“It feels less like the start of something new, and more like the finish line, because I wrote this album 6 years ago. It’s good to get it off my chest,” Elliot says. A celebration of suburban life with all its quirks, absurdities, and hidden beauty, Big In The Suburbs is a reflection of Elliot’s evolving relationship with his hometown.
Growing up in Southampton, Elliot recalls he was desperate to leave home. “I was so keen to get out, but then I realised the thing I tried to run away from for so long was actually quite a bizarre and unique place,” he explains. “In towns and cities, it was difficult to break through to people, whereas in the suburbs, there are all these little characters and narratives—it’s all quite theatrical. I suddenly yearned for that.”
The DIY, small-town charm is musically woven into the album itself. With lo-fi gadgets and recording techniques, the band recorded this album at Elliot’s dad’s house in Scotland in just three weeks. His dad is even featured as a “storyteller by the fire” on the track ‘Under Milk Wood’. Big In The Suburbs is deliberately rough around the edges. “I recorded all these demos just for myself and my mates, and everyone was like, 'keep it like this—keep it cheap and cheerful'. I suppose you can only do your first album once, and it can only be DIY once.”
The DIY ethos translated into the gear used in the recording sessions, much of which was sourced from charity shops. Elliot proudly shows me a mini keyboard he picked up for £9.99. “When the batteries die, it goes out of tune, so as you’re playing, it’s just lowering and lowering in tune. The thing is, when you write music on computers with all that logical and modern stuff, you know what the sound is gonna be. But when you buy stuff like this, you don’t know, and it just chucks things at you. Especially from a songwriting perspective, it just throws things at you, or it might break or sort of do the wrong thing. That’s just what I like.”
This may just be Welly’s recipe for success, as well as the Britpop undertones many fans have picked up on. But is a revival of this sound actually happening? Elliot shares his own perspective on the matter. “When Blur, Suede, and Oasis wrote their music, they were nostalgic for the '60s—now we’re 30 years on from Definitely Maybe and Parklife, and I feel like people still want to hear about Britishness. But Britpop was very optimistic, and I feel like you can’t do that so much now.” Instead, Welly’s music offers escapism from the bleakness of modern Britain. “People want something uplifting, something to dance to.”
Despite Elliot’s knack for vivid storytelling, he isn’t ready to show off a more profound and sadder musical side as of now. “I do write that stuff, but I’m saving it for when I’m like 30. I don’t think anyone wants to see me be serious quite yet.”
However, one of the standout tracks, ‘Pampas Grass’, still proved particularly challenging to write. Initially envisioned to be a baroque piece for a string quartet, the lyrics took a while to be refined. “I always write the music first and then I sort of sit on the bus, and it’s all like a crossword, where it’s like I know I need to hit these meeting points and arriving couplets, and the lyrics for ‘Pampas Grass’ took me like six months to write just to get all the little parlances perfect.”
Elliot’s personal favourite, ‘It’s Not Like This In France’, was his attempt at writing his very own ‘Rock The Casbah’. The song’s music video, out on 4 April, captures the band simply having a great time in France, and features an unexpected cameo from rapper Niko B, whom the band randomly bumped into in Paris.
With the album’s release and upcoming UK tour, Elliot’s goal is for people to have a memorable time, for better or worse. To make sure no one forgets them, he even promised to attempt his best Sam Fender impression for the Geordie audience. “You’ve got to be really memorable, even if that means the audience hates you.”
Most of all, though, he just wants the shows to feel like a proper party. “We do prizes, we get people on stage to do stupid competitions. People can call it stupid or childish, but I’m personally more inspired by ridiculous sort of childhood nostalgia, so I want it to feel like an 8-year-old’s birthday party.”
Welly will be performing at the Three Tanners Bank in North Shields on 24 April.