Creating ‘Dreamscapes’: An Intimate chat with Eli & Fur
After celebrating the 10th anniversary of their iconic track ‘You’re So High’ and the most success of their first album ‘Found in the Wild,’ British duo Eli & Fur have continued to evolve, starting a brand new profound voyage into the most recondite sounds that portray the best their vulnerability, personal experiences and musical panorama.
Photo credit: SJ Spreng
This journey has led to the creation of a second album, ‘Dreamscapes’ their most personal and moving material yet, set to be released on [PIAS] Électronique on September 27th, 2024. The album delves deep into their emotional landscape that is both familiar and yet unexplored, drawing the listener in with its intrigue.
The platonic soulmates and longtime best friends have given us a fantastic taste of what’s to come, with tracks such as ‘My Reflection,’ ‘Insomnia’ ‘Golden Eyes & Tears,’ and most recently, the brand new ‘Missing You.’ Channeling an essence of empathy, ‘Missing You’ fuses heartfelt lyricism with an atmospheric soundscape that is both true to the duo’s dance-pop influence and uniquely evolved from previous musical releases. Deceptively simple yet sophisticated in craft and construction, Eli & Fur balance rippling melodic piano arps, slippery breaksy drums, and an echoing softly sung vocal to create a laid-back feel that is so blissfully all-in, even the lover’s absence is a joy to savor.
We caught up with Eli & Fur to get all the details of the new single and about the composition of ‘Dreamscapes’.
EG: Hi girls! Welcome to EG. It’s a pleasure to have you here with us. Where are you at right now? How have you been?
Eli & Fur: We are good, thanks! We are right in the middle of rehearsing for our live shows at the end of the year. It’s a crazy and detailed process, but we are so excited about the final result.
EG: First of all, congratulations on your release, ‘My Reflection’! You must be excited to be able to share this one with everyone. What has the initial reception been like so far?
Eli & Fur: This track is extraordinary, and we have been excited to share it because of its dancefloor reaction. It’s not a club banger, but it embraces those more introspective club moments and feels incredibly authentic to us. At its core, it’s a traditional song with a verse, bridge, and chorus, but the production and the vibes work on a dimly lit dance floor.
EG: As we know, ‘Golden Eyes and Tears’ is a rather special release, paving the way for what will be your sophomore studio LP, ‘Dreamscapes’…so, why did you decide to announce the album with ‘Golden Eyes and Tears’? Why is it the perfect sort of “gateway” into it?
Eli & Fur: We decided to set the scene for ‘Dreamscapes’ with this track as it just felt special and different to us. The album is very vocal-based but heavily rooted in electronic, with a nod to both the club and the more introspective moments. ‘Golden Eyes’ and ‘Tears’ is the track to listen to in the early hours of the morning whilst reminiscing, almost like starting at the end of the journey and teasing how it might feel after the full experience of ‘Dreamscapes’.
EG: The title ‘Dreamscapes’ sounds quite loaded, yet ethereal in its own way. Why did you choose this name for your second studio album? What can we expect to find on ‘Dreamscapes’?
Eli & Fur: The album is an exploration of the moments between dusk and dawn. ‘Dreamscapes’ felt like the perfect word to describe these different moments and stories. It’s an ode to the night, a dream to get lost in. The album is very diverse, and we hope it feels to the listener like a journey you can lose yourself in and experience a range of emotions, making you think and feel so many different things.
“The album is an exploration of the moments between dusk and dawn”
EG: In which ways have you grown in comparison to the ‘Found in the Wild’ days? Has your connection/approach to music changed as well?
Eli & Fur: ‘Found In The Wild’ was always very clearly a two-part album, the song-based and the club-based. ‘Dreamscapes’ feels more like merging these two worlds and creating something with a lot more synergy. There’s diversity, but as a whole, it’s a song-based electronic album, and every song has a straightforward story relating to the night and our experiences living so much of our lives in these moments.
EG: This album officially will be released in September and we already had the honor to enjoy it fully, something that mainly caught our attention was its emotional richness, from sadness to love, fear, and hope, was it also designed to release certain emotions that you have faced during these last two years?
Eli & Fur: It’s so nice to hear you felt that way! That’s very much how we intended it. We want people to be able to lose themselves, to want to both dance and reflect, and to experience that whole plethora of emotions from the night. Whether that’s a night out with friends, a festival, staying at home, a sleepless night of reflection, or being lost in a dream… all those feelings that we feel in the hours of darkness.
