Ellevator release debut album / share video for “STAR” (ffo Metric, Arcade Fire)

By Steve Janes

On May 6, 2022

In News

Ellevator

Release debut album

The Words You Spoke Still Move Me

Out now via Arts & Crafts

Canadian dates in May inc. Toronto and Montréal

Press shot (credit Stephanie

STREAM Share video for “STAR” WATCH

“Wall-to-wall drums, gravely guitars, and synth flashes paint a euphoric sonic wash akin to Metric’s Synthetica, early Local Natives, or San Fermin” – FLOOD Magazine “A sense of intimate vulnerability and emotional vastness” – Consequence “… offers plenty of different paths on which to embark, whether one favors the slinky, dark guitar rock of Spoon or the ever-changing sonic landscape of Arcade Fire” – The Line of Best Fit “A sparkling piece of art-pop” – The Needle Drop

The Hamilton, Ontario-based trio, Ellevator have today released their Chris Walla-produced debut album, The Words You Spoke Still Move Me via Arts & Crafts. The record arrives alongside the video for the album track, “STAR” and comes following earlier tips from NPR, Consequence, The Needle Drop, Exclaim, FLOOD, The Line of Best Fit, Under the Radar, CBC and more. The band will support the release of the new record with Canadian dates this May with support coming from Pleasure Craft, Deanna Petcoff, Luvr, Emma Worley, Quinn Mills, Equal, Alicia Clara and Lastli across different dates – full run below.

Watch the video for “STAR” HERE

The band, which is comprised of Nabi Sue Bersche, guitarist, Tyler Bersche and bassist/synth player, Elliott Gwynne, will deliver on the promise of their self-titled 2018 EP with their long-awaited debut album. The record was pieced together across numerous locations but primarily while living together at The Bathouse (a Kingston-area facility owned by Canadian alt-rock legends The Tragically Hip) and comes off the back of earlier dates with Amber Run, BANNERS, Cold War Kids, Arkells and Dear Rouge. Across 12 tracks, it inhabits an emotional landscape that is both breathtakingly intimate and impossibly vast, documenting various experiences to turn universal (existential longing, romantic power struggles, the neverending work of true self-discovery) and highly specific (e.g., frontwoman Nabi Sue Bersche’s journey in extracting herself from a cult) storytelling into a truly hypnotic body of work, giving rise to the kind of radiant open-heartedness that radically transforms our own perspective.

Ellevator poses a fantastic ability to sculpt these mammoth, melodramatic post-rock and indie-rock soundscapes, somewhat inspired by the late-aughts sounds of Spoon, Metric, Interpol and Arcade Fire, as well as the stadium-ready sounds of U2, Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel. “STAR” finds the band tapping into their knack for soaring guitar lines and driving percussion while commentating on the distorted image that social media can often present.

Speaking about the new single which arrives with a stunning visual directed by the band’s frequent collaborator, Cam Veitch, Nabi says: “There are so many ways to disguise ourselves I don’t think we even notice we’re dressing up anymore. Good art has a human point of view, which is to say it’s nuanced, complicated. It often doesn’t have a clear agenda that’s easily distilled, packaged, and sold. Flattening that perspective into something that fits neatly between the clean lines of social media has been difficult for me. Learning how to do it has changed the way I see the world, brought out ugly instincts, and magnified my vanity and insecurity. The wildest part is that this sort of curation and performance is no longer reserved for people like me: artists who pay people lots of money to convince you to listen to our music. Any fourteen-year-old on TikTok has given at least as much careful attention to their brand as I have. But the neurochemical trick these platforms play is just the latest version of a very old phenomenon. We’ve always built our identities carefully: showing the world our good side is an intrinsic part of evolution, whether it’s holding our arms high to make the bear think we’re bigger than we are or an Instagram story of our eight-car-garage.

“I started writing this song about Sable Starr and the baby groupie scene from the 70s in West Hollywood. Writing about licked lips, hey sweethearts, and other abstractions of crude men is a natural place for me to write from. Like a lot of people, there’s a deep well of rage to draw from there. But it morphed into a song about me, how the fucked up aspects of my industry have shaped me, how I’ve bent to the wills of people and entities I don’t trust. When the road runs out, will I be waiting around? Will I still be pretending?”

Chris Walla discusses the debut album saying: “I remember a nighttime thunderstorm blowing in – a fairly scary one, the kind they issue a ‘watch’ for – during the second very hot week of recording The Words You Spoke Still Move Me. I went outside the church where we were working, on a break, just before the rain, the humidity heavy on my shoulders like a wet dog (no, a dog wouldn’t probably be on your shoulders but whatever it’s a sensory experience). And as the wind picked up I thought about how summer records so rarely capture the strange, aching complexity of actual summer, especially in the middle of a continent. Then the temperature dropped like fifteen degrees and I got really, really wet. It was the best. . . And Ellevator made a clingy, sticky, perfect summer record.”

Canadian dates

05.18 – Ottawa, ON – support TBA

05.19 – Montreal, QC – w/ Alicia Clara (@_aliciaclara)

05.20 – Oshawa, ON – w/ Equal (@heyitsequal) + Quinn Mills (@quinnymills)

05.21 – Guelph, ON – w/ Emma Worley (@emma___worley) + Luvr (@luvrmusic)

05.25 – St. Catharines, ON – w/ Lastli (@lastliofficial)

05.26 – London, ON @ – w/ Deanna Petcoff (@deannapetcoff)

05.27 – Hamilton, ON – w/ Deanna Petcoff (@deannapetcoff)

05.28 – Toronto, ON – w/ Pleasure Craft (@pleasurecraftmusic)

06.04 – Gravenhurst (Muskoka), ON – Tall Pines Music & Arts Festival

You can purchase/stream The Words You Spoke Still Move at this link