“Tell everybody that they have to come and see us.” I can hear the excitement in Elisabeth Elektra’s voice even when separated by over 250km. I reply saying that’s a given, “I’ve been shouting about it from the rafters to everyone I know.”
We are discussing her upcoming tour dates with the collaborative band Silver Moth, in particular their ‘homecoming’ show at Gosforth Civic Theatre on Monday 12th August. She resides in Glasgow with her husband Stuart Braithwaite, also a core member of Silver Moth, and of the esteemed rock band Mogwai.
“So do you still consider Newcastle home?” I ask.
“Yeah, of course. I spent my whole childhood and teenage years going to Newcastle from nearby Hexham. I moved there when I was 16. So, you know, I was still a kid. There’s a lot of formative stuff that happens around those late teenage years and early 20s. Pretty much all my immediate family are in the North East and I’ve got lots of friends there, so it does feel like home. If I was going to say I was from somewhere, it would be the North East.”
The reason we’re discussing these touring shows is due entirely to a leap of faith Elisabeth and Stuart took with fellow musicians and kindred spirits back in early 2021. Evi Vine, Steven Hill, Ash Babb, Ben Roberts and Matthew Roachford joined the pair without really knowing each other, convening in the dramatically remote Atlantic Ocean-facing Black Bay studios on The Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. The landscape and intense working period of just one week resulted in an extraordinary album full of elemental, spiritual and collaborative music that surpassed any expectations.
Silver Moth’s whole repertoire sets light to enormous bonfires and then reflects in their cooling embers
I’m intrigued how that condensed improvisation transfers to the live setting. Elisabeth explains: “I think we had to reimagine it as a whole. It’s different than it was in the studio and I think that’s a good thing. We had to really listen to the record because when we made it it was so improvised that we weren’t sure on some songs who had played what, we had to figure that out.” There is also a slightly changed line-up of those musicians on the album, due to other commitments, both Evi and Matthew aren’t with the band and Elisabeth explains the impact. “One of the songs Evi sang, Henry, has become an instrumental piece because I didn’t want to sing her song, it didn’t feel right to sing her vocal. It sounds great as an instrumental, really powerful, then on Mother Tongue, I just sing both the parts.”
The haunting, melancholic layers of guitar and cello in Henry lap like constant, soothing waves, while elsewhere the epic rock of Hello Doom embarks on a fifteen-minute odyssey through ebbing prog and post-rock tides. Drones, wheezing strings and emotive vocals drift in and out on Mother Tongue and Eternal. Silver Moth’s whole repertoire sets light to enormous bonfires and then reflects in their cooling embers.
Elisabeth, Stuart, Ash and Ben are essentially Silver Moth’s core members, augmented by other touring members. There may even be new material. “We’ve written it. But it depends on how good it sounds when we play together live, I’m excited. But I would be surprised if we play live again for quite a while because you know, there are some big commitments the band members have in the next year or two.”
So this is where you come in readers. Get your tickets and experience that same excitement when they play Gosforth this month. If you needed further convincing, Elisabeth’s sister Katie is the opening support under the name The Harkling and she’s followed by the mesmeric, glacial prog rock of Newcastle’s epic noisemakers Kylver. It’s going to be a very special night.
Silver Moth play Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle on Monday 12th August.