Back To Your Roots is a new content series where we look at the early careers of some of this year’s Piece Hall artists – the days they spent developing their talent in the small, independent venues that remain so essential to our music scene.
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Despite studying a degree in classical saxophone at the Royal Northern College of Music, Ellie Sax was constantly drawn to the joyous buzz of dance music.
Her weekdays were all about classical work, while the weekends were spent performing at venues like Tiger Tiger. She met her now-husband, Harry, at college, and they decided to travel and perform together after graduation.
Ellie has risen to prominence through her bedazzling re-imaginings of nostalgic club anthems, with a leaning towards the iconic era of Ibiza / Ministry of Sound house.
Ahead of her gig at The Piece Hall, we spoke to Ellie, taking her back to her roots and the early days of her musical voyage.
DS: Ellie, where was the first gig you ever played?
Ellie: “I’ve been playing music and playing concerts ever since I was young so it was probably a school concert or something equally uncool.”
DS: When did you first realise you had hit on something special, musically and creatively?
Ellie: “Harry and I always loved dance music. We went to classical music college and while there we would still explore lots of dance music and mess around playing sax to it. I think we realised we had hit on something special when we were playing a sunset deep house set in Italy. We both got that goosebumpy feeling and realised this is what we wanted to be doing with our lives and the music we wanted to be playing.”
DS: What was the best thing about those early days?
Ellie: “Travelling and seeing the world together.”
DS: Did you have any crisis points early on, when you nearly packed it all in?
Ellie: “No, not really. We definitely didn’t earn enough money from it early on to pay rent and bills so we both had a day job working for Apple. We were working in the daytime and gigging in the evenings. But we both loved it so I don’t think either Harry or I ever considered giving up. It’s always been what we both love doing, so I think we just thought ‘we need to make this work’.”
DS: What’s the craziest or weirdest venue you played?
Ellie: “The craziest was The Playstation Theatre in New York. That was a ‘pinch me’ moment for sure. We’ve played a lot of weird places in our time.”
DS: What was the smallest crowd you played to?
Ellie: “We’ve literally done gigs to four people in the past. But we always try to make sure that the people there have a fun time and have a laugh with them.”
DS: If you had your time again, would you do anything differently?
Ellie: “I think I’d just worry a little less and trust a little more.”
DS: Could you offer one piece of advice to aspiring young artists?
Ellie: “Stay authentic to yourself and the music you want to play. If you play and create what you enjoy, the people watching will enjoy it more.”
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