Interview: Elliott Dawson Speaks About Debut Album 'Hang Low'

Stepping out from his work under the DOONS umbrella into ambitious new territory, Te Whanganui-a-Tara's Elliott Dawson unveils today his debut solo album Hang Low. Walking a high tension line through sax-embellished, rhythmically zig-zagging and strung-out zones sparked by a love for British post rock and South London jazz, Dawson's soulful croon paints vivid and dramatic images of urban lives lived out on the edge. Touring his new record with band (in the North Island) and special guests Wiri Donna, Ripship, F.A.I.R.Y and Edera, Dawson generously squeezed in the time to answer Chris Cudby's probing questions about the creation of and themes explored on Hang Low — hit play and read below...

Elliott Dawson - Hang Low Album Release

Friday 2nd September - Valhalla, Wellington w/ F.A.I.R.Y, Edera (solo)
Friday 16th September - Bark @ Dog With Two Tails, Dunedin w/ Wiri Donna (solo)
Saturday 17th September - Space Academy, Christchurch w/ Wiri Donna (solo)
Saturday 15th October - The Wine Cellar, Auckland w/ Ripship

Tickets available HERE via UTR

Chris Cudby: Hello Elliott, congratulations on your new album! Hang Low represents a stylistic shift away from your work with DOONS. Do you feel like you were intentionally challenging yourself with the creation of Hang Low, or was it more of a natural next move — or both?

Elliott Dawson: Thank you and hello! The album is definitely different from anything I've done before but I like to think of it as more of a natural progression as I've matured as an artist and as a person. On one hand I just started writing songs that didn't fit within the idea of my other projects and that needed their own home, but if I'm honest those songs were definitely driven by a desire to push myself as a songwriter. So I guess a bit of both? I have a healthy amount of self-loathing and found it hard when people have assumed in the past that I'm only capable of making a certain type of music (which is true lmao), so I guess I'm also motivated by pushing the limits of what people expect of me. Hang Low is probably the album I wish I could have made when I was 18, but I just wasn't there yet.

I'm interested in the idea of how some artists put together a 'mood board' of images to help them hone in on ideas for their music. What would be on the Hang Low mood board?

Guilty as charged. I wanted to approach this record in ways that would make it as cohesive as possible sonically, because my favourite albums are ones that you can live in/through. For me one of the things that really helped zone in on the world of Hang Low was how the album would look as much as the actual songwriting process. I think it's probably also a symptom of the growing hunger in the music industry to mediate absolutely everything that can be heard through something that can be seen as well, whether that's static or moving imagery. Not sure whether or not that's actually a good thing for the music, but someone told me you have to be able to be seen to be heard.

My mood board for Hang Low consisted entirely of images of The 1975, 90s era Radiohead, and Robert Pattinson in the film Good Time. Two of my favourite bands and films. There's this one shot of Rpatz in the back of the police car at the end of the film that was the cover art for my demos on Soundcloud for a lot time, he's just all raw energy in that film, and I wanted to pair that bare insanity with the clean / slick overall design that's so recognisable in anything the 1975 have put out in the last 10 years. Here's a link to that one scene from Good Time — this movie ripped me a new one, and also the soundtrack is just so good. I was hoping that those reference points carried over into the album, and all the visuals associated with it.

What was the time frame in which Hang Low was written and recorded? Who did you work with to make it happen?

I started writing songs for the album in early 2020, although I think the initial ideas for it started brewing in the back end of 2018 when I was out of NZ for about three months. Ideas were sitting around while I was writing songs for other bands and slowly seeped into my songwriting over time. I probably wrote 20-30 songs and then waited to see which ones I liked enough to continue listening to and playing until I had maybe 15 that I liked. 'CEO' was the first song that I wrote that actually made the cut, and then everything kind of spiralled off of it as a reference point. I spent a long time trying to write a finisher and really had to push myself to get 'You're So Nice / Boy's Home' across the line. Then I demoed all of those over the summer of 2020 / 2021 and sat on them again for a while until the right order presented itself. All through that time I was finishing uni and starting to work so that I could save enough over the course of 2021 to go into the studio at the end of the year.

