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SELECTING MUSIC LIKE SELECTING CLOTHES: ELLE G CELEBRATES SECOND BIRTHDAY IN VILNIUS PLANETARIUM
Tomorrow, on May 22nd, Elle G will celebrate their birthday in the Vilnius planetarium. Let these two young Lithuanian ladies carry you away to a planet full of soft and swinging songs inspired by the 20s all the way to the 70s! The Baltic Scene talked with Elena Augustinaite and Giedre Nalivaikaite about the cosmos, escapism and the American way of life!
Photo: Kurmis Medituoja
As I understood, Elle G is two years old. How did you start out?
Exactly! This May Elle G is celebrating the respectable second year birthday! We have met each other in music school, in solfeggio class. Seven years later we started generating ideas about the band. Back then, we couldn’t imagine having a birthday concert in a planetarium, singing for Berlin and New York audiences or being interviewed by ARTE TV channel documentary, based on swing dance and music scene in Berlin. Our primary idea was a big swing music band with many instruments. There were only few in Lithuania at that time… (Un)fortunately, we didn’t succeed finding right people. Somebody advised us to begin with what we had – if we do a proper thing, sooner or later it will be appreciated. That was more than right! We began with only few instruments – ukulele, melodica, kazoo, some shakers, rattles and, of course, our voices. Later on, a friend came to us with a suggestion to be our manager. Then a double bass player did the same thing…
“Birthday is a celebration of a new beginning. Cosmos is the place where everything started. So, isn’t a birthday in a planetarium a perfect match?!”
In what way you have developed as a band in those years?
When you are not alone, finding compromise is a thing you develop every time you create (or re-create). Both of us agree – our biggest achievement is that we are finally writing some of our own songs! Besides, being on the stage often teaches you to pull yourself together. We have learned to say “no”, not to show one’s caprices as well as plan your time a lot in advance.
Why would you like to celebrate your birthday in a planetarium? Maybe it’s a link to other planets, a place far away and you are making music which comes from a place far away in time?
Actually, after two years of playing as Elle G duo, both of us are in the mood for some changes. If in the beginning Elle G could be identified only with romantic, soft and sweet melodies, we don’t think so anymore. It’s possible that our trips have contributed to this as well. That’s why we have chosen a totally different space from any other we used to play before. Birthday is a celebration of a new beginning. Cosmos is the place where everything started. So, isn’t a birthday in a planetarium a perfect match?!
What does this music from far away mean to you? And what appeals you so much in the music from the vinyl era?
Loads of people dream about the time machine. It already exists in music. That’s us, who decide which decades we want to travel to. Combination of living in nowadays and playing old music works perfectly – you get inspiration from both sides. It also gives you a chance to improvise and interpret more than ever.
Is there a certain sense of escapism in your music?
When you are talking about any kind of music, it’s impossible to completely deny escapism. It is true, that sometimes, taking cheerful songs from the past and leaving problems like Great Depression for history pages makes swing music sound super positive. However, more than just escaping nowadays world, we want to discover the past days with it’s music and cultural heritage.
When we are creating our own songs, it is about our life experiences. Here we choose the way we are talking about things. It can be positive, ironical, intimate, cute and so on.. We try to combine, as well as not to use the negative one.
How do you pick a song out of such a wide range of songs? Why certain songs appeal more than other, what’s the X-factor?
We sing what we like to listen. Or what we want to get to know better. That’s why recently we are trying to work more on songs from the Lithuanian Interwar period. Also, Theodore Dreiser talking about his novel’s character gives you an answer about our choices, as he says: “she selected her music as she selected her clothes—to suit her capacity”.
You have recently been in New York! How is the city that never sleeps, did you get some sleep? Please share us some of your cute, funny and crazy stories!
When you are planning to perform, sleep is a very important thing! But the last week in New York city we really were coming back home at the time when people were leaving to their work… During our stay we had a chance to play at quite an impressive private home party, based on the speakeasy example, to try google glasses or visit a central CNN studio… Walking the last day in Harlem and still not having a chance to hear live gospel music, we entered one random church and asked a black woman to sing something for us. She did and it was amazing. Also, one day we went to Metropolitan Opera and happened to have seats just right next to a guy, proposing a marriage to his girlfriend in front of all the crowd, illuminated with theater lights and being filmed by half of the audience. What’s more American?! Still, the nicest thing is that while being there, we already got an invitation from Chicago Lithuanians’ community to come back in the Autumn. We hope it’ll work out!
If there’s one moment you could pick out of the past two years, as a band, which one would it be?
Playing in -15 Celsius was quite an experience! Our trip to New York, as well as recording our first CD. Making new friends in Germany and the United States and getting invitations to come back to both of these countries… Sorry, you asked for one?
Have you ever played in Baltics (outside of Lithuania)? If no, which song would you let audiences from Baltics listen if they never heard about you? If yes, how was the experience?
Yes, in Riga, a lovely place, called DAD cafe. Actually, it was our very first concert outside of Lithuania! It was so strange to talk in English in front of the audience for the first time (English lessons don’t count…). But in general, everything went extremely well, for the first time in Elle G career somebody asked if we had a CD. Such questions led us to our debut album later on…
