Interview with Louis Eliot of Rialto

Louis Eliot first started turning the heads of New Musical Express and Melody Maker readers back in the early ‘90s . . . okay, 1992, if you want to get precise . . . as a member of the British band Kinky Machine. When the Machine began to break down, Eliot kept on keepin’ on with fellow member Johnny Bull (guitar), forming Rialto, a band that manages to incorporate a variety of sounds ranging anywhere from Britpop to new wave to the epic soundtrack work of John Barry and Ennio Morricone. The result . . . ? Well, for one thing, they’re very big in Korea, thank you very much. The band’s sophomore effort, Night On Earth, has finally made it to into US record stores after an interminable delay (it was released in the UK in July of last year), and Eliot was willing to have a noontime chat with PopMatters on that topic and several others.

So, are you pleasantly surprised that (Night on Earth) has finally come out in America?

I am, yeah! It took awhile!

Were you beginning to wonder if it ever would?

Well, I thought it should’ve done, but I don’t spend too long thinking about that side of things. I leave that to management. I’m more into making the records and making the music . . . but if it means we’ll get a chance to play (in the States), that’s fantastic.

I understand you were originally supposed to play the International Pop Overthrow in Chicago.

We were going to do that, yeah, but the idea was to see if anything else would pop up to build a tour out of it, ‘cause coming out just for that one gig didn’t really make a lot of sense. I’m still hoping we’ll get to come out.

My friend David (Medsker, a PopMatters music critic), who lives in Chicago, wants me to make sure that you make it there at some point in the future.

I wish we could! I’m keeping my fingers crossed . . .

Have you ever actually toured the States before?

Not actually toured, no. We’ve only played Los Angeles and New York so far, in fact. So we’re very interested in those middle bits…

So are you still “big in Korea”? And how does one end up being “big in Korea,” anyway?

Well, I think they must have impeccable taste! (laughs) I really don’t know what happened. I presume that someone at the label liked it, they played it someone else who liked it, who in turn plays it on the radio, and, essentially, it just snowballed. Things like that simply gain momentum and get a life of their own. But they really went for the band over there, and it’s great. It’s so different over there than it is for us at home; we’ve had much greater success there than here. We’ve had a few hits here, and we did Top of the Pops and all the shows we’d dreamt of doing since we were kids, but, in Korea, it’s screaming kids meeting us at the airport! So we do play big gigs in Korea . . . arenas, even. Much bigger (venues) than the ones we’re headlining in the UK.

Do you consider yourselves to be a Britpop band? Or what DO you consider yourselves to be?

Night on Earth is quite electronic, I feel. I don’t know what other people mean by Britpop, really, but I suppose there’s a melodic sensibility that’s quite British that’s on the record . . . but I don’t know; when I hear “Britpop”, I think Blur and Oasis, and I certainly don’t think we fit in with that. It’s really just a label over here, and it’s irrelevant now. We have a pop element in that there’s a lot of melody to our music, but that’s about it, really.

Rialto has a lot of the swagger and drama of Pulp, but I’ve seen a lot of pieces that comment on your being inspired by film composers like, say, John Barry.

There’s definitely some influence from soundtracks, but, also, with (Night On Earth), there was also quit a bit of New Order and Depeche Mode playing around in our subconscious.

Were they artists you listened to when growing up?

I was into New Order, and Johnny (Bull), who produced the album and plays guitar, he was into Depeche Mode. I definitely think that some of the bands that we grew up listening to manifested themselves in the record. For instance, someone pointed out to me that some of the tracks on the album sound like the Psychedelic Furs, and there was a band that, well, I hadn’t thought about ‘em in years. But, then, I recalled that I was quite a fan in my teens, so there you go.

How did you hook up with Eagle Records in the first place?

We’ve been on quite a few labels, and, of course, when you leave one, other appear and say they’re interested . . . and they were one of the ones who showed up after we were dropped by Warners. They said, “We really like the band, and we want to get behind you guys.” They were really straight talking, and it just felt like they’d be the best place.

Have you been pleased with the amount of publicity they’ve provided the album?

