EMQ’s With Smoke Over Elsewhere
EMQ’s With Smoke Over Elsewhere
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with UK Souther Hard Rockers, Smoke Over Elsewhere. Huge thanks to their Vocalist/ Guitarist, Rhys White, for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
I’m Rhys White and I am the Vocalist/Guitarist for SOE, I officially started S.O.E in 2021 and spent 3 years playing shows up and down the UK before disappearing over the summer of 2024. Relaunching this year with a fresh line-up, we have our debut single “Rock ‘N’ Roll Woman” which was released on April 4th.
How did you come up with your band name?
The name is actually a reference to the Elder Scrolls game series, with Elsweyr being the Bethesda spelling for the homeland of the Khajiit, it’s strange to think now as a Southern Hard Rock band that the name is from a fantasy game series but it’s worked as from our knowledge there is no other Smoke Over Elsewhere in the world.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
We are based in Nottingham, and the music scene here seems to always be thriving, be it the weekly shows at venues like Tap ‘N’ Tumblr or the bigger shows at Rock City, the city always seems to be thriving with music. I still remember my first exposure to the local scene, it was a venue that’s now student flats at what would be the precursor to what is now Mangata Festival, so seeing how the scene has grown since I was 14 is amazing.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
We released our debut single “Rock ‘N’ Roll Woman on April 4th along with a music video, but following from this we have our second single which should drop at the end of May and a third again in June, and we’ll have to see what happens from there…
Who have been your greatest influences?
For me personally I used to be a massive Metal head, and I still am in some right. But I then found bands such as Hellyeah, Black Stone Cherry and Blackberry Smoke who opened me to the Southern/Country side of Rock and Metal. From there I ended up finding artists such as Brad Paisley and Luke Combs in the country scene, and it all came together for me when I found The Cadillac Three. I am also massively influenced by Jack White and all his work.
What first got you into music?
I grew up with a dad who attended Monsters of Rock yearly, so I owe a lot of my love for music to him but when looking back I had a lot of time with my mum in her car and the only album she had was Shania Twains 1997 album “Come on Over”, so probably have her to thank for the start of my Country influences. But music is pretty much all I’ve ever wanted to do for as long as I can remember.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician, who would it be?
Probably a bit of a left field but I personally would love to collaborate with Post Malone. I’ve been loving his most recent stuff, so I think it would be an interesting collaboration. On the other side I would love to work with Jack White just to sit and jam with him in a writing session would be amazing. With that being said, we have had a few conversations on collaborations with artists outside of our genre, so you never know.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
I mean the obvious answer would be Download. Growing up in Nottingham, I’ve always seen the signs pop up near the airport, so being able to be on the bill for that would mean a lot. On the other end of things, we would love to play festivals such as Maid of Stone or Call of the Wild, but honestly any festival would be amazing, it’s always such a good experience.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
I think the only thing I’ve ever really been given is a drink or 2, but the time we were passed a tray of shots while on stage was quite funny.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
I suppose after our sudden disappearance last year, it would just be Thank you for sticking around, if they’ve been around for a while, or even the new fans just seeing people liking our social posts or following a page, it all means the world. The people who listen to the songs, watch TikToks, like posts and come to shows are the reason we can do what we love to do.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
I think I would have to say Chris Cornell, I only got to see him once and it was when I was a bit too young to appreciate it.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
For me, I love the grind and pushing for the next step, and I even love the social media stuff as videography and photography is a hobby of mine. However I’ve found that the worst thing is the toll it can take on you if you don’t know when to take a break. It’s hard to know when to, and I think having Grace join the band on bass has helped me personally. We’ve been together for 3 years now so she’s seen me in the ups and downs of it all, and knows when I need to be snapped out of “band brain”.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
Now this is an interesting question. I have spent the last few years studying the industry from an artist’s perspective at uni, so this question has come up a lot. I personally think the industry is in an interesting stage with the rise of social media and the gap between artist and influencer becoming blurrier as the years go by. It’s great to see some of the things that bands are doing with their platforms, however with the recent news of Ed Sheeran writing to the prime minister for more funding for music education, and the constant stream of the smaller scale venues closing, it does seem like their needs to be more for the smaller bands to get their start up.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
“Appetite for Destruction”! I don’t think I really need to say much about this, but for me it’s just an amazing album and holds a lot of memories and inspiration.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs or Downloads?
I think there is an argument for most of them, but for me I think vinyl for collecting, but downloads/streaming just lends itself to so much discovery of new music and makes it accessible to everyone, even if you can’t afford to buy an album, you can still enjoy the music.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
There are a few that come to mind, but I think our return show on April 4th at the old Sal in Nottingham. For me it was being back on stage with so much happening and in the works. I suppose it’s been a lot of ups and downs since last year and now things are moving, it feels great.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Although I’ve got a lot of things I do for enjoyment if I wasn’t doing this, I’d be doing this. I think at least for me, music is pretty much my only thing. I mean if I wasn’t writing and putting my own music out there, I would probably be in a cover band or doing management or something along those lines, but there isn’t really anything else for me.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
I’d love to have the Osbournes round! I think that would be an interesting evening.
What’s next for the band?
We’re sitting on 10 tracks we’ve got recorded, so we’ll be releasing pretty consistently over the next year. We’ve also got our tour in the summer, and if all goes to plan, there will be some amazing dates on there. We’ve also got a brand-new website and merch store with some exclusive options only available online, and a lot planned for things other than music, including some YouTube videos and TikTok content as well.
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
We are on Instagram/Facebook and TikTok mainly, but also have our YouTube which as mentioned we will have some more content coming there later this year. Check out our Linktree to get everything Smoke Over Elsewhere.
https://linktr.ee/SmokeOverElsewhere
There’s a long-standing food-based debate here in the UK. And we’d like your help. So… A Jaffa cake – is it a cake or a biscuit? Discuss!
It’s funny this is here because earlier today before sitting down to do this, I had a conversation with Grace (bassist) about this, and it turns out that they are legally a cake due to a 1991 VAT tribunal in which McVitie’s actually made a giant Jaffa Cake to prove their point.
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