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I went to Indiana in July to try to better understand the roots of some of my favourite bands and artists, including John Mellencamp, but mostly The Elms from Seymour, Indiana.
Almost two years after I first saw these boys play live, on July 22 I watched The Elms rip up the stage at the Broad Ripple Street Fest in Indianapolis - well worth the 14-hour drive there. But for the rest of us in Canada who won’t be travelling that far any time soon, we might be seeing The Elms on home soil within the next year.
Two days later, I drove to Seymour and had a little chat with lead singer and songwriter Owen Thomas. He told us that The Elms have been invited by The Trews, a cool rock outfit from Nova Scotia, to tour with them in Canada if they so please. "I think that's what we'll probably do," he said. The two bands met a few months ago when The Trews visited Indiana for an emerging artist show case.
Beyond the possibility of coming to Canada, life is busy for The Elms. Since leaving Sparrow Records a few years back, they were signed to Universal South in August of 2005 and released The Chess Hotel in May of this year to rave reviews. They made a video for 'Nothing to Do with Love' and in May and June they toured the United States opening for Cracker. (For the day-by-day action and some great behind-the-scenes footage, check out elmsblog.com ) The music video for 'Nothing…' is in the hand of execs at VH1, who seem to like it. But to have a video get to air("To be one of the seven videos that they play," Owen quipped) is a long involved process - unless your name is Paris Hilton - that may take the band to New York City to play live for the VH1 moguls.
Now, back at home in Seymour, Owen is hard at work at the next project: a video for 'Bring me Your Tea.' In fact, when we sat down for lunch with him, he told us that his next appointment was with the Town of Seymour to get permission to do the shooting.
If you are familiar with The Chess Hotel, you may be wondering why they would do a video for a song that's a minute and forty seconds long. As it turns out, the video is not the typical music video; it's more of a four- or five-minute documentary that will highlight the plight of the working class, with just Thom and Owen doing the music.
During our conversation about the new video, Owen brought up the movie Fight Club, which is a movie that, he says, tells people that not everyone is meant to make it, to be famous, or to live their dreams. "The whole idea of the movie [Fight Club]," he says, "is… it's almost the antithesis of what I'm trying to tell people. 'Hey, whatever you want to do with your lives, just try it, just try it. Don't relegate yourselves to your circumstances in life.'" He's seen his friends give up their dreams and their talents to work a job just so they can pay the bills - his friends have been the people who sorted bolts for a living. One lyric that goes, "I've got no opinion with four mouths to feed/I sell off my future to get what we need" is about a his friend of his who is 26 and married with four kids, and who can't just up and pursue his dreams despite his talent.
But don't get Owen wrong; he doesn't want to come across as though he's bashing the working class. He wants to shine a light on the plight of the workingman. He realises completely how vital the blue-collar workers are to the running of everyday life. "If a president of a huge record company who's hugely influential stopped doing his job, well, then, it would send the state of affairs of his label into turmoil and all of us would be like, 'Dang, that new record didn't come out,'" he says. "But would it really affect [us]? It would just be inconvenient. But if, you know, all these people who aren't the bigwigs of the world, who aren't the real movers and shakers of the world...if the factory people quit doing their jobs, or strike, then there would be no car parts and if the truckers quit delivering stuff, then they wouldn't deliver gasoline and they wouldn't deliver groceries, and these are the people who make like six dollars an hour. So I'm trying to do this little thing[the video], to just kind of shine a light on that faction of people who work so hard for very little reward and who, right now, are the ones struggling the most. And this isn't a political statement or anything like that. It's just a tough time, I think, to live in a town like this and pay those gas prices and pay for inflation and pay those interest rates and stuff like that."
Don't expect to see this video on MTV or MuchMusic anytime soon. Says Owen, "It's not going to be the type of thing that MTV is going to play, like girls shakin' their booties or low-rider cars; it doesn't have a scene of a bunch of teenagers at a party by a pool.” It'll likely be available on their websites, and Owen says that they may try to find some film festivals that might want to show it. They may also have it as an "EPK kind of thing," to let people know "what our record is about or what our band's 'part B' is besides just rockin'."
I asked Owen how their label is treating them and whether they're behind them doing these things that won't necessarily be making big bucks. He says the label has been "really gracious about this kind of stuff." He says that the people there believe in their music and that that's the only reason to take on a band like the Elms, a band that is an investment and whose popularity probably won't catch on in the mainstream for a few years. Owen likens it to Bryan Adams, who was under the radar for so long and then broke big with Cuts Like A Knife.
He goes on to say that The Elms' approach has always revolved around playing live, so the support they've been getting from radio stations in Indiana has actually been somewhat of a surprise. A few stations in Indianapolis are playing the songs 'Nothing to Do with Love' and 'Black Peach.' He says it's "a dynamic we never would have figured on."
"You're making a record," he says, "and always in our heads we're going, 'No one's going to play it.' Not in a deprecating way, it's just, we listen to the radio, and we know what they play and it's the Pussycat Dollls, Kelly Clarkson - that's the kind of stuff they're playing, and we look at our record and go, 'This isn't going to be the kind of record radio's going to be all over.' So when it happens it's a great blessing and a big surprise."
Regardless of whether radio and other media will get behind them, Owen says, "All we want to do is try to get the word out there as honourably as possible and have little tools like this, little videos and things like that to let people know that there's something greater that they can invest in besides whether the songs are good; you're helping us kind of tell the story of the people we live near and the people who are our friends."
After talking with Owen, you can't miss his God-honest sincerity, and you can't help but feel that there is hope for popular music with guys like him working so hard to just tell the truth about life. The title of their previous album still describes them well: Truth, Soul, Rock & Roll - and The Elms excel in all three. You can pick up their new album The Chess Hotel across Canada at most music retailers like HMV. Various online sites have it available for purchase. Since this interview, the boys have been playing various shows, including opening once again for Peter Frampton at some of his shows in the U.S. Owen is still working hard on the 'Bring me Your Tea' video. Stay up to date with all The Elms action at myspace.com/theelms.
- Lisa Melody Mooij