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Since the dramatic, melodic music-makers Rialto disappeared, the fans have been waiting for some new excitements from the individual band members. The front-man have not been forgotten, as his talent is still in its prime time. Louis Eliot brought his own solo music to Hong Kong by putting on a show that attracted 400 keen listeners. HKClubbing.com takes you on a ride, from his past, his present to his future.
A: Alyson
L: Louis Eliot
A: Welcome to Hong Kong! You had a late night?
L: (Smiles) Yeah… we went to umm… Dragon-I, and that was alright, we went looking for somewhere else, but it wasn’t opened, so we ended up at some weird kind of karaoke type of place called Hardy’s, so there’s a band playing, and people get up singing, I didn’t get up and sing, it was Julian who plays with me did. And ah… (giggles) it’s funny, very funny… and then we went to some public bars in Wan Chai…
A: Ah! Cool! So how was the gig last night?
L: It was great! It went really well. The crowd was really ermm… just a really lovely crowd actually. Didn’t really know what to expect, but ermm, it was a great turn out, just a really warm reception.
A: Is this the first time you’re in Hong Kong?
L: It’s not, no. But I haven’t played in Hong Kong before, but I’ve come through doing promo and yeah…
A: Alright, so this is like… finally get to meet the fans! How dya find them?
L: Very polite (Smiles), which is great! You know, they’re really intensive in these sort of quiet songs, you know, in England you get a little bit more aggorant and stuff like that… you know, good nature and everything, but here, they’re very… they’re listening and they handle every word, it’s really nice.
A: Yeah, most of the people they come to Hong Kong, they would find the fans a bit quiet…
L: Well, they’re only quiet sort of while you’re playing, and then you finish the song, and they’re really noisy, they’re the perfect fans! They behave just as you’d like them to!
A: Excellent! What have you been doing since Rialto?
L: God! I don’t really know! (Laughs) I’m sort of just kind of getting myself together a bit. Ummm… Rialto’s 2nd album came out I think in 2001, so you know, we did some work on that, some promo and stuff, and toured it, but the last couple of years, I’ve just been writing songs… I went to America for a little while, did some recording, it didn’t really work out, but that was kind of the initial spark of doing my own record. And then just getting a bit at home, but really just… things take a bit of time, (giggles) especially if you take the long way around, which is the title of my album.
A: Now ever since the song “Monday Morning 5:19”, it is certainly the song that brought everyone’s attention to you, would you get a lot of pressure whenever you write, you’ll go like “Oh, I gotta top that!”
L: I don’t look back on that song and think “Oh, I must top it”, but perhaps I should be doing that! (Laughs) Coz it always goes down so well, and I haven’t actually played it for a while. But coming out here, everybody knows it and wanted to hear it and stuff… so it goes down very well here, yeah, so… but I try not to think about it, I think that would make life pretty difficult if you try to… if you’re too backward-looking, you’ve gotta look forward and just write about something that’s exciting at the time.
A: So let’s not look at the past and look at the present, NOW! As you’re a solo artist now, do you find it more difficult being solo than in a band?
L: I don’t, no I don’t find it more difficult. Ehhh… Rialto actually got on really well as a band, and that was one of the things which is very important, when we got on a band, me and Johnny, the guitar player, started the band, and one of the main requirements was not just like whether this person can play well when we were auditioning, and getting people into the group, it was also like would we be able to stand, sitting in a transit van together and driving up to Glasgo or going on long journeys together and hanging out. So you know I guess for some people in bands, you know the politics in bands gets too much, and that’s why they wanna go solo… but it wasn’t really the case with us, you know we all got on well, and we still do. But I suppose what’s good about being solo is… you get to be the boss! (Laughs) You make the decisions you know… So far… so good, being solo… but who knows, maybe Rialto will even do something again together…
A: So would you rather started off as a solo artist?
L: No no… even though I have always written the songs in the couple of bands I’ve been in, umm… I think I really wanted to be a part of a group, a part of the gang, really. Maybe that was lack of confidence, or I don’t really know why, but now I feel quite happy to be solo, but I really didn’t wanna do it when I was starting out, I wanted to be in a group.
A: Alright. Tell us about your new album!
L: Well, it’s called the “Long Way Around”, and it’s… I guess the difference between the new album and the old Rialto stuff is that Rialto had this big sort of film-making, cinematic sound, and my new record has got more intimate sound, it’s more… I think it’s a bit more human sounding, it’s probably closer to the way that I write the songs, you know, to the sound of the songs when I write them. Coz I generally write songs on an acoustic guitar. It’s quite a lot of that on the new record, acoustic guitar, sort of humble… quite homely instruments… I think the record has just got more of down homeful feeling, and then a kind of folky-ness.
A: Very nice. Is there any song you heard recently that made you go like, “Damn! I wish I wrote that song!”
L: (After 10 seconds) I don’t wanna sounds smart, but no… (Laugh) There isn’t, there hasn’t been recently, but it’s great when that happens, coz it’s truly inspiring, but I haven’t heard anything recently which made me do that… but there’s people I really admire, you know, I really admire Mike Skinner from the Streets, I think he writes great lyrics, it’s quite different sound to the sound that I make, but he’s just really good at the tiny details, so I think that really brings… the picture is painting to life! I think he’s a really talented guy.
A: Now we’ve looked at your past, what’s happening right now, let’s look at the future. What are your expectations for your career let’s say!
L: My career, well I hope things carry on going well here, I mean so far it’s been great, this trip around Asia, the album gathering sort of momentum, so I’d really like to come back as soon as possible, do some gigs, maybe with a full band this time, this trip I’ve just been doing… you know, it’s just been acoustic shows, so it’ll be great to come back with a full band. Apart from that, I’m just going home to the UK to do some gigs, and promote the record there. And then it’s off to Europe for more of the same, which is all really good, it’s a nice way to see the world. (Giggles)
A: Sure, now some artist they like to go multi-dimensional, they don’t just sing or write songs, they wanna do acting, or they wanna have their own fashion line, or record company… do you wanna do something like that?
L: Ummm… I can’t see myself doing a clothing line… I’m not really… I think that’ll take somebody very kind of business-minded… I’m not hugely… I… acting… when I a kid, when I was at school, I hated acting, anything to do with getting up in front of anybody else… god! I used to dread it! Even like you know when they ask you to read out, you know reading class, like stand up and read, I used to really dread that, I hated it! But now, I think maybe it’s just having performed music for quite a while, done videos and stuff, the idea of acting, it’s funny, it’s sort of just creeping up on me, it does appeal a bit. So you know, who knows! But obviously I’m not going out actively, seeking it, but if somebody wanted to offer me a little part or something, I’ll definitely consider it, yeah! (Giggles) But, my main thing is carry on being music you know, maybe a bit of production… I’d love to do a song for a movie, that’s something I’d really like to do, something like… I love Charlie Kaufman’s films, you know like, “Spot this mind”, my favorite film of his is called “Adaptation”. But… I’d love to do a song for one of his films.
A: Great! I’m afraid I can’t keep you for too long, but good luck with all the plans happening, and hope to see you soon again!
L: Thank you, take care!
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