{"id":4895,"date":"2020-06-01T09:11:37","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T08:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodvale.com\/?p=4895"},"modified":"2020-06-01T09:11:37","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T08:11:37","slug":"into-the-wildlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/into-the-wildlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Into the Wildlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dorset musicians, Ava and Elijah Wolf, are taking The Gravity Drive<\/strong> to another level. They talk to Fergus Byrne<\/strong> about their new album.<\/p>\n

For any artist, be they poet, painter, sculptor or songwriter, the moment of unveiling new work can be stressful, to say the least. The emotional turmoil when one\u2019s \u2018baby\u2019 is launched upon the world; when work that has lived inside your head for days, months or even years is about to be judged by others, can be daunting. So, for musicians Elijah and Ava Wolf from local band, The Gravity Drive, it\u2019s handy to have gone through a process of heavily critiquing their own work before it even gets to the recording stage.
\nTheir new album, The Wildlight, is scheduled for release in August and a limited edition pre-release CD with a special lyric book inside is quickly finding homes in a fan base that reaches far and wide, even as far as Moscow.
\nThe Wildlight contains ten incredibly polished tracks that have been pulled together over more than three years and inevitably not every song has retained the exact form it started with. The rigorous process of creative input after principle songwriter Elijah presents new songs to his wife and band partner Ava, means some songs can take quite a beating before reaching the studio.
\nThe opening song on the album, Hits like a Fix, is a classic example. Now a soporific, piano-based love song it was originally written for guitar and started life as a rock track. Ava never really liked it, describing it as \u2018frenetic and attacking\u2019. \u2018I just felt it was trying too hard\u2019 she says. \u2018I just really felt we should pull it right back and make it on piano and make it more seductive\u2014more like a trip. So we had a bit of a wrangle. That was the big wrangle of the album.\u2019
\nElijah laughs, \u2018I resisted it for so long and then one evening I thought, right sod it I\u2019m going to do exactly what she says. And literally that opening riff just fell out of the sky.\u2019
\nLiving in gentle Dorset countryside, Elijah\u2019s song-writing process may be the envy of many musicians. When an idea begins to develop, whether it is a riff, a chord sequence or a lyric, he often goes for a run through the idyllic Dorset lanes where he lives, and lets the idea germinate. \u2018As I\u2019m out running, the melody and lyrics will just kind of appear\u2019 he says.
\nBut it\u2019s just another day in a working family\u2019s life. Ava will often hear him \u2018tinkering\u2019 around the house. \u2018Sometimes he gets a vague look in his eye\u2019 she says. \u2018Where he appears to be in the room but he\u2019s clearly not\u2014he\u2019s off on some writing thing inside his head. So I know there\u2019s a new song coming. He\u2019ll play it to me and then if I love it I\u2019ll say so\u2014but I can be quite a harsh critic if I don\u2019t.\u2019
\n\u2018As a songwriter it isn\u2019t the easiest thing\u2019 explains Elijah, \u2018bringing a new song to anyone, whether it be to the band or to your wife. These are your little babies and you love them all in different ways for different reasons. And you know that some are better than others. But the great thing about Ava is that, instantaneously, if it\u2019s good she\u2019ll be completely honest and on your side and if it\u2019s not working she\u2019ll tell you as well.\u2019 Elijah sees the process as giving The Gravity Drive a useful standard and an early quality filter.
\nThe results prove there is little doubt that the internal \u2018wrangle\u2019 has a beneficial impact on the duo\u2019s creative process. \u2018That\u2019s why I think it\u2019s worth being super critical instead of saying, yes it\u2019s a good song and just stumble forward\u2019 says Ava. \u2018Just take time and think, how can this be better? It takes a lot of energy and it\u2019s quite an emotional journey. The album\u2019s been quite emotional. We\u2019ve been trying to make it the best that we can make it.\u2019
\nAlthough he admits much of the album was done quite quickly, Elijah echoes the statement that there has been real effort to lift their music up a level. \u2018We would work together as a band and be 90% there with a song,\u2019 he says \u2018and I\u2019d look at Ava and know she wasn\u2019t convinced yet. One track took us about a year to get right. It might have been finished a lot earlier but for Ava\u2019s pursuit of excellence.\u2019
\nThat pursuit of excellence is born out of years of experience. Elijah started performing with his brother and school friends and played his first gig in front of over four hundred pupils in his first year in secondary school. \u2018Just before I started\u2019 he recalls, \u2018it dawned on me that I was in front of an awful lot of older kids and if this goes badly, well \u2026 but it went OK.\u2019 The band eventually signed for a small label and then broke up to go separate ways, but Elijah was hooked.
