Ella Thompson // The Eisenberg Review Interview
Ella Thompson has developed a distinctive take on soul music, drawing from the warmth of classic sweet soul, the rhythmic pull of Northern soul, and a distinctly Australian lineage without treating any of them as fixed in time. Based in Melbourne/Naarm, the singer and songwriter pairs melodic directness with writing that reaches toward more complicated ideas of love, longing, vulnerability, and connection.
Her new album, Triumph & Sadness, arrives October 16 on Mr Bongo. Recorded largely live to tape over four days, the album brings Thompson together with a close-knit group of Melbourne musicians for a set that feels immediate and carefully considered at once. Influences including Nina Simone, Curtis Mayfield, and Australian soul great Renée Geyer inform the record, but Triumph & Sadness is less an exercise in revivalism than an exploration of what that musical language can still communicate in the present.
I caught up with Thompson to discuss the making of Triumph & Sadness, her songwriting partnership with Liam McGorry, the influence of Australian soul, and the community of musicians, DJs, and community radio that has helped shape Melbourne’s fertile musical culture. We also get to a few questions supplied by Karate Boogaloo’s Henry Jenkins and Hudson Whitlock, including what exactly it means to make a record “faf.”
