in a show on our way to Australia. I also lived in Louisiana as a kid for two years. That’s where I first picked up a violin in elementary school.
Analogue: I've read that the process has become more collaborative over time from your earliest works. Is this new set of songs more collaborative than ever before?
Euan: Yeah, I'd agree with that. Traditionally, Scottish folk music is melody-driven, with accompaniment, and that’s how we started. But we realized the importance of bass and drums, especially in live shows, setting the tone and mood. Now, instead of leading with a melody and adding accompaniment, quite often, it's a bass line or a groove on the drums that inspires a track. The melody can then follow the rhythm.
This approach is important to us because our records are a vessel to get people to the shows, and we want them to be in the groove, enjoying it, dancing, or partying. When we have a good quality backline, we want to feature it. That’s the root of dance music—it's all in the beat, rhythm, and backline.
Though our music is rooted in folk melodies, everything else—rock, funk, electro—is collaborative, and it's far more interesting to write that way. I don't get particularly inspired by sitting alone, messing around on the fiddle. I prefer playing along with rhythm or accompaniment.
"I don't think anything's off-limits. It's often a case of trial and error. Sometimes we have too many ideas and need to dial it back to avoid things getting messy."
Analogue: So, you’re not overly precious about your own work?
Euan: Not personally, no. I'm precious about what we create as a band. We have multiple tune writers—myself on fiddle, Alasdair on mandolin, our old bass player Seth, and Greg, our drummer, who has written some great tracks. It's very collaborative, unlike a pop singer or singer-songwriter, where the singer writes the song and brings it to the band. We’re all in agreement that none of us could do it without the others. My melody has no value without those sweet drums behind it, and you can't just sit and listen to drums for an hour. It’s very much a collaborative effort.
Analogue: You mentioned using traditional instruments, but that’s where the tradition ends for you. Was that always the vision, or did it evolve over time?
Euan: It wasn't a conscious effort; it just happened over time. Our music has changed a lot across four albums—we're almost a completely different band now. We all grew up playing traditional music, and it was done as it had been 100 years before, with classic melodies. But as we got older and received tuition, we focused more on improvisation, which is more common in folk music than in classical.
Folk music encourages improvisation, and from there, we started writing our own stuff. When we started Elephant Sessions as late teenagers, we were committed to playing but also started to veer away from just playing other people's melodies. We wanted to write our own music, which still sounded traditional at first, but as we grew older, we started incorporating influences from dance music, rock, funk, and more. We didn’t just sit around listening to traditional music—we had real-life influences too.
We weren’t the first to put electronic influences behind folk music. Martyn Bennett, a piper and fiddler, was groundbreaking in doing this, and his music still holds up today. Bands like Croft No. 5, Shooglenifty, and Wolfstone also paved the way for us.
Our band is named after a track by Croft No. 5 called "Elephant." We were on our way to our first gig, didn't have a band name, and were listening to that track on the radio. Greg, our drummer, suggested "Elephant Sessions," and it stuck. Ten years later, we got Duncan Lyall, a member of Croft No. 5, to produce our latest album, For the Night. It all came full circle.
Analogue: As you continue to evolve, is there anything that feels off-limits, or do you feel free to explore whatever you want?
Alasdair: I don't think anything's off-limits. It's often a case of trial and error. Sometimes we have too many ideas and need to dial it back to avoid things getting messy. Working with Duncan was helpful in that regard—he helped us focus on the key influences we wanted in a track. We’ve learned to allow for more space and pacing in our music, which has been really helpful. Our gigs used to be 90 minutes of high-tempo bangers, but now it's a bit more measured and balanced, which has been a good learning experience for us.
Analogue: Learning restraint and how to edit well can be one of the last things to master.
Alasdair: Totally, absolutely.
VISIT: Elephant Sessions
Photo: Euan Robertson
