“Elliot Minor” are a group of five young men, all classically trained both vocally and instrumentally, and are seen by many as one of the bands to watch out for in 2007.  Their first single “Parallel Worlds” is due to be released on 9 April and to back up the release of this single they are doing a few gigs and I had been fortunate enough to be asked to interview them prior to their gig at the Newcastle Carling Academy. 

Hi guys, I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to the readers of Hardrockhouse.com prior to your gig.  Just to clear the formalities, could I ask one of you to introduce me to the band? 

TH -  Hi Don, nice to see you.  Over there is Dan, he is 18 and he is our drummer.  Next to him is Ed, 20, and he sings and plays guitar.  Then there is Alex, he is also 20, he sings, plays guitar and also writes the music.  Over there in the corner is Ali, again he is 20 and he plays the keyboards and I’m Teddy, another 20 year old and I play the bass. 

Thanks Teddy, nice to meet you all.  Just a quick note Teddy, are you and Dan brothers by any chance? 

EM - Yes we are 

Thought so, it was the fact you have the same surname that was a bit of a hint.  Now that’s what you call investigative journalism.  Right, quite a bit is being made of the fact that you were all choristers.  Why did you make the change from choral work to the pop/rock world?  I mean, Aled Jones is testament to the fact that you can make a name for yourself in choral work? 

TH - Well, Alex made the transition first, when him and Ed met back in 2000, so it would probably be best if he explained that one. 

AD -  Oh, right, thanks.  Well, going to the schools we went too, it was hard to do anything other than the classical, choral stuff, I mean its not as if we didn’t know all about the other styles of music that was out there, but classical stuff was pretty much all we did. 

AP -  Yea, especially at the Minster school, we were so closeted and sheltered by the school that when you leave it’s like there is a whole new world out there, waiting to be explored.   

So is classical music all you did in the Minster School? 

AP - Yea, pretty much so. 

Well, all I can say is classical music’s loss is rock music’s gain.  Now, Alex, I believe you and Ed met in school back in 2000, is that when the band really started? 

AD - Well, I had been in quite a few bands before but me and Ed just started doing music together, writing a few songs and so on, and doing a lot of acoustic stuff together so you could say that was when the basics started. 

So, when did the rest of you join in?  Was that when you moved to York Minster school? 

DH - Well Alex and Ed met at Uppingham and then in 2005 by chance I met Alex and he also said that they were looking for a bass player so I told them about my brother Teddy.  We started doing stuff together, started building a fan base then Ali joined in and we have been together since. 

Now that the group has come together, are there any groups or acts that collectively influenced your structure as a band? 

DH - Well, we would all say that groups such as “Something Corporate” and “Jacks Mannequins” were a big influence.  They are all bands from LA and our producer produces the same people, and I think our manager founded them as well. 

I believe you used to be called “The Academy”.  Why did you change your name from “The Academy” and how did pick “Elliot Minor”?

EM - We had to change our name from “The Academy” for legal reasons, there was nothing we could do about it.

DH - Well, we came up with a name for the group

AP - It’s a different answer every time we get asked the question (laughing). 

EM - It took quite a while to pick the right name, about 3 months altogether.  We wanted a name that didn’t typify the style of music, a name that when you hear it doesn’t really stereotype what the style of music is going to be.  But we chose “Elliot” because of the girl from Scrubs and also because it is the name of our piano

AD - And “Minor” because a lot of our music is based around the minor keys. 

AP -When you look at it the “Elliot” sounds quite poppy doesn’t it, and the “Minor” quite mystical! 

Saying that part of your name sounds poppy makes me think that you are happy with my earlier comment that you are in the Pop/Rock genre. Are you happy with this or do you see yourselves in a different genre? 

EM - No, Pop/Rock is fine.

AD - Well, maybe Classical Pop/Rock would be a better definition. 

Alex, on your MySpace account it credits you with being the songwriter of the band.  Do you do all the song writing yourself or does everyone have some level of input? 

AD - Well, I did do it all by myself initially, the earlier stuff, but now that we are together as a group everyone adds little bits in when I am writing which helps to build the songs up.  It is a lot better doing it that way because we are all working together and have input into the finished track. 

I have heard that your sinlge, “Parallel Worlds” is based on real events, what's the story behind that? 

AD -  Yea, well when I was in Uppingham school I lived in a attic room and strange things used to happen, like posters falling off the walls, doors being locked and then unlocked for no apparent reason and other scary things that we couldn’t explain, so we thought the room was haunted.  We heard that someone killed themselves in our room, put their head in the oven and gassed themselves so we thought it was him haunting us.  

AP - What makes is worse now is that Alex lives in this house out in the country, miles away from anywhere, we have been trying to do things with Ouija boards.  I have heard that bread and candles bring the spirits in but I don’t know if that works or not. 

Christ, rather you than me.  I wouldn’t fancy messing with a Ouija board living in the sticks, every single noise outside would be a ghost coming in the door.  Now, the single “Parallel Worlds” was due to be released on the 2^nd April but this has been put back to the 9^th April, why is that? 

TH - Well, it had a lot to do with getting the single out to radio stations in time, making sure that the art work was right and also because of other releases out on that week.

AP - It was also so that we could get the video finished and out getting airplay on the music channels. 

You make big use of your myspace account to get information out to your fans, but I really like the use of your webisodes.  Whose idea was that and how come we never saw you in them Teddy? 

AD - That came from the management.  They saw it as a good way to show people how much work goes into making the album and at times how hard it is.

EM - And also how much fun we can have!

TH - The reason I wasn’t in them was because I had already done the bass parts and I was still at University studying Civil Engineering.  I only finished my term there three weeks ago but have still go to go back and do my exams. 

Well, is certainly looks like you were having fun, especially the time when you set fire to your producers hair, but whilst we're on the subject of the album when are you looking for it to be released? 

AD - There is still some work to do on the mixing, some tweaking and adding to do here and there, but we will be doing that over here and not going back to LA.  I have just had all the equipment delivered to my house and set it up in the room over my garage which is really cool.  Jim Wirt our producer has also flown over and will be here for the next three weeks or so helping is put the final touches on it. 

Just quickly going back to your musical sound – what do you think it is about your music that makes it so appealing to all age groups?

TH - I don’t really know, maybe we were just lucky with the song writing, maybe it is the classical training that helps.  One incident that does stick in my mind though was at a concert a little while ago in Manchester we had just finished and this family came in to see us.  The dad said “God you guys are good live.  The last group I saw live was Dire Straits, and you lads were better than them”, the mother said “finally, something decent to listen to in the kitchen”. The daughter was just all over us after autographs and the son was just loved us because of whole Kerrang thing.  That was when I realised that our sound didn’t just appeal to the female teenager and actually reached a wider audience. 

Finally, I personally think that you are really going to go on to bigger and better things and we are going to hear a lot more from you in the near future.  But, what would you say has been the highlight of your career so far? 

AD - Well, for me it has got to be the whole Kerrang experience and the amount of coverage and airplay we have been getting.  Before, I would probably have said that it was being on stage with McFly in front of 13,000.  That was a fantastic experience but that wasn’t totally ours.  The Kerrang experience has happened purely on the basis of what we can do as a group and I feel is recognition of what we can do as a band.  It is our achievement and ours alone. 

Guys, it bas been a real pleasure talking to you tonight, you certainly have your feet firmly on the ground and seem to know where you want to go with your musical careers.  Can I just take this opportunity to thank you again for taking the time to talk to me tonight, to wish you all the best for the future, and hopefully you will invite me back to interview you all again in a couple of years time when you are big stars.