25/07/10
Eleanore performing at GuilFest 2010
09/07/10
Surrey Advertiser interview
This story on Eleanore by Luke Jacobs was published in the Surrey Advertiser on 9th July 2010:
It might be her first time at GuilFest but Eleanore, the Cranleigh singer-songwriter, has racked up live experience that would make others blush, writes Luke Jacobs.
Winner of a television songwriting competition back in 2004 and finalist in the Live and Unsigned competition last year, the artist is already used to putting herself up for scrutiny.
And boasting an impressive CV, Eleanore certainly seems determined not to waste any time. She released her album Parlour Game, featuring 11 self-penned tracks, at the end of 2009 and it will be performed at GuilFest.
And revellers are in for a treat, with Eleanore taking inspiration from singers such as Burt Bacharach, Jeff Buckley, Evanescence, Kate Bush and Björk.
However, despite the fame enjoyed by these unlike others, she believes she has her own formula for making her album as listenable as possible. "I make sure that all the tracks on my albums are something that I would release as a single," she said.
If singing is seen as a talent in itself then songwriting surely presents another challenge on top of that?
"I just write what’s in my head and then I take all of them to my producer who produces them to such a high standard," Eleanore said.
"I just take a number of sounds and my producer helps me to bring it together and put it in my album."
Eleanore believes starting young helped her win the song-writing competition.
Just two years later she was commissioned by a contemporary dance company to compose a 40-minute orchestral piece in four movements. The piece was a fusion of western and Indian music. "When I was a teenager it was just something that happened really," she said. "I began to realise that everything I did was around music. The songwriting competition was great fun, I knew somebody who was connected with it and she approached me – I don't think I knew what I was taking on."
22/11/10
Festival of Ice
Saturday saw the new band's first outing at the Festival of Ice - otherwise known as Cranleigh's Christmas Lights Celebrations. It was EXTREMELY cold, but the gig went really, really well. The Christmas lights celebrations bring in enormous crowds to Cranleigh and at the time the lights were switched on, there were between 4-5,000 people - an event well worth pulling out all the stops for.
The band will now be working on rehearsing up the rest of Parlour Game as well as working on new material for the new year.
Eleanore is also busy planning her fourth music video, for the track Strange, a favourite track with many of her fans. We're really excited about the concept for it - very moody and featuring ballroom dancing, but we're not going to give too much away yet! We're still waiting to see the finished Everything video and for the final edit on the Parlour Game video. There are genuine reasons for the delays on these, so please bear with us!
09/11/10
The New Band
Having previously employed session musicians, Eleanore now has her own band! A big welcome to Alex Torjussen on drums, David Burt on guitar and keyboard, Liam Graham on bass, Emily Niemann and Jeannie Pitt on backing vocals.
01/11/10
Half Moon Gig
Eleanore's gig at The Half Moon in Putney on Tuesday, 12th October was a great night and the band performed wonderfully - so thanks to Emily, Sharon, Adam, Joe and James. We also met some great people in the form of Rich Austin - really entertaining singer/songwriter on guitar and sound engineer Stuart McAlpine. The journey home was, well - interesting with Sharon driving and five of us in the back - with one in the boot!
01/11/10
Auditioning
Eleanore is in the middle of auditioning a new band! We have also acquired a dedicated sound engineer for future gigs.
30/06/10
Guilfest 2010
Eleanore will be performing this year at GuilFest. See her on the Palace Stage from 7.30pm on Sunday, 18th July.
