[Listen to the audio version of the interview above or watch it on YouTube.]
When I saw Melbourne band Elly McK & The Unbelievers play in Sydney last year, it was one of the most entertaining shows I’d ever attended. The band had this groove between them that meant they could fly free within the structures of their songs, and it was evident that they all really liked each other. That is such a great treat for a live music fan, to see the artists having fun, looking like they could play all night if they were allowed to.
The songs have to be there, of course, in order to provide the band with that foundation that allows creativity to flow, and in this new interview Elly and I talk about the songwriting process in the band, which starts with her but invariably involves the other members, Sam Price on drums, Jordy Hickey on double bass, and Monty Price on guitar.
We spoke in depth about live performance and what it means to Elly and the band, and also how it was affected during the pandemic – because although some of us may think that’s all in the past and we should leave it there, for Melburnian musicians it cause a seismic shift in not only their daily lives but their art and how they practise it. Musical acts disbanded or changed shape, and Elly McK & The Unbelievers was a result of that. Their new single ‘Hold On’ was, as Elly tells me in the interview, written during that time and recently recorded live in studio, with an emotional vocal.
If you’re in Newcastle, Kiama or Sydney you can hear that single live and I recommend you do so! As the saying goes, do yourself a favour.
Tour dates
14 August – Coal & Cedar, Newcastle
15 August – Butcher’s Brew, Dulwich Hill (Sydney)
16 August – Kiama Bowls Club
Listen to Elly McK & The Unbelievers on Apple Music
