FEATURE: Spotlight: Elmiene — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Elmiene

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AN artist who I am really excited…

to see move through 2024 and grow in stature, Elmiene is someone who I am fairly new to. Born in Oxford, this is a rare case of a British artist being spotlighted who is not from London. That may be an exaggeration - though there is still a dominance when it comes to the capital and the media’s focus! There is something refreshing about Elmiene. I am going to come to some interviews from this year, where we get to discover more about a wonderful new talent who is going to be a big name in music very soon. The BBC included them in their Sound of 2024 longlist recently. He was also named as one of Vevo's 2024 DSCVR Artists to Watch. It is clear that Elmiene is a sensational artist who many are tipping for great success next year. His E.P., Marking My Time, was released in October. It is a stunning work! First, before I come to anything around that, here is some background regarding Elmiene:

“There are voices that feel familiar, even when you’re tuning in for the first time. They’re steeped in a vast vulnerability that at first feels impossibly crystalline, but then opens itself up as something already entrenched in our own consciousness. Such a voice beams with emotionality that connects to a point in our own emotional spectrum, better tuned to navigate, decipher the things that make us feel up, down, and everywhere in between than even our own internal monologues. Oxford born and raised Elmiene carries just such a rare sonic silkiness, married with a relatable touch that makes him a force of timelessness and familiarity in the realm of the UK’s ever-evolving Neo-Soul sphere.

There’s a pretty good chance you’ve heard him before. The soaring falsettos that float overtop the mostly acoustic backdrops of March release, and debut EP, EL-MEAN have already reached audiences far and wide. And for good reason.

His signature cut of an emotionally entrenched Rhythm & Blues angle is able to transcend the oft weighty depths of the sonic space in favor of something altogether more airy and digestible, at times even pop-adjacent. Just take the EP’s closing number, Guess We’re Leaving, and feel how the bubbly, self-realized layers of vocal padding make for a soft landing for anyone listening, whether veteran fans of Neo-Soul or first-timers. And yet, even in the course of the same track, his compositional breadth eases into a slower, more emotionally anchored and vocally reliant breakdown that feels reminiscent of Brent Faiyaz’s heading of bleeding, almost-bare vocal runs that ask of its listener, vulnerability, too.

EL-MEAN at large plays a lot in that space, where a listener has to be engaged with the music at all of its depths in order to experience the lofty emotionality of it all. Elmiene’s compositional layering is largely to thank, and his music - the singles, the debut project, all of it since he first made his way onto the scene with 2021 single, Golden - is an exhibition of his knack at weaving so many textural layers into his sound.

It’s the reason why Golden was tapped to spearhead Virgil Abloh’s posthumous final show in Miami, where the then-20-year-old Elmiene’s debut single - not even then yet released - captured the weighty emotion and timeless beauty of everyone in attendance. Since that point, he’s been finishing university and working towards the release of EL-MEAN, while grappling with the early exposure and lofty expectations that Golden brought into frame. And now, through it all, and with breezy individuality - and some comparable artists in his orbit - he’s taking the next steps.

The Brent Faiyaz comparisons come easy. And by all measures, that’s a near—impossible sonic relation to boast for any artist these days. His voice tinders with the same organically wide-ranging seamlessness, imperfectly docile at times of emotional mellow, and explosively emotive when speaking - singing - on the subject matters that require such extents. His register at large, also just bleeds with something indescribably reminiscent of Faiyaz.

But it’s in his production, too, where Brent Faiyaz - in particular his debut album, Sonder Son - comes to mind. Acoustic backdrops set the emotional tones for most of his tracks, and largely for EL-MEAN from top to bottom, lending more analogue organics to his space. His debut EP’s opening cut, Before I Take A While exists as a dynamic thoroughfare of his many uniquely Elmiene signatures - the delicate vocals, the thought-provoking poeticism, the acoustically-ridden beat, and the resulting emotional relatability that emerges from them alchemized into gentle balance - where everything a listener needs to know about his emerging sound, is on transparent display.

