Elta Wave are in over their heads on their funky new single Deep Water — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Propelled by a hip-shaking groove and a bouncy electric piano line, the U.K. blues-rock foursome’s latest release is a tale of relationship head games and romantic deception, delivered via singer-songwriter and arhythm guitarist Elta Nice‘s dusky, soulful vocal.
“This song is about how we keep going after being gaslit in a messy relationship, and how you keep doubting yourself after someone has blurred your grip of reality,” explains Nice. “I want to make people feel good, accepted, and understood however they are … giving them an uplifting song when they are in deep water, and a song to cry with when needed.”
But the song’s message will also hit home with anyone who feels the wool being pulled over their eyes by politicians and corporations when it comes to issues like the environment, Nice says. “I feel that equates to how we think about climate change … How our generation is told we don’t really know how it will go, when in reality we know how it’s going.”
Not bad for a song Nice wrote while working sound for an open mic night in West London. In true jam fashion, she worked out the tune with the band on the spot. “I literally told the band what the chords were and that it has the groove of Hit The Road, Jack,” she recalls. “They just followed my rhythm guitar — which frankly, back then, I had just started playing, but the song was born just like that.”
Elta kept bringing Deep Water to various open mic stages and jams, and the song grew with each new group of musicians adding their input. She finally took it into the studio with lifelong friend and former keyboard player Edward Abela, also a producer who has impacted the European charts. “We wanted to add a real funky vibe with the bassline,” remembers Elta, who reached out to London composer and multi-instrumentalist Lef Germenlis, who remotely recorded the song’s thumping, anchoring bass part.
Elta Wave are rounded out by lead guitarist Jezney Holllis, drummer Patrick Stultz, bassist Conor Cotterill and Louie Berey on keyboards and sound effects. They take their name from Nice who, at just 26, has spent years embedded in the music scene. Originally from Jerusalem, Elta left home at 19 with nothing but a guitar and a suitcase after being given a pass from joining the mandatory national military service in Israel for health reasons; a severe allergic reaction to an ingredient in an inoculation given by their dentist almost cost Elta their life eight years ago. Add that to the experience of living amid war and military conflict, and Elta’s youth was fraught with peril.
“My journey so far hasn’t been the easiest,” she says. “I was born in Jerusalem and lived through the terrorful second Intifada war and a few other militant operations. Some were frontlined by my age group. I was lucky enough not to serve due to my health conditions, however, the war still left its marks on me in the form of grief and PTSD.”
Music and making a new home in a vibrant city ripe with opportunities have pulled Elta out of deep water and into flourishing creativity. “The feeling of the crowd when they get to enjoy the fruits of hard-working musicians fills me with hope,” she says. “It fueled my self-confidence and inner belief in the power one person has on an entire arena or even a whole society. So imagine what can one society do for our planet?”
With a debut album on the way, a very infectious first single and new gigs starting to pile up post-pandemic, Elta Wave will keep on timing to make positive changes in the world, one great song at a time. “My songs are linked to a tough past but have the belief of a bright future ahead, for all of us as a living fabric on this wonderful planet.”
Check out Deep Water above, sample more from Elta Wave below, and get in touch with them at their website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