The album was all but written apart from some instrumentation choices and some small rearrangements before I got the band involved. Olivia (drums / percussion) and Pierce (bass) started with me learning the songs in a live context and seeing what worked and what didn't. We jammed the songs as a three piece for a few months before adding Lily (saxophone / flute) and Reuben (keys / synth) and then going into the Surgery in Newtown with James Goldsmith in early December 2021. I really couldn't have done it without those five being willing to play weird parts and deal with my strange explanations of how I wanted things to sound. We did three days in Surgery and then I went away and did my vocals, production and some extra keys / synth parts at home. James then mixed it and then Will Borza mastered it and I've been sitting on the record since early 2022, playing a few shows and scheming the release.

There's a lot of storytelling power and drama in these new songs — with passages feeling very cinematic or even theatrical. On Hang Low did you find yourself embodying a kind of 'persona' in writing and recording your songs? Were there any specific artistic inspirations (musical or lyrical) you were thinking about as you were making the album?

For sure! The only song on the album that is autobiographical is 'Winter's Ghost' and so for most of the album I'm addressing ideas that are abstract or filtering experiences of other people into a song. The best example of me embodying a type of person or persona is 'CEO' and 'Bald Spot'. I wanted to have a song or two that sounded like scary bad masculinity and be just raw energy, so that it'd serve the idea of the album and also be really fun to play live. A lot of people have made BNCR comparisons with 'CEO,' but I wrote it well before I'd ever heard them and the guiding question was really "what if IDLES played jazz?" Joe Talbot is just another stunning example of someone whose energy is impossible to deny, but he uses it in such an uplifting way for someone who could be really scary if he wanted, and I wanted to try and get somewhere close to what he does but in my own way. Incredible lyricist also, I actually screamed the first time I heard the line about the walking thyroid.

'Bald Spot' was more in the Good Time wheelhouse, where I tried to capture the same anxiety-inducing vibe in a more modern context than a punk band playing jazz, in that world it's more like Puma Blue and Oscar Jerome if they were really scared of spiders or something. 'Winter's Ghost' is the other end of the spectrum, where I'm being completely honest with myself and speaking on things that have happened in my own life, which was honestly much harder to write, that one was more like what if James Blake produced a Julia Jacklin heartbreak song. Also both incredible lyricists.

Who is performing with you on your release tour? What can gig goers look forward to from your shows this spring?

The band is coming with me in Wellington and Auckland — that's Olivia Campion (Yumi Zouma, Revulva, Mystery Waitress), Lily Rose Shaw (Revulva, Dawn Diver, The Gallery), Pierce Higginson (DOONS, Solomon Crook), and Reuben Topzand (Neil Macleod, ZÖ). Supports in Wellington are F.A.I.R.Y. and Edera. Wiri Donna is coming with me to both South Island shows, and then Ripship is joining us in Auckland. Absolutely stacked tour if you ask me, I'm very grateful to these artists for coming on the road with me. Gig goers can expect the album to be played in full, as well as some extra special new tunes that are destined for the next record. I'm playing the South Island shows solo and so they will be super special as I'll get to have a bit more of a talk about the album and play the songs in their original form. Big up to the NZ Music Commission also for supporting the tour financially, literally could not do it otherwise.

What's on the horizon for Elliott Dawson after the tour?

Post tour my focus will shift back to writing the next album, as well as playing a few shows over the summer. It's real hard for me to do any writing when I'm releasing music and so I'm looking forward to having more space to get back into songwriting. There's also a music video on the way for 'Truman' which I recently got funding for, so I'm really excited about that! Also touring again with Wiri Donna v v soon [Dawson plays in Wiri Donna's live band] so keep your eyes peeled. I think I've been trying to forcibly knock this album out of my brain for the last 2-3 years and so stepping back and taking stock is also high on the priority list.

'Hang Low' is out today digitally and on 12" vinyl LP — order your copy HERE.