Sepiachord: Is Eli August a person or a musical project?
Eli August: I guess the best answer to that question is to say yes to both parts. Eli August is myself and its whomever else I'm performing with at the time.
SC: How did you reach a point as a musician where you would become the focus of the music?
e.a.: It wasn't something that I consciously planned to have happen. I'd been casually working on a few "solo" songs when personal issues within the band I was in at the time caused us not to be able to do the tour I'd booked.
In my eyes I could either not go, or see if the clubs would take something different. So that's where Eli August came from. In retrospect I'm glad it all happened that way, because otherwise I may not be where I am now.
SC: You describe your music as "melancholy". Why does that emotion saturate your music?
e.a.: Its kind of funny, because my friend who designed the website actually put the tag in there "melancholy music".
I had never thought of the music in specifically that way. I guess I knew the songs weren't always happy or upbeat. I think that that particular emotion is so prevalent in my music, because the times when I've been at my lowest have also been some of the times I've felt the most. When the world seems out to get you and nothing you do is right, I've tended to feel everything around me more acutely.
SC: When I listen to your songs I can't escape the profound feeling of loss that weaves into the lyrics. Did you channel this emotion from a specific event to evoke such a palpable feeling of regret and isolation?
e.a.: Its never been one specific event, just everyday disasters, letdowns, breakups and lost hopes. Tiny personal deaths that happen to everyone.
Sometimes a song comes from something that just effects your day, other times its something or someone that changes your whole year or your life.
SC: What bands were you in prior to the Eli August releases?
e.a.: Fermata was my first band.
It went through several incarnations and players over the years. Mike Darnell who most often plays with me now, was one of the early members of Fermata.
The other band that I was in for a short spell was a Ska band called Model Airplane. Yeah, yeah, yeah, stop laughing. I know you're picturing me in a ska band. Well, guess what, they were sad songs about cowboys and dinosaurs.
SC: You've recently released your full-length CD, "Let This House Burn Slowly", how was the recording of this album different than previous recordings you've done?
e.a.: The recording process was different in several ways.
It was the largest project that I had done as a solo artist without a band. That meant I had to hire some folks to play the string parts and that I had a larger work load in front of me, since I sang all the songs.
Secondly, since I was the only one deciding how many songs and which songs to put on the album it made that process a little more difficult.
Lastly, the engineer at the studio and I played around and used some experimental recording techniques on some songs. For example, on "Second Story", I sang directly into a drum head that was suspended on its side with mics in front and behind it. The outcome isn't something that's going to blow your mind, it was just a way to get a specific sound without using a preloaded reverb in a computer. We also recorded in stairwells, an old synagogue and did a number of outdoor sound effects.
Somewhere back in Wisconsin there's some college students wondering why there were two guys at eleven at night walking around dragging one of those orange traffic> barrels on a gravel road while holding a hand held recorder to the ground.
SC: The packaging on "Let This House..." is beautiful. Who designed it?
e.a.: My friend Jack A. Barker took the front and back photograph. A friend Nate Gassen and I designed the rest.
SC: Did you have to go through a special company to get the packaging you wanted?
e.a.: The packaging itself came from Sooper Dooper in Madison.
At the time, I think they had only done one other band with that exact packaging size and configuration, so that was pretty cool.
SC: You've released an EP, a split 7" with Jim Strange and now this full-length.
What to you have planned next?
e.a.: Within the month there will be a new digital download EP coming out.
If you come to a performance, there will be a unique way that you can purchase that download. Let's just say, it will be something tangible to go along with it.
I also have two other EPs that I'm working on. One will involve a Kickstarter project with Emmett and Mingan Davenport, so stay on the look out for that!
SC: What are some of your favorite show's that you've performed?
Where have you found the best audiences?
e.a.: I would have to say that my favorite shows have been the parlor shows.
I enjoy playing at the Conventions and at clubs, but there's this feeling that you can't get anywhere else besides a small intimate venue. Folks get to see you more as a person and less as this entity that's two feet up on a stage with a bunch of lights on them.
I also get to talk more with people and the sets are a bit more casual and conversational and more personal. I'm always interested in doing more house shows, so folks should not be shy about contacting me. It's been amazing how people have opened up their homes and shared a bit of who they are with me.
SC: Do you have any big shows coming up this year?
e.a.: I hesitate to use the word big, because that may contradict my previous statement about the small parlor shows. Big is not always better.
I will be performing at a few of the upcoming Steampunk conventions and events.
I'll be at the Tempus event in the Mark Twain house in Hartford.
I'll be at the Oklahoma Exposition in April.
I'm also going to be at the Steampunk Worlds Fair in NJ and later on in the year I will be at TeslaCon back in Wisconsin.
Aside from that I'm planing another parlor tour in the not too distant future and for Valentines weekend I will be in North Carolina performing at Davenport and Winkleperry. The gals have also been kind enough to let me share the airwaves with them on the Clockwork Cabaret!
SC: Any final thoughts?
e.a.: Some may call the music sad or melancholy, but that doesn't mean that's what the listener is going to get out of it.
I've had more than one person point out the hope they have found in it. It's up to the individual to decide what it means to them.
Thank you Eli August for taking time to chat with us!
