Local songwriter, Elle Wolf, is set to release her new single “Queen” this Friday at a show at The Toast Collective, opening for Joel West. The new single is a departure from her previous work, sonically. The change was prompted by two big moments. The first happened when Wolf answered a Craigslist ad for a group looking for a vocalist for a dance track. The track was “West Coast” by Diana Boss, an electronic duo consisting of producers Sam Steele and Josh McRae. The experience inspired a whole new genre for Wolf, who would start experimenting more with electronic sounds.
The second moment came when she was working at the Commodore Ballroom as a server. A musician named Jack Garratt was performing and she found herself in complete awe. She stood by the stage and watched him work the synths and trigger pads. Everything about his set up inspired her.
These two moments put her down a path of musical discovery with Ableton Live and a Nord A1.
“That synth changed my life,” she says of the Nord A1, “followed by the purchase of my first trigger pad last spring. I haven’t looked back since.”
Her new single “Queen” was recorded with producer Cody Taylor. The song is a dark and moody reflection on rejection. Wolf’s vocal performance is breathy, angsty, and melancholic. It’s complimented by an array of electronic sounds that Wolf refined with Taylor, who she met serendipitously.
“Last May I was out in Toronto,” says Wolf, “and played a show with some great friends, Winter Youth and Montreal’s Super Pyramid. Ben from Super Pyramid is a brilliant mind and a trusting friend. When he heard the new sound I had been working the night of the show, he told me to call Cody Taylor ASAP.”
So Wolf signed up for one of Taylor’s beat making master classes at Tom Lee Music. As soon as the class ended she introduced herself and they clicked right away.
“Finding the right producer is like finding the right nanny for your child. You need to be able to trust them and have them feel the same way about raising your baby.”
The new single is a deeply personal track, the lyrics of which focus on rejection and the pain it can cause. As a musician developing a new sound, Wolf is putting herself out there creatively and emotionally. In the process of writing the song she learned a lot.
“I learned so much,” Wolf says, “not only with the major learning curves on the gear itself, but also with my own self, creatively and emotionally. It is a really heavy song. It touches on putting your true self out into the world and the world rejecting you. I feel like musicians and artists, hell, just people in general, can face so much rejection in life and it can really get to you.”
Check out the new single live at The Toast Collective on Friday January 24th. More info on the show here: https://www.facebook.com/
