Something about The Elovaters is relaxed and welcoming, and something like having their music in the background that lightens the room. Meridian, Live By Day, and all the songs that they’ve released and probably will be releasing reflect their personalities, attitude towards life, and overall likeness. This is a beautiful quality they all share and one that all people should aim for. I guess that’s also what I hoped musicians would strive to be like to their fans, open and welcoming.
After changing their name from the Cornerstone to the Elovaters and releasing their debut album the boys from Cape Cod area were seeing success early. But then on October 26th, 2018 they shot up to #1 spot in the Billboard and iTunes reggae charts with their second album called Defy Gravity. Two months following their rise the album was voted Album of the Year in 2018 by Surf Roots TV & Radio. They have since played at the Levitate Music Festival (2018 and 2019), Sugarloaf Reggae Festival (2018 and 2019), and many other locations across America. They have also opened for Of Good Nature, Sun-Dried Vibes, Badfish, and just finished touring with Stick Figure in April. I had the chance to interview Jackson Wetherbee who is the vocalist for the Elovaters on Thursday March 28th, 2019 before they played an acoustic set at Medusa Brewing Company in Hudson, MA where they released their very own craft beer called The Elovater (the official link to get your own can will be coming as soon as I can get a link!).
¨I will say that I generally write all my songs late at night. I’ll come home from a gig, I’m a night owl and I’ll stay up till like 3:30 some nights to like 4 in the morning and I just kind of sit at my table. I’ll have Netflix on or whatever be answering emails and I’ll have my acoustic guitar with me. It’s just in those moments I find it to be very spiritual like just the complete and utter silence.¨
-Jackson Wetherbee (vocalist for The Elovaters) [3/28/2019]
¨To be honest with you, what inspired me to start writing music was just other music. When I was younger I got really into Slightly Stoopid and I loved the Live & Direct: Acoustic Roots album. I also really got into Jack Johnson and Dispatch. And so it was kind of like all those culminated together,¨ Jackson tells me. The lead singer goes on to tell me about how he taught himself to learn songs through acoustic and stripped down versions because it was easier to digest. ¨I liked the way that Jack Johnson kind of did that. The Acoustic Roots album (by Slightly Stoopid) was just so mind blowing to me because it was so simple just two acoustic guitars and vocals but it still captured the whole entire feel of a whole band reggae,¨ he tells me. He usually writes about general life events and experiences, with occasional ideas for songs too. Jackson tells me heś grateful for all the success and fan support, but does say he believes they are still growing. ¨We have a very dedicated set of fans and it’s almost like they’re sticky. And it’s like they’re floating through life and then they accidentally touch someone else that like into the music and then they are stuck together for life. And then the amoeba just keeps growing and growing and growing and inflating. And it’s all just love. Our online presence is growing and everybody is giving us just tons of love. There’s no bad vibes with anybody, and we’re really really grateful.¨
¨I was always extremely heavily into the Beatles. I have actually toured through Europe and Liverpool. That was the whole reason I even went to Europe was just to go check out the whole Beatles excursion.¨
-Jackson Wetherbee
I really enjoy basically all of the Elovaters songs, but I would have to say most of the songs are from Defy Gravity. What makes a good Elovaters song has to be the good vibes along with eclectic guitar/drums riffs. Meridian is their top song on Spotify with over 150k streams, but So Many Reasons (2018) has the most streams with over 300k streams. Jackson enjoys playing Gonna Shine from the Defy Gravity album (2018), and his favorite song heś working on is Nostalgia. At the end of the day, basically any Elovaters song is a good song so far because I have yet to find one that I generally do not like. Reggae also is growing on me fast, and I will have to thank The Elovaters and Of Good Nature for that…
¨We definitely don’t want to ever be a stagnant band that just kind of is a one trick pony. We definitely want to grow, which I’m sure every band wants to do that. For us, we want to keep writing better music. We want to just be deeper.¨
-Jackson
The guys are currently touring on their new tour bus… A LOT. After finishing their tour with Stick Figure they are going to be ¨home for three weeks and then we drive all the way back up to California for probably two or three weeks then again we’re home. We’re probably gonna be going back out in August to the west coast and the west side of the middle of America and we’re going to try and probably re-hit a lot of the markets we already played.¨ After that they will be releasing singles with a few bands, and probably another album later this year or next year. ¨I think with every album you make you increase the focus like the Kings of Leon fourth album. The fourth Kings of Leon album (with Sex is on Fire and like Revelry in Manhattan) they were increasing their focus on each album until finally their focus was perfect. And I will say that once our focus gets to somewhere where I’m really happy with it I don’t want to stray extremely off the beaten path,¨ says Jackson.
I would sincerely like to thank the guys from the Elovaters for keeping me in touch, and I really can’t wait for the next time we meet! You can listen to their amazing collection of music on Spotify, and stay updated on how they´re doing on Facebook and Instagram. If you want to see what I think of their future releases please go like me on Facebook and Instagram for updates! Have a fantastic day!!!
The Minimalistic Music Blog 