Interview with Elana Stone & Brian Campeau

By Josefina | Tuesday, 6 October | One Comment

The interview all started when we met Elana and Brian in the highly decorated civic park. Seeing as this was the first interview I had ever conducted I thought it was really important that it felt less tense, so we all decided to sit on the grass while Elana and Brian ate curry and answered my questions.

Josefina: So Elana, is this your first time in Darwin?

Elana: Nah, we were here last year with a show called Broad which was run by Deborah Conway. So we were all together doing a show and playing each other’s music. It was amazing, I think we did two nights and then they asked me to come back.

Josefina: Awesome, so do you like Darwin?

Elana: Aha, yep. Haven’t really seen heaps of it apart from the festival but tomorrow we’re going to Litchfield on a ‘tour’ of some sort.

Josefina: Sounds like fun! So when did you decide you wanted to become a musician?

Elana: Ummm I don’t know, I’ve been playing since I was about five.

Josefina: Wow, singing since you were five. Did you play any instruments at that time?

Elana: Yeah I played piano. What about you Brian?

Brian: I decided I wanted to be a professional musician when I quit a job doing stage set-up for 50cent and bands like that. I just got tired of doing it so I recorded a lot of songs, played a lot of gigs and started performing a lot more.

Josefina: Nice. So who are your biggest musical influences?

Elana: Well both me and Brian really like this Canadian singer, piano player, song writer called Rufus Wainwright. Other than that it’s pretty much all the people that I play with, people like Brian, my brother who is a musician, and just a lot of really good friends who are really good musicians. And of course bands like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

Josefina: What about you Brian?

Brian: Pretty much the same, except I’m really into metal.

Elana: Yeah Brian’s really into metal!

Brian: I am, I really like the technical side of metal… Sorry that’s my phone.

Josefina: It’s alright, it’s a really laid back interview, something about sitting on the grass makes it seem that way.

Elana: Yeah true! I’ve done interviews in the morning whilst still in bed.

Brian: Hung over and all. They get pretty bad.

Josefina: Haha! So what’s it like playing and working with different people? Does everyone get along?

Elana: Oh, sometimes? Yeah, that is, I found, the biggest challenge in making music and I’m sure it’s the same in other bands because in some situations bands seem to be like family, but sometimes it’s really intense because it’s a money making situation, so it’s almost like having a family business. My experience with my band has been that were incredibly close to the point where two members of the band have married now.

Josefina: Oh that’s nice.

Elana: Yeah because we’ve been through a lot together, we’ve been in Europe and we’ve all been broke, so it’s a matter of working out what role you take in the band, like in my band I’m the band leader so you have to be really clear about your ideas but also open to other people’s ideas and personalities. I’m in Brian’s band.

Brian: She plays the accordion.

Elana: Yeah so in that case I have to take orders as well.

Brian: I’ve only just formed a band. I’ve been playing by myself for six years and playing gigs as much as I can. When I gave up that job in stage crew I gave up everything, I just stopped working. I was just music, music, music all the time, which meant I was broke and ringing up people and going “hey can I borrow fifty bucks?” So I didn’t have anyone telling me what to do. Then you start forming a band and you realize that when you’re a band leader you have to find some way of working with people and their personalities, people who are in many cases divas, they want certain things to go a certain way and if they don’t get, I don’t know, a foot massage, they start getting frustrated. And know I’ve started a whole bunch of other bands that I play in and you realize just how big the difference is in being in a band and playing by yourself.

Josefina: So what has been the peak of your career? Like the best moment you’ve had so far?

Elana: Wow. You can go first Brian.

Brian: Yeeahh… (Starts eating again)

Elana: Hasn’t happened yet. It’s like when I look into your eyes on stage.

Brian: Sometimes I cry when you do that. (If you guys haven’t figured it out yet, they are very much a couple)

Elana: Umm I did this gig. I was at home cleaning my room and I got this call from Felix from the Cat Empire saying ‘we’ve had someone fall out, we’re on in two hours, do you think you can come and sit in with the band?’

Josefina: Wow!

Elana: And I was like “(censored) absolutely.” so I went and sang in front of like 2000 people just ‘sitting in’ for the cat empire. Their amazing musicians because they can just pick something up and do things on the fly and it was amazing, probably one of the best moments, just with the crowd, a big crowd can be really amazing, if they’re all on your side it’s just the best feeling. But then you have amazing little gigs where you’re just playing to ten people and it’s really cool. It just feels like all the rhythms are right and everything is just happening in the right way.

Brian: I thought of mine. My best moment was probably the first time I heard my song play on the radio. Weirdest thing ever and it felt awesome.

Josefina: When was that?

Brian: I was driving to work. I was working at a law firm at the time. I was driving at seven in the morning, eyeballs glazed and all, turned on the radio and I was like “Oh, it’s me.” That was a really cool thing. I mean I’ve never had my stuff played before and hearing that I was like “Oh, that car next to me might be listening to it!” But the guy was just picking his nose, and I was like “Nah. That’s not me.”

Josefina: So what is the best part about being a musician?

Brian: The fact that you can do what you like doing all the time, regardless of the work you have to do and knowing that the amount of work you put into it is worth it as opposed to say, working for wall mart.

Elana: Wall mart?

Brian: Where you could work your ass off and still not feel like your actually getting anywhere. Sometimes it might not seem like you’re getting anywhere, but regardless you know that it’s worth…

Elana: The effort.

Josefina: And you Elana?

Elana: Umm… I like having friends that I can play music with and going away with them, like coming to Darwin for 4 days with my really good friends, going on tours really fun, so much fun. People clapping when you’re on stage even though you’re singing about sad things that have happened to you. It’s pretty amazing, if it goes well. If it doesn’t go well you feel pretty bad, but you know, that’s that.

This was the point of the interview where a lady from (censored) walked right in and interrupted my interview saying that they had to be ready in three minutes for her interview. Although I was saddened by the all of a sudden end to my interview, the emotion was trumped by the hatred I was feeling towards the interrupter.

I thoroughly enjoyed interviewing this pair, and their performance was even better. These two do not lack in chemistry at all and they keep the audience entertained, engaged and feeling good. I strongly recommend investing in their albums,  I only brought them last night and they are already on full rotation on my iPod. If you enjoy catchy lyrics, jazz vocals and the all around ambience of good performers then I advise you to check out their next gig! An experience I will never forget, thankyou Elana and Brian!