None of them are called Ella, and they’re definitely not Hardcore…
While they may only be one of many bands thrown into the ever-expanding ‘Contemporary Metal’ category, Bristol-based five-piece Ella are a band with a genuine passion and conviction that makes them standout amongst the crowd.
Forming back in 2003, Cheltenham-based guitarists, Mike Bond and Ni Groom, left their existing band to work with drummer, John Webber. ‘John had been playing with Ben in another band in Bristol,’ explains Mike, ‘and said, “I know this singer, he’s a bit of a dick, but quite cool”, so he came over and that was the start of the band’. After sticking with the line-up for a year, bass-player Miller was forced to leave due to other commitments, so the band enlisted the help of their photographer, Paul Mah, and have continued to carve their own niche into the Contemporary Metal scene ever since.
Sitting comfortably in Danny’s Bar, the band were in good spirits and ready for their first gig at Bedford Esquires. ‘It’s actually a really good size,’ comments Mike, ‘some of the places you get are quite small and some of them are really daunting if they’re really big,’ before adding sarcastically, ‘like when we played Wembley that time, I was so scared!’ he laughs, ‘but yeah, it’s really nice’.
Ni: The people are really friendly as well; good promoter, the promoter’s a really nice guy. So far so good.
Mike: But you should hear what we say when we leave! [laughs]
After a round of applause for Ni, whose birthday it is today, we get down to the burning question that everyone who comes across this band seems to ask: ‘why “Ella?”’
John: Um, that was, Miller fancied a girl at uni called Ella and as a joke he said, ‘why don’t we call the band Ella?’ So we did. That’s pretty much it! But we all wanted a kind of non-descript name so we didn’t get pigeon-holed straight away; you know, we didn’t want, like, ‘Rotting Christ’ or something.
Ni: [laughs] Yeah, ‘Rotting Christ’, why didn’t we think of that?!
And that is perhaps what really sums this band up, what comes across in their music and the impression you get when you talk to them; this is a band who truly believe in what they do, and who don’t simply do it to be fashionable - which makes them difficult to define in terms of genre. Read a handful of the reviews of their 2005 E.P ‘On the Verge of Losing Everything’ and you’ll see them described as Metal, Hardcore, Metalcore, Post-Hardcore, Emo, and even Punk-Hardcore. But how do they see themselves?
Ni: Mid-tempo Caribbean rock? [laughs]
John: ‘Death Jungle’ to be honest, in my opinion. [laughs]
Mike: I don’t know, like contemporary melodic metal? We’ve never been anything more than a metal band; we’ve always said that we are a metal band.
John: Definitely not a hardcore band.
Ben: Basically, the way to put it, Kerrang! Do this thing once a year where they always review the best of each category, like your Metalcore and your Emo, and then you usually get like the ‘Contemporary’ one, yeah, which is basically the bands they couldn’t really fit in anything, like your Deftones and your LostProphets, and basically, those bands; their lyrics are kind of Emo, but they’re sound’s not. The LostProphets are kind of chart based, but they just do what they do. We don’t sound like Metalcore, we don’t sound like Emo, but our songs are definitely about girls and, you know, stuff that’s going to affect you. John: We do get put into the Hardcore kinda thing, and I guess I see why, but people are going to pigeon-hole us anyway. But yeah, Contemporary Metal, I guess. Mike: It sounds cheesy, but that’s it. One thing we wanna do, whether it’s the clean parts or the heavier parts, its just got to have some form of passion or intensity behind any of those pieces; I think that’s the only thing really that I can sum our music up with. It’s basically like John was saying, it’s heavy but, you know, it’s got like an intensity throughout.
Ni: Yeah, its never been like ‘tough-guy’ metal either, ‘cause like, Ben always writes from his heart and stuff about really honest things; things he might not wanna say, or others might not necessarily wanna hear, but its honest, and never, like, ‘tough’. But the music’s aggressive, ‘cause that’s the only way of getting that across, you can’t really just faff around with it, you’ve got to be really honest.
John: I think we all grew up on rock and metal anyway, so we’re gonna sound like rock and metal.
Mike: It’s all down to personal influences, but I guess Glassjaw’s pretty good for kinda bringing the band together, but we all use our own sort of influences that mean different things anyway. We kinda figure if we just sit down with the five of us and write music that all five of us like, then that’s all we can do, if anyone else likes it that’s cool but if we all like it…
John: The fact that we’re happy first and foremost, that’s obviously vital. Ni: I think that we all listen to such a wide range of music, like not just metal but all kinds of stuff, whether its old, like the Beach Boys…
Ben: Yeah, I just found my MC Hammer CD. [laughs] I’d actually say the new Kelly Clarkson album, quite a lot of us like that. There’s some bass-ass song writing on that. And definitely the new Thrice album.
