86 MacDirectory
MUSIC
His musci has gone through a fair amount of change since
the early days when he first started signing, but he has
managed to stay true to his voice.
"I think my vocal delivery and style has remained fairly
constant throughout my musical endeavors but it's the music
that's changed," he said. "Obviously the introduction of
electronic sounds was a big turning point in that but there's
been a lot of development, I think, in the last few years."
He tells us that Elderbrook music was much slower and
more ambient in the beginning. "I think the reason for
that is that when I play live I really love the faster more
fun moments and I've taken that back to the studio when
writing. I've certainly not stopped writing the more chilled
music though. There's a lot of that kind of thing still in the
pipeline," he said.
Currently, he describes his music as "bouncy indie-
electronic," and his new single Sleepwalking definitely falls
under that category. The catchy song was inspired a few
months ago while Kotz was in Los Angeles.
"I was doing a show there at the Roxy and I had a couple of
days in town around that. In those few days I worked a bit
with Nick from Empire of the Sun," he said. "We made a few
different songs but when we started writing Sleepwalking
we knew it was the best of the bunch I think."
He explained that it started with a tribal sounding drum beat.
"The lyrics came quite quickly after that," he said. "It's about
human influence on nature and the choice to ignore it."
Sleepwalking is a clear example of how Kotz continues to
stay relevant in today's competitive music industry. But he
had a different plan before becoming Elderbrook.
"Something I've always wanted to do is create things that
haven't been done before," he said. "My original plan was
to sing in an indie/folky style over 90's hip-hop influenced
beats that I had made for precisely that reason."
Kotz tells us that he has been inspired by many who have
shaped who he is today. "The people that I collaborated
with in the earlier days of my music journey definitely
helped shape the kind of musician I am. I learned a lot from
artists, musicians and writers I met at university, not just
about music but about art and what it is to be creative."
Currently Kotz is on tour until September 2018. Make
sure to catch his latest song, Sleepwalking which
released May 25th.
Follow him on Twitter: ww.twitter.com/_elderbrook
Like him on Facebook: www.facebook.com/Elderbrookmusic
Listen to his latest music on: www.soundcloud.com/elderbrook
