‘I Hope I Never Leave Your Mind’ is our point of entry into Drew Elliott’s meaningful and hypnotising artistic universe. It’s something we are grateful for; while the American troubadour has been rallying an ever-growing support since his debut in 2019, we were somehow still oblivious to the project. Fear not, we are here to pay our dues, delving deeper into Elliott’s musical world with one of the most interesting interviews we have delivered lately.
Anyway, here’s what you need to know: hailing from Nashville, Drew has gently approached the indie-pop scene with a sound that’s mellow, hypnotising and rather luscious. ‘I Hope I Never Leave Your Mind’ is his latest effort, a wonderful piece drenched in Elliott’s cosmic, magical vocals and a certain carefree, soothing attitude. It’s also quite imaginative from a sonic standpoint, with hidden forays into psych and dreamy territories.
Intrigued by Drew Elliott, we caught up with him to learn more about his artistry and future goals… Interview below!
Hey Drew, thanks for chatting with us! Your latest single, ‘I Hope I Never Leave Your Mind’, has been a joy to listen to. I am quite intrigued by the way you wrote the song: the sudden flash of inspiration hitting you during a gym session, and you having to run home and work on it. It seems to me that you hold a particular connection with your songwriting. Do you value being able to hold a fragment of time in a song? Is there anything in particular that pushed you towards music-making?
Songs have always been time machines for me. Similar to the way the smell of a candle can take you back to the beach, or the taste of a snack pack may bring you right back to elementary school. There’s a strong connection with music like that for me, and I think it’s a bit of a double-edged sword situation. Sometimes I love being taken back, sometimes I’d rather create a new memory with a song. Some albums are deemed ‘unlistenable’ to me because of this. Not to be dramatic or anything.
I always credit my older brother for igniting my love for music. When I was 10 years old, he told me I NEEDED to beg our parents for an electric guitar so we could cover AC/DC songs. Me on guitar, him singing. The rest is history.
You have come a long way since your debut in 2018. I am sure you have acquired a great deal of wisdom since then. If you had to share one truth you have learnt about the music industry, what would that be?
Oh, good question! It’s hard to pin down objective and consistent truths in the music industry that feels like it is constantly changing, but as an independent artist, I feel it’s important to learn how to adapt to these changes. I grew up wanting to be a songwriter & guitarist, but the career I saw others achieve during that time looked very different from what it does now.
Currently, my career looks like writing songs for film & TV, building a community on TikTok Live, scoring short films, releasing songs one at a time, etc. I grew up thinking you release an album every two years, tour endlessly, & sell physical CDs one by one to fans at a merch table. It doesn’t quite look like that anymore, at least not at my ‘level’. Tour is expensive, and I have to remember if I have a CD player in my car or not ahaha.
As far as wisdom goes, I just believe it’s important as an independent artist to not get caught up in what music is ‘supposed’ to look like and rather get creative within what the current state of the industry is today.
‘Slow Devotion’ is your only album so far (2021); we appreciate its hazy, cathartic character, a mixture of gentle alt-folk and dreamy indie-pop. Has your outlook on music – and life in general – changed since then?
Thank you so much for the kind words! Slow Devotion was a special process, and working with Jason Wozniak (producer) on bringing those songs to life has solidified itself as a very special time in my life.
When I was writing Slow Devotion, I wanted to push the boundaries of what I thought my music could be. It was anything but reserved, pushing for high energy and huge choruses under a bed of synths & guitars. It felt like mad science trying to layer sound after sound & create melodies in instruments that didn’t clash with each other.
Slow Devotion, to me, is a finished art piece. Like most artists, moving forward I plan to explore different sounds, song structures, influences, etc. I wouldn’t be opposed to diving back in at some point, making alternate versions of the songs… (hint hint).
Jumping back into ‘I Hope You Never Leave Your Mind’, I love its expansive, ethereal and psychedelic production. I am particularly fond of the vaporwavey, fever dream outro 🙂 Can you tell us how you went about producing the track, and if there were specific references you were being inspired by?
Ahh, yes, the outro. There haven’t been many songs I felt an opening for a guitar solo moment, but after working with I Hope I Never Leave Your Mind for about 3 months (it has MANY other versions), I finally landed on a tempo change bringing the listener into a whole other world of sorts. Artistically speaking, I feel the outro serves as a resolution of sorts.
It feels like letting go of my lover and accepting change, fully immersing myself in the grief of it all. The guitar solo symbolises the sad hope of it all, and I landed on the final take of the guitar solo as soon as the guitar sounded like it was ‘crying’. I can say I did my best to channel Prince for that outro!
The guitar solo in the end is surprisingly old-school. It reminds me of a number of pop tunes in the late 90s and early ‘2000, when people still loved having those long outros packed with pathos and poignancy. Is it you playing the guitar or someone else? That’s a nice touch!
Thank you so much! I’m the one performing the guitar solo. Guitar was my first love, and I’m so happy I was able to let loose on this song.
You have mentioned to me your personal struggle with hearing loss; Would you mind just sharing how you go about overcoming such an issue? Do the hearing aids influence the way you experience music and audio? Do you take particular precautions when in a music studio?
Absolutely. Yeah, I have had hearing loss since I was born, resulting in failing every hearing test since I can remember. My loss is focused mostly, if not all, in my upper registers, so without hearing aids, everything sounds like it has a low-pass filter on it. It has created many obstacles in music for me, having to take multiple breaks during sessions to let my ears reset.
I’m beyond lucky to have talented people around me like Carson Ives, who helped me bring the production to the finish line and mix the song, as well as my good friend Nick Pilotta, who worked on vocal engineering for the song. Those two have been my gut-checks for everything audio for a while now, helping me with mixing and making sure there’s nothing in the tracks that my ears can’t register.
I am always interested in hiatuses; Your Spotify bio mentions you taking a small break in 2022. What were you up to that year, and did you find it beneficial to step back from actively pursuing music for a bit?
2022 was an interesting year. After releasing Slow Devotion, I felt very defeated and drained. I was and still am beyond proud of the project; however, I set many expectations that were out of my control and found myself in a place of little encouragement to keep moving forward. I started diving into photography, which took up most of my time in 2022.
In hindsight, it was very beneficial as my mental state was not in a good place for music. Working in photography, I was luckily presented with a lot of opportunities that continued to teach me more about the music industry, and gave me the tools to create content efficiently and at a higher quality.
What are the next steps for your project? Anything exciting on the horizon?
Next steps are continuing to write and record the new music to eventually share with everyone! I am starting to dip into scoring for short films as well as feature-length films, which has been my obsession as of late. I feel my music may change with this new obsession, bringing forth more of a “cinematic” feel to the songs that haven’t been written yet.
