When Elder Island went into the studio to record the followup to their critically acclaimed 2021 album, Swimming Static, they were determined to “turn everything on its head”. The trio are celebrated for their brooding indie-electronica that draws on their Bristol roots, creating vastly detailed and immersive soundscapes. But Hello Baby Okay marks a new era for the band, fuelled by a longing for transcendence and euphoria. An effervescent counterpoint to the current times, their new music is threaded through with a liberated energy, lilting funk-pop guitars, danceable beats and a renewed sense of play. “We wanted the joy to shine through,” they say.
Elder Island’s Katy Sargent (vocals, cello), Luke Thornton (bass, beat-making) and David Havard (guitar, synths, programming) have spent the past decade building a dedicated fanbase on both sides of the Atlantic, with over 400 million streams worldwide. They’re firm festival favourites who’ve played at prestigious venues from London’s Roundhouse to New York’s Bowery Ballroom and who hold the unique ability to straddle both the live and club worlds: in 2022, they pricked the ears of superstar DJs like Solomun, who personally invited them to spin at his Printworks takeover. Across two studio albums and myriad EPs, they’ve crafted a genre-blurring sound world that draws on a sublime combination of strings, far-flung percussion, intricate loops and abstract lyrics.
But in the lead up to writing their third release, Hello Baby Okay, Elder Island had been wrestling with a disillusionment they hadn’t before felt in their 12 years together as a band. The pandemic had upended their mammoth tour schedule and threatened to “flatline” the band financially, and they were under intense pressure to make music when they longed for space to recharge. For a time, they weren’t sure if and how they would continue. “I think it’s fair to say that none of us were in a great place when we started this album,” says Katy. “We needed to stop and reassess what was important to us as a band beyond churning out endless content.”
Time for a creative reset. While Swimming Static was densely constructed, with instrumentation meticulously layered in the editing suite, its followup was a totally different process where “we did the complete opposite,” says Katy. When they went into the studio in 2023, they went back to their roots with free-flowing jam sessions, rekindling their sense of spontaneity while channeling the warm embrace of the dancefloor. “Our sound got pigeonholed into a chillout coffee-shop playlist space,” says Luke, but in fact, David continues, “DJ culture has been heavily influential on our approach to music.”