And yet, there’s even more to Elmiene than world-class vocal prowess, acute songwriting, instrumental dynamism, and comparisons to one of the most important R&B forces in the game today. From the moment the next track, Why (Spare Me Tears) opens with a vocal arrangement reminiscent of early Motown quartets, he’s pushing his own boundaries, both back in time, and into new experimental spaces. The song is already one of his most streamed, and its timelessness - spanning eras and epochs of Soul lineage - has a lot to do with that.

It’s perhaps in the brash sonic shifts from track-to-track, all still tethered to his core organic relatability and emotional depth, that makes not only his debut project, but his future at large, so exciting and impossible to predict. An emotionally entrenched ballad like Endless No Mores shines a light on the most passionate depths of his ability to evoke with his music, and yet still feels exciting through another Brent Faiyaz reminiscent breakdown halfway through. A track like Choose You allows wallows in an indefinable folksiness that speaks to the genius of his instrumental-lyrical crossroads. It’s a poetically deep, musically poignant ballad that transcends the very idea that Elmiene belongs to any preconceived notion of genre at all.

It’s that mystery, that effortless delicacy with which he navigates the ever-expanding extents of his range in new, and seemingly easy directions, that makes the UK singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist not simply an artist to watch, but one whose music, now in this moment, should be known by anyone who treks through Neo-Soul, R&B, folk-acoustic, and beyond”.

Some of the promotion and interviews are going to relate to his previous E.P., EL-MEAN. That came out back in March. I want to give you a fuller picture of Elmiene’s 2023. He has released a couple of stunning E.P.s and put out some simply staggering music. CRACK spoke to Elmiene earlier in the year. It was a moment when there was this focus and determination from the young talent. Someone looking ahead and prepared to put in the hard yards:

“On his latest EP, El-Mean, the artist gives expression to the reflective mood stirred up by the path his life has suddenly taken. The five-track project leans into the classic R&B Elmiene grew up listening to – think D’Angelo, Prince – albeit with a light touch that heads off accusations of pure nostalgia. Before I Take a While is limpid and mournful, Elmiene’s smooth vocals meshing with his guitar licks and vibes; single Why (Spare Me Tears) channels haunting and heartsore; while Endless No Mores, with its lived-in melody and soothing guitar picks, is custom-built for late-night Uber rides. “It was very much a mourning of the life that I saw for myself before music came on the scene,” he says.

Having recently headlined Hoxton Hall, he’s already working on another EP, which, to him, paints a clearer picture of his future. Whereas the last record laments a life that wasn’t to be, Elmiene hopes this latest project sets the agenda for the next chapter – a kind of coming to terms with his current reality. Or, in his words, an exploration of “knowing that this is definitely the path that I’m on, but how do I manoeuvre this the right way”. Now the dust has settled, you sense that the real work is starting – and Elmiene is more than ready to hunker down and get on with the task in hand. “My head has finally kind of laid the cement on the fact that this is my life,” he laughs, “and possibly for a very long time”.

Let’s bring things more up to date regarding conversation. Marking My Time is a beautiful E.P. that boasts some of Elmiene’s finest work to date. I feel that next year is going to be a really big one for him. COMPLEX spoke with Elmiene in October. Chatting about everything from his touring in the U.S., to his Sudanese heritage and growing up Black in Oxford, it is an interview well worth reading:

“COMPLEX: Black people’s experience in the UK often seems to be London-centric, but you are from Oxford. How was it growing up in that part of England, and how did it shape your understanding of being Black and British?

Elmiene: It was slightly weird in Oxford because I stayed in West Oxford, which is predominantly white. In my school, there were only four Black kids in the whole year, but because of it, I feel like many of us were down for what’s good, and we’re proud of our Black heritage. We all went down different roots, but I went down the soul root—that was my addiction: soul and R&B. I was a kid obsessed. Despite being in an area where people wouldn’t listen to R&B, I was deep in it, but it all felt good. When I first moved to Oxford, my cousins put me on to R&B and at the time, T-Pain, Usher and Craig David were big, so I had people to look up to. I made my own army of people who would appreciate the music.

Coming from a Sudanese family, what were your parents’ attitudes and perspectives when you told them you were pursuing a music career? How did this impact your inspiration and your commitment to purpose?

