YOU know that Elle King is serious about songwriting when she cites Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin as two of her biggest influences.
The Ohio singer-songwriter has a superb soulful voice and her style ranges from rock and pop to blues and country, so you can understand why she’s been asked to support such a diverse mix of acts in the past couple of years.
She has opened for Ed Sheeran, Train, Ryan Adams, Modest Mouse and Of Monsters And Men and she and her band are currently opening for pop/blues/indie man-on-the-up James Bay, taking in Belfast on Sunday and two dates in Dublin next week.
King says she has enjoyed all her support slots to date as she tours her fantastic album Love Stuff.
“I’m lucky that I haven’t been pigeon-holed, so I’ve opened up for a crazy range of people, from rock and pop to country. I’ve learned something from all of them,” she says. “I really couldn’t have asked for a better tour than this one; I feel so grateful to be a part of it. James is a wonderful person to be around and the fans have been wonderful. We’re having a really good time.
“I also toured with James in America, where I opened for him solo. We got along really well and I think his fans enjoyed the combination of our music.
“For this tour I’m playing what I call my 'James Bay set’. I’m still brand new over here and not many people know me, so I play songs that I feel are a good introduction to my music and ones that I think his fans would like.”
Her album is full of blistering bluesy belters such as Ex’s & Oh’s and Last Damn Night, the poppier and ridiculously catchy America’s Sweetheart and the more stripped-back banjo-led one-two of Kocaine Karolina and Song of Sorrow.
She says she sometimes opens her gigs with the stomping album opener Where The Devil Don’t Go and says she’ll do at least one cover version on these dates.
“I sing one of my favourite songs of all time, Oh Darling [by The Beatles]. It’s fun to do a song that’s recognisable when people are new to your music and when they want to sing along to something. I’ll definitely do that one in Belfast and Dublin.”
She says she has a range of influences, including The Donnas and Blondie, but has a few classics she keeps going back to.
“What really captured me about the first acts that influenced me was the way they sang; not the sound of their voice but the feeling that they put into it. So if you listen to Otis Redding or Aretha Franklin sing, you go 'Wow, somebody hurt their feelings and they really feel that’.
“Then you have Dolly Parton, the sassiest lady of them all. I wanted to have a big voice and sing with feeling. I started writing songs at 13 or 14 but I’d say I started writing good ones at 19 once I’d got my heart broken for the first time.”
She cites her step-dad as the main reason she became a musician. “I grew up in Ohio and my mum met my step-dad when I was about nine. He has one of the best vinyl collections ever, so he’d let me go through it and pick out records and he taught me how to play my first couple of songs on guitar."
King now lives in Brooklyn and for her album she recorded sessions in London, LA, Memphis and New York, with producers including Ireland’s own Jacknife Lee (REM, U2). She says she had a great time supporting Modest Mouse in Dublin this summer and says gigs are the best part of what she does.
“I love songwriting but the biggest part of it is being on stage and the rush that you get performing for people; that’s huge for me.”
:: Elle King supports James Bay at the Ulster Hall in Belfast on Sunday and the Olympia in Dublin on Wednesday and Thursday. Love Stuff is out now (ElleKing.com).