EG: By the way, you have already confirmed three brand new international live shows, at The Fonda, Los Angeles; Brooklyn Steel, New York; and Village Underground, London for October to promote ‘Dreamscapes’…is there anything you can anticipate from those upcoming shows?
Eli & Fur: We cannot wait, it’s something we have never done before for an audience so it’s exciting and scary at the same time. We play and sing on all our tracks and we really want to share this experience with our fans in a live setting. Performing live is very different from DJing… it’s literally the essence of how we make music, in the studio together jamming. We are going to be playing a decade’s worth of music, songs that we have been dying to play live for an audience for so long, as well as showcasing the new album, and possibly teasing some unreleased stuff too!
EG: Speaking about live shows, how do you feel about these gigantic LED screens that seem to have taken over festivals and big-name performances? Do you think these “immersive” experiences bring us closer or farther away from the music? What’s your
take on this?
Eli & Fur: Good question. Visual shows can attract a larger audience, they definitely put the genre of music in front of more people, but also the music can be forgotten when the main focus becomes the visuals.
We feel it’s important for the music to be able to stand on its own, otherwise, you aren’t building a fan base, just a disposable audience that is only there for hype or the “spectacle”. We have seen some very questionable visuals that border on creepy. We are very much of the opinion that visuals should complement the music, enhance the emotions, and appeal to the true fans of the music that can definitely take a show to another level if it makes sense.
Look at fred again.. for example, he’s killing it right now, playing stadiums, and has the most incredibly loyal fans but most of his visuals are just iPhone footage. The crowds are there for him and his story. The visuals are part of the tracks and just add more emotion and context.
“Missing someone is not always negative. Having someone to miss, or missing great memories is so positive”
EG: How do you feel about the recent implementation of AI in the creative side of music? Have you explored any form of AI recently on ‘Dreamscapes’? What’s your relationship with that like?
Eli & Fur: We are open to AI and the possibilities of what it can do. We think it’s important to embrace technology and use it as an experimental tool that might make you see things in a different way, but it also needs to be used in a way that doesn’t alienate real human artistry. We haven’t used it on this specific album, but we are getting into the sample side of things and experimenting with what AI can do from a production and writing standpoint, we definitely find it interesting but feel it’s important to use it with caution and integrity.
EG: Your newest LP single is ‘Missing You’. We love the concept around this one, often love songs are more focused on the sadness of missing someone – but this is more about the joy of having someone you miss that much – where did that idea come from to write it from this point of view?
Eli & Fur: It was really interesting with this track, it started off with a vocal groove we worked on in a totally different key… we recorded vocals on it with Trevor Coulter aka Lemon Blue, he had the idea of putting this emotional riff behind the vocal and suddenly it turned into this euphoric uplifting track just by playing with the key of the song. Suddenly it felt like a celebration of love rather than a sad song about someone that you no longer are with. That gave us the idea of the fact that missing someone is not always negative. Having someone to miss, or missing great memories is so positive. That’s how that all came about, almost by accident, but it felt so beautiful and interesting to us
EG: This song especially shows off your voices and your songwriting talents. When you are songwriting, do you write the lyrics to something first, and then write the music? Or the other way around? How was the process with this track?
Eli & Fur: Usually we start with chords and vocals, in a very traditional way, verse bridge chorus, and then we take the song and switch it up, using the vocal hooks and instrumentation to build a structure that will work on the dancefloor. This track was written to a beat and chords and then the production was switched up like we said, and the key changed. This is often how we work. Some songs can be written one way and then turned into something else.
EG: Did this one come together quite easily / naturally, or did it need some extra care and attention to get just right?
Eli & Fur: Once Trevor came up with that lead arpeggio part that sits under the vocal, we knew that not overworking it was essential. It had this simple magic, so it was just adding some extra layers, bass, pads, and drums and playing with the structure and builds, etc to finish it.
EG: Finally, can you provide some insights into what’s next for Eli & Fur? What can we expect from you in the coming months? Where can your fans catch you next?
Eli & Fur: We will be touring all summer! And rehearsing! We will be sharing some little teasers of what’s to come for the live show, so look out for those! We will be touring in the USA, Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. All our tour dates are on our website! We adore being on the road and cannot wait to share all of the new music on the dancefloor and then the live shows at the end of the year! So much excitement to come!
EG: Thank you so much for your time, Eli & Fur! See you on the dancefloor!
Eli & Fur: Thanks, so much for your support and lovely to chat!
Eli & FUR’s ‘Missing You’ is now available on [PIAS] Électronique. Stream and download here.
Follow Eli & FUR: Spotify | Soundcloud | Instagram | Facebook