I got very lucky because my mother was very open about what I wanted to do. She was’'t the stereotypical Sudanese mother; she tried to make me go through the roots of STEM. But she would never make me do something I didn’t want to do because she knew I wouldn’t do it well. So, I went to university to study poetry, then started to do music, and by the grace of God, I was able to show her that music can be financially lucrative for me.

Your new EP, Marking My Time, is highly anticipated. Can you provide some insight into this project’s themes and creative process, especially concerning the title track that you co-wrote with Jamie Woon and James Vincent McMorrow?

Marking My Time is me marking my time at this checkpoint in life and using it as a checkpoint for my romantic emotions. What was that life during this time of my life? My mental health is what I’m thinking about during this time. My interests, the things I’m hearing and the sounds I’m interested in... It’s a project to document and respect this time of my life because, very soon, a significant change in my life will happen. I would be making different music for this period. Jamie Woon and James Vincent McMorrow are like my senseis in the game. I soon realised their inspirations are the same as mine; they express them differently, and I’ve learned much from them.

Looking ahead to 2024, what are your goals and aspirations as an artist, and how do you plan to build on the momentum you’ve gained so far in the industry?

I want to continue to make records that I’m proud of, that make people understand me and myself more. That’s what I’m looking forward to doing in the coming years, and I also want to be considered in the conversation amongst some of the greats”.

I am going to end with an interview from The Line of Best Fit. Published back in August, Elmiene revealed how he was ready to make his Punk record. Quite a revelation from someone who is softly-spoken – and one would not assume this ambition and sound would come out of him! There is no predicting where this extraordinary human will head in 2024:

“Songwriting hasn’t always been something that he approaches with a preconceived mindset. The Sampha-produced “Mama”, his latest single, was the first where Elmiene did come to the writing session with a general topic and idea, but what surprised him was how much that actually helped him craft it.

“I’m actually very strange in the way that I write music or think about music,” he explains. “When I come into the studio, I don’t like to walk in with a formed idea or theme. I want the session to lead me where it was to lead me. [Writing sessions] feel pretty free and I'm always experimenting with how to write music, and with a song like ‘Mama’ it came from listening to one album by Prince and the song ‘Mary Don't You Weep’ and the lyric ‘Mary, don't you mourn’ was a sick lyric. It made me think of the lyric ‘Would you mourn a sinner’. I walked into recording ‘Mama’ and the rest of the lyrics came through. Not coming in with any preconceptions helps relax you — I think of it like a beam of light coming straight through you and telling the exact story you want to tell.”

With the creation and release of “Mama”, Elmiene wants to capture that light beam in the future. “One-hundred percent,” he admits when asked if coming up with a lyric or phrase will be something that he does in future writing sessions. “All my processes in the studio are usually just jamming for 40 minutes and having amazing conversations through music. I’m filtering through all of it, like looking through a library of books. I take little pieces of everything until I finally find the one that really works.”

Lately, Elmiene has been thinking about legacy and the impact art has on the world. Creating music is something that is so personal but eventually is given to the masses with the hope that it finds a home. When prepping for the interview, a quick scan of the comments on his recent video for “Mama” shows a number of comments that have embraced the track — one of which saying “This song really touched home… I’ll start my day off with this and keep my head up in positivity, truth, love and light.”

“That is the biggest thing,” Elmiene declares when he hears of the comment. “ I didn’t know it was the sweetest thing about music but it’s something I've really learned recently. People doing covers of my songs and seeing people connect with the song so much that they have to sing it themselves and want to learn it on guitar or wherever… Oh, man. That means the world. Getting those kinds of messages where someone tells me that a song came to them at this point in life or its been on repeat in the shop [they work at]. Everyone knows what it feels like to have that connection with a song during a certain part of their life. I remember how Dru Hill’s ‘5 Steps' was a pivotal part of my sixth form experience. It’s so cool when that's you on the other end, it’s a crazy kind of high that you wouldn't get normally in life. I’m very blessed to have it happen frequently. It’s the ancient tradition of a song being passed down, so it just feels like I’m part of that”.

A wonderful British artist whose R&B sound is both familiar and unique. With such a remarkable voice that draws you into the music, it is no wonder Elmiene has been heralded and tipped as an artist that we need to watch closely. Make sure that he is very much in your sight. He is definitely going to make some big moves…