A Q&A with Elvis Depressedly

Elvis Depressedly is a project by Mat Cothran and Delaney Mills, started in 2011 in South Carolina. Finding themselves in a dark place, the coupled poured their hearts in dark melancholic lo-fi songs, which resulted in 8 releases in the short 5 years they have been active. Since they have moved to Asheville, North Carolina, things have been looking up, which has brought a new energy to their songs. 

For the first time, they are crossing the ocean to tour the UK and Moth Club is their first stop. We had a chat with them about the release of their new old record, touring and their favourite UK songs. 

Elvis Depressedly's new record will be released on the 3rd of June via Run for Cover Records.
Buy tickets to Elvis Depressedly live at Moth Club on Wednesday 8 June here. 
http://summertimeinhell.tumblr.com/

BV: Your new record Holo Pleasures / California Dreamin' will be released this Friday. The last album was inspired by wrestling and televangelists, what unexpected things inspired you this time? 
ED: Because this record is a reissue of old material (though half of it is new to the world's ears) it's a little hard to remember what influenced it exactly.  There are lots of love songs, platonic and romantic, and a few songs about desire and the positives and negatives with heavily needing something in your life besides you to fill whole.  If I can focus my mind and try to go back to the making of the record I remember it being a very upturned time in my life where I was really lost and just kind of reaching for anything to keep me afloat long enough to get to the next song.  By the time New Alhambra was being made I had a lot more focus, and more determination to really get out of the place I was at physically and emotionally, but I think Holo Pleasures and California Dreamin' were escapists records for me, because in my view they're almost all happy songs, but that doesn't reflect where I was at back then but definitely what I wanted and where I am now I think.

BV: This will be your first time touring the UK. In what ways do you expect it to be different from playing in the US/Canada? Also, previously you've mentioned not really liking touring, is it any different now you're crossing the ocean? 
ED: We're really excited to see the U.K. for sure, I think the newest feeling will be driving ourselves around, but we've been watching tutorials on youtube and trying to get mentally ready for that!  Over the years we've made adjustments I think based on what was wrong with touring in the past and mostly fixed all the issues and I do enjoy touring now.  The shows were always a really amazing experience for me and never part of what I disliked about touring.  At this point I've been playing shows for over a decade and it is still a huge thrill for me every time.  I tend to get very homesick though, and I love the city I live in (Asheville, NC) a lot, so leaving home for any amount of time can be rough for me.  I feel incredibly lucky though, to be able to do this at all, and it's amazing to me that I'll be traveling to another country, and the response and excited messages about that we've been getting are really incredible.  I absolutely never imagined that i'd ever tour the USA, let alone a country across the Atlantic Ocean, so we're really happy and feel very blessed.

RECOMMENDED SONGS
I've always been a fan of a lot of British music, bands like Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, and White Noise are among my favourite ever. Lately two songs I've been going back to a lot are Appetite by Prefab Sprout, who are an amazing band, and Little Baby Nothing by Manic Street Preachers, which also has an incredible music video that I wish I could have been in.