 |
Brummy girl Kelli Dayton, aka Kelli Ali, is perhaps best known for her days as a vocalist for trip-hoppers Sneaker Pimps in the 1990s. Her musical past goes way back before then though, with her first band Psycho Dramas, followed by The Lumieres, providing her with plenty of practise at honing her talents.
After her departure from Sneaker Pimps, she continued to write and perform as a solo artist and is now set to release her fourth album, 'Rocking Horse', on 24 Nov. Written as she travelled across America and inspired by her journey and mesmerising surroundings, the album is a delicate bubble of dream pop.
Here are Kelli's answers to our Same Six Questions - to read her answers in full, go here: http://www.cmumusicnetwork.co.uk/ssq/kelliali.html.
|
Q1 How did you start out making music?
I was always singing as a little girl and making up little songs. I loved writing stories about singing animals and fairy tale creatures, so I would often write songs for them to sing. At my junior school I was lucky; art and music was highly regarded and I remember spending a lot of time playing the recorder and xylophone. I loved those days when we would play a particularly moving or pretty piece of music and the whole class would be playing, even the wayward kids would enjoy playing a triangle or tambourine and everything seemed very beautiful when we were all playing like that. It made me very happy even at seven years old and seemed to take me to a very magical place.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
We spent the last few years travelling around California and Mexico and wandering around with no fixed abode. We spent a lot of time in the most stunning places, forests, mountains, deserts, beaches and it was such a gift to have that time to write. I was inspired by many of the beautiful adventures we had. I was writing all the songs for the 'Rocking Horse' album on a little Martin acoustic guitar that I took everywhere. I spent many nights by a campfire under the stars, playing that guitar and writing many of the songs which eventually became the album.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
When the main song idea (ie verse and chorus structure) is written I will make a demo of the song on my laptop studio which consists of very few elements, such as Pro Tools and a few plug in instruments which I use for string and woodwind ideas. I'll record a basic guitar track on my acoustic and then play around with textures and strings or organ ideas, then record the vocals. From there, I keep working on the song, changing parts, adding parts, trying out different vocal melodies etc. When I feel I've done all I can do with the song, I will look for collaborators and producers and other musicians to bring the song to its full potential.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Sufjan Stevens is a big influence on the new songs I'm writing, I adore his work. Marissa Nadler, Vashti Bunyan, Joan Baez, Ennio Morricone, Iron And Wine, Lavender Diamond, Espers, Goldfrapp, Beck, Bjork, Greg Weeks, Vincent Gallo. There are so many people who influence and inspire me I could go forever!
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Nothing. I'd let them listen to the music.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
We are now looking at playing as many live shows as we can, I am so happy to be working with some great musicians on this 'Rocking Horse' live set and the album translates perfectly to a live stage, so we're all pretty excited right now about hopefully touring the UK and the US next year. We recently finished recording an acoustic album with the musicians who play with me on the live set. It went really well and we're very much looking forward to doing more recordings together.
published november 2008
