Elsinore’s music, simple and routed in the traditions of psychedelic pop, portrays the focus of a much older and more experienced group. With a week left of their West Coast tour, singer, guitarist Ryan Groff discusses the band’s overwhelming efforts to spread their music past the Midwest, being one of few local bands to test out the waters of the coasts and see what the industry is like outside of CU.
Leaving Champaign at the start of July, Elsinore’s month of gigs has proved a great experience so far. “All our California shows have been good [and] for different reasons,” Groff said. “Either we got to play for some really cool and appreciative people, the club was really nice or the sound guy or bartender or someone at the show was so completely ridiculous and ‘California.’”
For a band accustomed to short jaunts, this outing is much more extensive and much more necessary. “We’re doing what bands have to do to take the next step towards being a mid-level band and getting the music out there,” Groff said.
With a flooded market and little space left for new bands through the traditional outlets, this tour has long been brewing for the band. “We’ve known for about the past year that our next tour would be to [go to] both coasts. We have to travel everywhere. We have to play all the major music markets,” Groff said.
Accompanying the tour is the near-release of the new, yet to be titled, album. According to Groff the work on the new recordings is almost done. “We still have to finish up the three newest songs … and then there’s just some production dubbing that needs to happen.”
From what has been released on The General E.P. shows a band’s transition from, in its own words, “Americana/Folk music” to a style indebted very much to the off-kilter and electric guitar-driven psychedelia of The Shins. The sound is much more lush and developed than their older work, and atypical in the simplicity of the indie rock genre.
Another growing pain for Elsinore’s members comes from their hometown. Champaign will probably never have the cultural effect of Portland, a favorite of the band, or New York City and it can, as such, become a hard place for a band to expand its reach. Though, for Groff, it provides some advantages. “It’s in the middle of the country and we can go either way at any time and it doesn’t put us far away from the other coast.”
With the band quickly sowing seeds across the nation, it’s easy to think they won’t be confined in the small town of Champaign much longer. With a successful West Coast tour and an upcoming full length both soon to be completed, Elsinore finally has the momentum they’ve been looking for to turn national.
Related Posts
