We had the pleasure of interviewing Ellie Dorman, Musician and Composer. Here are the excerpts from the interview.
Hi Ellie, Great to have you with us today! Please share with our readers about yourself.
Hello, I’m a South London based artist. I produce music through all stages, from initial ideas, recording, and mixing to the final mastering stage. While I’m generally influenced by many genres, this next single release looks back at garage dance music that was being played while I was growing up. I’ve mixed this garage beat with a grooving bassline and laid in haunting but rhythmically upbeat keys and brass.
Please tell us more about your journey.
I studied classical music at Trinity music college, London, before transferring to City University to focus on music technology and production rather than classical music. During this period, I was still discovering London and spending lots of time at drum and bass, jazz, hip-hop, and reggae nights, which have naturally now found their way into my music. After graduating from university, I divided my time between playing music and training on the job to be a live sound engineer in venues for bands and artists. Some years later, this led to touring the world as a sound engineer with some incredible artists.
While this has been a fantastic time in my life, I began to feel the need to create once more, so I reduced my touring work, which has given me more time to do this. During this time, I started learning to sing and produced 3 EPs plus my debut album, ‘Twelve’ (2017). This album was nominated for Best Concept Album (2018 – Interactive Media Awards).
I also brought together a band with whom I have performed since 2016 at various London venues, Lechlade and Daxtonbury Festivals, and on tour supporting Avawaves in May 2022.
Whilst having an appreciation of many genres, garage and electronic music are my two huge loves. They remind me of my time growing up near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. My late teens were an era of small local metal and indie band gigs followed by nights out in garage clubs and visits to free parties in the country playing techno and drum and bass.
Please share about your latest song, ‘Pretend.’
This new track is quite different from my previous music catalog. It refers to my roots in dance music and hopefully really makes you want to move!
Lyrically the song’s story is about a guy playing me using lies and pretense. It was a cathartic experience writing this track, as, after the initial excitement of meeting this amazing person, I was feeling a little heartbroken. He had turned out to be someone else completely, and I had fallen for it all.
Musically, I played by mixing recorded and electronic drums, and I also did the same with the bass line. Mixing the two cohesively was a bit of a struggle as I changed the mix of live and electronic throughout the track. All of it was written, produced, and recorded in my home studio. It took a long time to get to a stage that I was happy with, and I learned a lot from this creative journey.
What are the strategies that have helped you become successful in your journey.
I think that spending a set amount of time on my creative practice has been essential but making sure to give myself breaks during this process is hugely important. Spending too much time intensely on a music project when you’re doing every element of the production can make you almost too close to the finished track. It can be very difficult to see the wood for the trees, and you can lose sight of your initial idea.
Listening to other artists and your earlier work and recordings can put things back into perspective. Being honest with yourself and looking at quantifiable reasons why and how things work/don’t work musically has also helped me.
Any message for our readers.
For the creatives out there:
Remember not to define yourself solely by your creations, try to be objective. But above all, enjoy yourself! If it starts to become a burden, give the project a break.
For those disillusioned by love:
I guess what helped me aside from songwriting has been the idea that I’d never actually lost anything I’d never had in the first place!
And for those who just love to dance:
Maybe try turning up my tune.
Fantastic! So tell us, how can people find out more about you?
You can visit the website and also follow me online on Instagram @elliedormanmusic.
Thank you so much, Ellie, for giving us your precious time! We wish you all the best for your journey ahead!
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