\nAva\u2019s journey was via acting school and growing up in a family that ran a well-known nightclub in Birmingham. Her brothers managed Duran Duran and whilst on tour with them she learned an awful lot about just how hard you have to work to produce great music and great performances. However, she never dreamed that one day she would be singing in a band herself. \u2018It surprised me\u2019 she says. \u2018But it didn\u2019t really surprise anyone that knows me, because apparently I\u2019m always singing. I\u2019m one of those people that walks around just singing and bursting into song in the supermarket.\u2019
\nIt\u2019s easy to describe The Gravity Drive\u2019s sound as harmony-driven pop but that\u2019s like describing Coldplay as a pop band. There is so much more going on. \u2018We\u2019ve always relied on the boy-girl harmony-driven aspect of it as being a focus point\u2019 says Elijah. \u2018Whether that\u2019s me bringing in a big song or a simple acoustic track, the harmonies are the main thing.\u2019 However, it\u2019s the diverse taste that the band shares that creates the \u2018magic\u2019. \u2018In a lot of albums there is a bandwidth in which the band operate\u2019 says Ava \u2018and you absolutely know it\u2019s not really going beyond that bandwidth\u2014that\u2019s what they\u2019re going to deliver. But I think our album is full of surprises. We journey from quite heartfelt ballads to something that\u2019s quite rocky. But that\u2019s our interest in music. We have an eclectic taste in what we listen to and that\u2019s definitely reflected in the way we write. So we\u2019re sort of a little bit multi-genre.\u2019
\nThe Wildlight has been in the melting pot for a while. As a completely independent band with no record company support, Elijah and Ava started a Crowdfunder campaign with the hope of releasing the album in 2017. It took time to get it right and there was no music industry throwing money their way\u2014which is potentially a raw subject. Talk about the way the music industry works unleashes a tension in Elijah that isn\u2019t easy to mask. \u2018With the music industry, the way to get to the top is to spend money\u2019 he says \u2018and to pay all the right people and pay the pluggers and play the game. And that\u2019s all well and good, and it doesn\u2019t guarantee success but it guarantees you might get heard.\u2019
\nBut that isn\u2019t a game that Elijah likes to play. \u2018I think we\u2019ve got more of a Robin Hood approach\u2014we\u2019re going to do what we\u2019re going to do and because we believe in it, it will go where it\u2019s going to go.\u2019
\nThe band is unlikely to change to suit industry needs and there is a strong sense of a determination to remain authentic. Elijah continues: \u2018We believe that people who are creative should believe in who they are and that the industry and the game should bend to the original artists\u2014not the artists bend to the game. We might be na\u00efve in that belief, but it\u2019s got us to a certain point and we\u2019ve managed to stay authentic and not sold our souls.\u2019
\nOutside of \u2018the industry\u2019, the internet and social media has helped many unsigned bands to break out of their home patch and develop a wider audience. Elijah explains how \u2018bubbles\u2019 of interest appear through Spotify and other streaming services. \u2018For some reason and we don\u2019t know why, in Moscow they\u2019re playing lots of our music. We\u2019ve not been to Moscow and we don\u2019t know quite why that is. There\u2019s no way that we could go to Russia and gig there, but what\u2019s interesting is that in the future we might, because there is a presence there. So you can see there are little bubbles. I\u2019m not sure why but they do appear. That\u2019s the greatest thing; you can get global without having to physically be global. It might not be a huge impact but you can see how you can grow those bubbles if you stay authentic to who you are.\u2019
\nNow, four years on from that Crowdfunder initiative, it seems The Wildlight has benefited from the extra time in development. After their first album, Testament, a period of touring meant the band and especially Elijah and Ava\u2019s vocals had the opportunity to gel and gain confidence. \u2018In terms of songwriting, performance, artistry and record-making\u2019 says Elijah, \u2018this is us at the peak of our powers\u2014so far\u2019.
\nThe Wildlight has some absolute gems. Hits like a Fix, Shooting Star, The Wildlight\u2014all memorable. Play Kaleidoscope loud\u2014close your eyes and imagine yourself in the middle of a field with thousands of people singing along\u2014it has that anthemic quality. And the new single Forever\u2014where Elijah and Ava\u2019s vocal harmonies, lifted by drummer Ryan Halsey and bass player Rob Male, soar over an inspired production mixed by engineer Chris Potter. There is a slickness yet authentic quality to these songs that makes The Wildlight one to treasure.
\nPolished and sparkling, this is The Gravity Drive\u2019s new baby, an album that also hints at even better things to come.<\/p>\n

The new single, Forever, is scheduled for release on June 5th. The album is officially released in August but there are a limited number of the special pre-release CDs available from www.thegravitydrive.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dorset musicians, Ava and Elijah Wolf, are taking The Gravity Drive to another level. They talk to Fergus Byrne about their new album. For any artist, be they poet, painter, sculptor or songwriter, the moment of unveiling new work can be stressful, to say the least. The emotional turmoil when one\u2019s \u2018baby\u2019 is launched upon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-4895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-features","tag-fergus-byrne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}