Ellie-Grace - Debut Album



Title: Ellie-Grace
Release Date: September 25, 2011
Recorded: Capitol Studios, Los Angeles, California
Genre: Country, Pop, Acoustic Pop
Label: Monk On Fire Music!
Producer: Ryan Ross Hernandez

Track Listing
1. Paint Me A Picture (feat. Hayden)
2. Can You Hear My Voice
3. Silence Is Deafening
4. Will You Still Be My Friend
5. Caught In The Storm
6. Crying Game, Crying Shame
7. I’ll Wash My Sins In The River Of Love
8. Take Care Of My Heart (It’s Not So Strong)
9. When You Call Out My Name
10. I’d Wait Forever
11. Lost In My Thoughts

ITunes Bonus Tracks
12. Fast Car (Tracey Chapman Cover)
13. Make You Feel My Love (Bob Dylan Cover)
14. Country Roads (John Denver Cover)

Introduction

Ellie-Grace Summers arrived on the music scene in July 2011, following a performance at the Nashville, Performing Arts Festival she was quickly spotted by Damion Holmes and signed a two album deal with Monk On Fire Music. She quickly got to work on her debut single Paint Me A Picture which featured Hayden Merjos, the single peaked at number #4 on the Top20 Airplay charts and also received a lot of critical success, praise came in the form of several high profile artists including, Ryan Ross Hernandez, Michelle Green and Hannah Beth, she was continually praised following the release of the single and she looked like a star on the rise, anticipation for her debut album built up rapidly and interest in the young singer-songwriter continued to grow.
Upon arriving in Los Angeles in August, Ellie set about beginning work on the full album, spending her first week in LA in a small studio with a couple of local producers working on her album prep sessions in the build-up to the recording process, it was during this time when she began perfecting the songs prior to the full recording sessions for the album, she then began the search for a producer for the album and it was finally confirmed that Ryan Ross Hernandez would be producing the country girl’s debut album, having been a keen follower of her rise since July.
The basis of the album focuses on the soft acoustic guitar work of Ellie-Grace and her emotional country pop vocals, with a stripped back sound which focuses on her vocals and guitar, mixed with emotional lyrics provide the perfect combination for the future country stars debut effort, heart on the sleeve love songs will no doubt resonate with her predominantly teenage fanbase and the future looks bright for the country star, certainly if this debut album is anything to go by.

Recording Process

The recording process of the album began in August 2011 in Los Angeles, California as Ellie spent a week in a small recording studio to fully prepare the songs for the full recording sessions later in the month, the majority of songs chosen for the album were reportedly written within the previous 3 months but there are a couple of songs from the album that were written when Ellie was still in high school. The full album recording process began on August 15, 2011, Ellie initially performed the songs for the production team in the same way she would play them live, a couple of tweaks and changes with one or two of the songs and with the chord progression of her acoustic guitar playing was used which improved the songs.
The recording process was a quite traditional kind of process as Ellie recorded her vocals and guitar work at the same time in the recording booths, instead of recording each different part of the song individually it was Hernandez idea for Ellie to record the songs fully, in the same way she would perform them live. The songs which were recorded on the piano were recorded in a similar way as Ellie played the piano and performed the vocals together, again in the same way as she would if she was performing a live show. This recording process seemed to have worked well for Ellie-Grace as it helped give the record a more basic, stripped down feel which was the initial intentions.


Ellie’s Analysis

“So this is it, my debut album. I’m not gonna lie, it’s a pretty nerve wrecking moment for me to introduce the world to these songs that mean so much to me. It’s kinda like these songs are like my little children that I’ve watched grow over the past year or two and they’ve changed so much since I began writing them, so many edits have been made to them as I’ve sort of developed as a songwriter over time, so like when I looked back on some of the lyrics I was like “Geez, that’s not good at all, I definitely gotta change this phrase.” But I think they’re in a completed stage now and besides there’s no going back once this album is released so It’s like I’m finally taking the plunge with them but hopefully you’ll enjoy the songs and the album as a whole.

So lets talk about what you can expect from the album then. Well first of all it’s best described as Acoustic pop I think and that’s a recurring thing throughout the album, you’ll probably notice that the songs are all sort little acoustic songs which is what I enjoy performing the most, of course I realise that no one would have been expecting me to release a guitar heavy rock record or anything but you know, you kinda get what you expect from this album I think. It’s just a straight up Acoustic pop record with my country elements thrown into it.
So with my debut album I wanted to sort of release the kind of album I always dreamt of releasing, I like to think that in the future I will try out different things but for my debut album I decided that I wanted to stick to my strengths and just create the kind of acoustic pop record that I always wanted to. I wanted to create a record with the kind of songs that would make me feel something and hopefully people listening to the record will be able to relate to the songs on the album

In terms of the songwriting, these were all written within the previous two years, some of the songs were formed as far back as 2009 but some of the songs began only a couple of months ago and one of the songs were written about 2 or 3 weeks ago, but obviously some edits were made over time to make them as good as possible. They’re all songs that mean something to me and the majority of the songs are quite raw to whatever I was feeling at the time, that’s the only way I really know how to write my songs, write what I’m feeling and it’s a great release for me to put down my feelings into song. You’ll maybe notice upon listening to the album that there’s an obvious teenage feel to the album, songs about love and relationships but written by a teenager, songs like I’d Wait Forever, Paint Me A Picture and Silence Is Deafening are three songs that probably relate specifically to a moment of my life and the feelings I was feeling at that time.
So I thank you for taking the time to listen to my thoughts on the record and I hope that you all enjoy the record. Thanks for listening.”
- Ellie-Grace xoxoxo

Personnel

Ellie-Grace Summers - Vocals, Guitar, Songwriting, Piano
Hayden Merjos - Vocals, Guitar *track 1*
Ryan Ross Hernandez - Production
Rebecca Jackson - Album Art

*Distributed by Monk On Fire Music