Ni: I’ve been listening to Silverchair, even the Carpenters.
Paul: You’ve been listening to the Carpenters! My god… [laughs]
Ni: I think we’re also influenced a lot by our friends and our friends’ bands, ‘cause they obviously have a similar drive and stuff. I guess we all influence each other in some way.
Ben: It’s nice to meet bands form out-of-town as well, who try to do something different.
John: Fiona Apple, Tori Amos and stuff like that as well, that plays quite a bit part.
Ni: Yeah, that’s why I like the Beach Boys and Fiona Apple, meaningful songs, it doesn’t matter what genre they’re from, they’re like the common things between us all.
‘Meaningful’ is a key word here. While much of what Ella do and sing about may not be particularly original, their music is painfully honest, personal and straight from the heart. This isn’t a band who are out to change the world, instead, they simply want to understand their own little corner of it.
Ben: every time I ever write a song it’s got to be about something… I couldn’t really write a song about preaching about some sort of, I don’t know, country in the world, that’s just not what I’ve ever been about, you know? When you get a tingle from a song, I’d prefer it to be from somebody’s one line about how they felt that day or something like that. That’s just the way it’s always been. In the past with Miller, he really fancied this girl and they had that whole situation that people have where you don’t know what you’re gonna say, and I just basically told him to write down every single little thing that he thought of, whether its stupid or not, and it kind of made a song out of itself from what he experienced. I’m up for different ways of doing it, but it will always be about stuff that’s definitely in touch with us.
John: I think it’s anything that kind of influences any of us. I don’t know, as harsh as poverty is and stuff, I guess it just doesn’t… like, we’re all for supporting it…
Mike: Yeah, our music doesn’t have a message; I think ‘music’ is the fact that it’s five of us creating it, so it’s a very personal thing already, so why should we try and use it to put over opinions to other people? I think it’s really a case of if people like it, they like it.
John: We never thought we’d hand out a message; you know, bands like Rage Against the Machine and stuff like that, who blatantly have a political message, we never have, we’re just five guys that like music.
Ben: Yeah, at the same time, I fully respect people who do that, [all agree] they’re obviously really into that and are knowledgeable enough to express their opinion and it’s not just a stupid opinion.
John: I think, more than anything, we’re just not intelligent enough to understand all that. [all laugh]
Ni: When it comes to music, ‘cause we don’t write lyrics (we leave that stuff to Ben) we always try to write music that provokes feelings in us. Definitely when we all sit down we write a piece of music that makes you feel a certain way, I guess. But whatever Ben comes up with is personal to him and its personal to us, and I think the way he expresses it as well, people can tap into it and understand where he’s coming from, so, even though it’s really, really personal, we all interpret Ben’s lyrics our own way, ‘cause we’ve all been in similar situations. I guess relationships and girls and stuff are like a universal thing, everyone’s been there.
John: I think the art work as well, we don’t just wanna be a band all about music, we try and think of everything, whether its t-shirts or artwork, that kind of stuff.
Mike: Haircuts. [laughs]
Ni: Lots and lots of make-up. [laughs]
John: We’d rather give people a whole package. The whole thing behind the E.P was for us to record with someone who was really good, so we went with Mark Williams [Yourcodenameis:Milo, Million Dead, Devil Sold His Soul] and then had the artwork done by Asterisk, who did Poison the Well. We wanted to take home something we’re really proud of regardless of what anyone else thought of it.
You only have to watch Ella playing live to truly believe this. In the bar, lyricist and lead singer Ben is partially hidden behind his hooded top, as, slumped in a corner he fiddles with his zip. His conversation is polite, amusing and intelligent, yet he seems shy and modest with his answers. Three hours later, when you see him on stage, climbing the stacks and hanging from the lighting rig as he throws himself around stage with the rest of the band, its hard to believe that it’s the same person. The painful emotion behind his lyrics is put on show for all to see and it becomes apparent that playing live is an important part of the complicated jigsaw that makes up Ella, ‘it’s probably the most important thing,’ nods John.
Ni: Whenever we’re not playing we just can’t wait till our next gig. Mike: I think for me, when I first started doing it, it was like ‘cool, I get to write with other people’, and then you play live once and you’re like, ‘wow, that is just amazing’.
John: Especially if you have positive feedback, like, none of us wanna be ‘Rock Stars’, but it would be nice to make a living off music. It’s just nice when people come up to you and say they really like us.
