Elora Danan

Elora Danan are just about to release their new single "Door Up, Elevantor" off their debut album 'In The Room Up There'. We caught up with George (Vocals) to talk about Jimmy Barnes, Mi Goreng noodles and about what it's like to be in a band from Perth.

Can I please start with your name and what you do in the band ?

Hi, my name is George and I sing in Elora Danan.

How is 2008 shaping up to be for Elora Danan? Touring and album wise?

2008 has been the busiest year for us, and I am sure the trend is going to continue. We've only toured a couple of times this year, but we've had to fit that around writing and recording, so it's been a little hectic. Busy is good though. If you're band's busy, it means something's going right.

On the last couple of tours you've supported the likes of The Getaway Plan and Unwritten Law, have you been received well? And is there much difference in playing with an Australian band and an International act?

I think considering Unwritten Law and Sprung Monkey are nearly old enough to be our dads we went down really well. Obviously we are going to be received well at a Getaway Plan show because all their fans are 16 year old girls and we are way hotter than TGP, but the UL tour was a little tougher. There were older, more mature girls there who wanted a piece of the Scott Russo cock, so we couldn't rely on our good looks to get us through that one. I think considering the stylistic differences, we went really well.

How do you guys feel about headlining your own tour?

We feel the same way as we would if we were doing a support tour. We are always keen to get out and play shows all over the country, but I think if you start to over-analise why you're there, it's going to detract from the show. I mean, its exciting and all that we can headline, and we need to play a longer set, but ultimately we just want to be able to play well to an interstate crowd, regardless of where we are on the bill.

Boomtown Records put your first EP "We All Have Secrets" out. Can you tell us a bit about how the deal came about?

Basically Luke Logemann from Boomtown heard our band, and instantly fell in love with us. I don't know how, but he got hold of my mobile number and was constantly sending me text messages telling me he loved how deep my lyrics were, and he wanted us to tab some songs for him as well. I kept replying asking "who the fuck is this?", and then I wouldn't get any texts for a few days. Then we kept getting emails from him saying he had started the "Official Elora Danan Fans MySpace" page, and shit just got creepy. I mean, he was getting really fucking weird. We weren't really used to people getting that weird with our band. We did have this one guy though, who goes by the name of Gman or something. That guy would message us 24/7 saying how we were his second favourite band behind The Tin Lids, which was a huge honour for us, because Jimmy Barnes has never created anything that sucked. This Gman dude got really possessive of us though, and he started calling us "His Precious", or something like that. But we told that guy to get fucked. He told us he was going to get our band named tattooed on his unusually large forehead, and was planning on legally changing his middle name to Elora.

Anyways, back to the Boomtown story. Luke Logemann told us that he ran a record label called Boomtown Records, and we had never heard of it. He was like "we have Horsell Common signed to our label", and we didn't know who the fuck they were either. I still don't know who they are.

Anyways, so he said that he needed to convince this Jaddan guy, who ran the label, to sign us. Apparently Jaddan told Luke if he signed us then he would fire Luke, coz he thought we sucked. Logemann had to beg and plead with Jaddan, because apparently he saw potential in us, and he agreed to take a 50% pay cut if Jaddan approved the signing of Elora Danan to Boomtown, and Jaddan being a smart business man mailed off the contracts to us the next day, and the rest is history.

How was working with Adam Spark on your debut album? Talk us through the recording process.

Well Sparki is a great man, first and foremost. We needed to work with someone who we could get along with, and who understood the vibe that we were going for, and he was totally our guy. Plus he can grow a raging ranga beard, and he was totally cool with us making jokes about it. So we pretty much had 2 months to record it in, and we did. Don't ask me how, because our band is incredibly inefficient, but we got there. Now all we have to do is wait like 5 months until it's released.

Selling clothes and instruments, living off mi goreng and sleeping in bins (well probably not that far), is being in a band all that its cracked up to be cash flow wise? Is it worth kicking it in the Tarago, knowing love what you do?

Is being in a touring band from Perth all that it's cracked up to be cash flow wise? FUCK NO. We lose so much money when we tour, that sometimes Mi Goreng is reserved for special occasions only. It would be financially easier obviously to not have to fork over $3000 on airfares every time we go away, but we really don't have much of a choice. We are so fucking broke when we get home, that you're right, we do have to sell our clothes on myspace, and we do have to sell off spare guitars and whatnot, but it's all for the love of the game. Touring and playing shows is what we love to do, and I'm sure if push came to shove, Isaac would definitely blow a dude to pay the bills. That's how dedicated he is to this band.

What are some local bands that you have been getting into/seen lately?

The Paper And The Plane, Closure In Moscow. Those 2 bands in particular and going to blow up, and if they don't there is something seriously wrong with the Australian music industry.

In the age of downloads, do you guys still feel that its important to buy music or are you happy to download stuff? Do you care if people share and download Elora Danan's records?

We want people to listen to our band before we start making money from it. I think once you have a steady fanbase then naturally your record sales will increase, so for a band of our size, we always encourage people to burn or download our stuff, just to get it out there. I think in this day and age where the internet is dictating what happens in the industry, the onus is on bands to create an aesthetically pleasing CD package if they really want to encourage people to buy their records. i don't download music, partially because I don't know how the fuck to do it, but mainly because I like to have the record as a whole in my hands, and that includes the artwork and lyrics etc. The main reason that I think kids download though is because their parents don't give them enough pocket money, so if you have kids, be kind to shitty bands like us and give your kids more money.

What are your three favourite bands at the moment?

Minus The Bear, Brand New and Horsell Common, even though I haven't heard of them.

That's about I think, but was there anything you wanna say? Shout outs, inspirational talk etc..

Yeah, if you know anyone who works for Channel 10 and has some pull, then have a little word to them and get them to take Rove McManus off the air. It sucks that his wife died, but the dude just isn't funny. Oh, and eat your vegetables.