I feel as though they’ve done pretty good. I mean, they’re not a major label that really throws everything at the wall, so to speak, but, in a way, that’s quite a relief, because that can feel a bit . . . I dunno. Sometimes, you can have too much of that.

Like, you begin to feel like you might not be able to live up to all the hype?

Something like that, I suppose.

What was the deal with Gimme Music? (The Internet-based label released an EP by Rialto between the band’s two full-length releases.) When they first came into being, with both Rialto and Echo & The Bunnymen on the roster, it seemed like, hey, here’s this great new label with incredible potential . . . but, then, nothing.

I don’t know what it was like in the States, but here, there was a sudden rush of dot.com companies. There was this rush of excitement, but a lot of the companies didn’t get all of the backing that they were initially promised, and that’s what happened to Gimme Music. I think whoever was financing (the company) backed out mid-stream.

Do you still get people asking about Kinky Machine?

(Laughs) I think we’re more popular now than when we were around to begin with. He had a cult following at the time, but we never made it into the top 40 in England. I suppose it’s nice that there are still people who have fond memories of our work, but quite a lot of people discovered us as a result of Rialto.

Has there been any talk of re-issuing the (Kinky Machine) albums?

No, it hasn’t gotten to that point . . . though I understand there’s a brisk trading of Kinky Machine releases through the Internet. They probably only go for a pittance, though.

How did Rialto come about in the first place?

Well, when Kinky Machine disintegrated me and Johnny wanted to continue working together, so it was really just a matter of disappearing off together. We got a reel-to-reel 8-track recorder, then a 16-track, and we were just sort of messing around in Johnny’s flat and developing a new sound. We found our bass player because he’d been bouncing around a lot of bands; he was a great bass player, did great harmonies, and he had wonderful taste in music, but he was terrible at choosing bands (to play with). We didn’t know him very well, but we said, “You should join our band.” But I guess he thought he were slagging off his band, so it took awhile to get him down to play with us. Pete (Cuthbert, our drummer) we got out of a Melody Maker advert. We just thought about it and said, well, it could take a year, but we’ll put an ad in, we’ll audition people, and we’ll find the right guy. And we did. And it did take about a year! It wasn’t, like, shit, we need a drummer next week.

It must’ve been nice to have that kind of luxury.

Absolutely! Well, when Kinky Machine disintegrated, we were still signed to the label, so we still had some finances; we didn’t have to rush out and get another job right away.

What was the last gig you attended?

Hmmm. The last gig would’ve been the Vines. They’re really good. They’re Australian, a guitar band, and they’re very melodic. They’re Beatles-y . . . but with a Nirvana edge. They sound like lots of your favorite bands . . . well, my favorite bands, anyway: the Clash, Nirvana, the Beatles . . . lots of great bands.

And the last album you bought?

Well, lately, I’ve been listening to Smog’s album, Knock, Knock . . . but the last record I bought was, erm, Magical Mystery Tour. I bought it last week, second hand. I was burgled at end of last year, you see, and loads of CDs got nicked. It was such a drag when I went to replace them, because you see a stack of CDs on your shelf, and you just don’t think of how much they cost ‘til you have to buy ‘em back . . .

So you said you’re working on some new songs . . .?

Yeah, right now, I’m working on some solo acoustic stuff, and it’s going down very well.

Is that something you’d also release through Eagle?

Well, I haven’t actually got a deal for it at the moment; I haven’t played it to anyone in that way yet. I’m really just doing some little shows in London, a few outside of London, without really trying to grab a deal yet. I thought I’d just sort of let it develop a little bit before I start trying to get people interested.

Is Rialto still attached to Eagle? In other words, would any future albums come out on the label, or was it a one-album deal, or . . . ?

It was a one-album deal, actually, but we’re still within that deal. It really just depends on what happens. If things are going well with Rialto, then we all have a really good time and like making music together, so I’ll be right there alongside the rest of them . . . but I also like keeping busy. So it depends on what’s going on. I’m sort of keeping it on hold because I don’t want it to get in the way . . . but it might be nice to do something on my own, then make another Rialto album in a year or two.

Well, may the next Rialto album, whenever it comes out, come out more quickly in the US this time!

LE: (Laughs) Most definitely!