Mike: That’s basically it. If we play a show and one or two people enjoy it then it’s totally worthwhile
Ben: And they don’t have to say anything, but you know, if one person says, ‘you guys were really good tonight’, that’s pretty much what we talk about all the way home.
John: Yeah, and even if we don’t get positive feedback, we tend to text each other telling us we were really good! [laughs]
Mike: But more than anything else, the internet’s been fantastic for getting people to hear our stuff, that but you just can’t emphasize how important the gigs are for the band.
Ni: I think for me personally, ‘cause I never went to university and did the whole traveling thing, even just to get to go to a new place is important; like, I’ve never been to Bedford before, and I probably wouldn’t have bothered coming here if weren’t for the gig. I dunno, we went to Glasgow; I never would have been able to go to Glasgow just for the hell of it, so…
John: I think it’s meeting friends as well, I’ve met so many really good, really close friends. It’s like one big long road trip.
Having already honed an electric stage presence and with a well-received E.P under their belts, plans for a full length release are already underway:
Ni: Definitely; money permitting.
Mike: Yeah, we might have to sell a kidney to fund it. We’ve got some quite grand ideas. Certainly if we’re gonna do it, we don’t want to do it by halves. But I think, basically, we’re planning on doing something for release towards the end of the year, so with a bit of luck, we will do. We’re writing for it at the moment.
John: We’re aiming to record, maybe like, August time. We’re really conscious of trying not to lose momentum.
Ni: But at the same time, you know, if we’re not happy with what’s written we’re not just going to push it or rush it out, even if it takes a year or whatever. Whenever it’s ready, it’s ready. We have plans but we’re not gonna stress about timing.
John: Yeah, when it’s there, it’s there.
‘Yeah, the album would be cool,’ muses Ben, but 2006 has a lot in store for the band, ‘We need a label, realistically. We’ve done pretty well so far but it would be nice to have someone that was backing us a little bit. And definitely, more gigs, but I’d like to get the opportunity to play with some bands that we respect, it would be nice to play with some bigger bands, some bigger support slots would be cool’.
But what about the distant future? Where do Ella see themselves in five or even ten years time?
John: Dead.
Ni: In a factory, plucking chickens.
Paul: The most dead-end job you could possible think of.
Ben: Supporting Bon Jovi on their last European tour.
John: Yeah, with Nickelback!
Paul: With Nickelback roadie-ing for us. Also, about a stone lighter, and a woman. [laughs]
Ben: In about two years time I’ve got the aspiration to become the next Phil Collins.
Ni: And an ultimate fighting champion.
John: Yeah, and I hope at the same time wearing the face of Phil Collins.
Ni: We’ll probably be sick of each other’s shit jokes by then as well.
Ben: Yeah, we’ll have five different tour buses.
John: And probably giving one-word answers in interviews instead of babbling on…
But behind the jokes, this is a band with some high hopes and big aspirations, whilst still showing a genuine commitment to their music:
John: We’d love to be doing what we’re doing, even if we’re doing this in five years I’d still be happy and if it gets bigger then that’s cool as well.
Ni: But we’ll still be plugging away at it.
Mike: Ideally, like, album number three, or doing some regular touring or something.
John: Yeah, ideally playing The Academy every night or something like that. Going international as well would be amazing, but that’s all far off.
Mike: But that’s exactly why we’re doing it, if we didn’t have all those aspirations there’d be no point in doing it.
Ni: Even if we never get bigger than this I’d still like it.
Mike: Yeah totally, and respect as well, that’s the other thing.
Ni: I don’t know, we’ll probably still be, realistically I imagine, probably be in the same position we are now but obviously playing a lot more, touring a lot more, people will know us a lot more and we’ll actually have a fan base. Maybe we’ll regularly go to Europe, maybe even get to America.
Ben: Yeah, and I would just like to release an album that got good reviews, you know, it would be a bomb after our good E.P reviews if we released an album that was a sack of shit, that would be a real set back. To do an E.P the way it was done was something I always wanted to do, so the next stage is to have an album. As cheesy as it sounds, when I’m a granddad to be able to say, ‘yeah, that’s my album’.
Having Nickelback as roadies may still be a long way off, but one thing is certain; with their down-to-earth attitude, and a passion and intelligence that sets them apart from many of their peers, Ella are a band who deserve to be around for a little while longer yet.
Ella’s E.P, ‘On the Verge of Losing Everything’ is available now. For more information on the band, check out their website: www.ellaonline.com, or their MySpace site, www.myspace.com/ella.