www.facebook.com/letterstoelise
From: Canada
Sounds like: Pop Punk
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? Who thought of the name “Letters to Elise" and is there any meaning behind it?
We started in High School as a three piece in 2004 and took heavy influence from bands like blink 182, Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard, etc. We make fun and say we were "blink 183" with how our style wise. We developed our sound once we got into heavier music like Atreyu, Underoath, From First to Last, bands like that back in the early 2000's and we wanted to just blend those two styles together in our own way. We were originally called LateSlip (very junior high, I know) and were trying to think of a better name as we wanted to have the name not be a joke and one day seen a video on MTV where artists are covering songs and performing them for The Cure and seen blink 182 perform "A Letter to Elise". Not only was it a great song but that title just clicked when we seen it and went with Letters To Elise.
2. What do you want people to take away from your music?
We would hope that what people take away from our songs is that we are here for "you", that you can relate and don't feel alone. We write lots of fun fast songs but also darker, slower, more meaning songs as well. We are all human and have been through all these same emotions and feelings, knowing that someone else has been through those helps us get out of our own heads have a bit more fun.
3. How would you describe your sound to the average listener?
It's very early 2000's pop punk style but we feel we add an element to it that has our own sound to it, where once you hear it you can say "that's a LTE song".
4. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
Three bands that would be great to tour with if we could pick would be Calling All Captains, Youth Fountain and Point North.
5. How has Covid affected what you do as a band?
It didn't really affect it too much just we had been on haitus for about 7 years and decided to start writing again a few months before the pandemic. We just got lots of time to write great music and record it, there was some pause on recording with certain restrictions but that was about it.
6. What’s your take on the current state of Pop Punk?
We think the current state of it is awesome and exciting, there's a total pop punk revival thanks to Travis Barker, he has single handedly brought it back working and producing with all these new young artists. There's lots of great new music and it's inspiring as well. Also seeing older bands coming back like Hawthorne Heights is awesome.
7. What’s the current music scene like in Canada?
It really ranges where you live in Canada, here in Edmonton, metal and country are pretty big. Pretty similar everywhere else, but there are lots of great underground/unsigned pop punk bands here as well.
8. What’s your take on the royalties that streaming services pay out to artists?
It's not the greatest, as always merch and shows is where the money is but it would be nice to be better compensated from the streaming services when you see how much they make and the percentage the artists are given. Maybe one day that will change.
9. What’s next for Letters to Elise?
Just to continue writing and recording songs, and releasing them to the world for more people to discover who we are, maybe some shows if we feel ready, life is pretty busy with work and family so we shall see haha.
10. Any shoutouts?
Shout outs to our friends and family for all the support as well as everyone that keeps listening to us, we truly appreciate it! Also shout out to all our fellow musicians here in Edmonton that we got the chance to meet and play with.
