Stephen Ellis is launching his debut EP ‘The Truth’ on Spotify et al on 28th February with launch gigs at The Glebe (Stoke-on-Trent) on 28th March, Night & Day (Manchester) on 30th April and Kontra Roots (Kettering) on 24th May.
The three tracks, mixed at Manchester’s Blueprint studios, were penned following a liberating extraction from a failing marriage. They brim with melody and melancholy, musing on life lessons, love lost and middle aged angst. A dash of humour and a smack of self-derision stops the songs tipping over into sentimentality, but never take away from the candour at their core.
In a world awash with male-singer-songwriter-piano-players, he lays no claim to uniqueness (think Gary Barlow meets Elton John in a dark space and a bad mood). But the voice is dirt swathed in radio-friendly velvet, and the songs are immediate and infectious in their simplicity.
Former front man of ’90s London indie hopefuls The Spectators, Stephen lives in Prestwich.
He cites Leonard Cohen, Scott Walker and Nina Simone as influences and describes the new EP as “infinitely more effective than selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.”
