Hidden Treasures: An Interview with Percival Elliott
Olly Hite and Samuel Carter-Brazier were writing songs
together under the name ‘Carter & Hite’ when Hite’s father showed him an
aged wooden trunk full of possessions once owned by his great-grandfather,
Percival Elliott.
“Percival Elliott was a right old eccentric, always
travelling,” Hite said. “He would go missing for days on end, but no one used
to worry. He would always return with fresh ideas and inventions. My grandma
did say once he believed in time travel. I just love that about him. He had one
of the first ice cream emporiums in Brighton built on Weston Road. He imported
coffee beans and sold one off bespoke inventions, brass telescopes, old wind up
mechanical music boxes, engraved glass ice cream bowls, old Toffee hammers...
It goes on and on.”
Carter-Brazier remembers Hite bringing over an old doctor’s
bag full of Elliott’s possessions. It was in that moment that they knew their
musical endeavor should be named after the legacy left behind by the late
Percival Elliott.
Originally, both worked for an antique dealer and spent
decent portions of their days travelling. It was Carter-Brazier that made their
mix tapes for the road, opening Hite’s musical tastes to beyond his background.
It didn’t take much time before they were playing music together.
“One of my fondest memories of writing with Olly is when he
and I lived in his empty shell of family home whilst in the middle of a
conversion,” Carter-Brazier said. “We would stay up all night drinking homemade
beer and writing tunes until the sun came up. We’d then go to work then do it
all over again the next night.”
They both share a fondness for any genre of music; they
constantly share new tunes with one another, citing Spotify as the “holy grail
of music exploration”. It explains why their upcoming album, Save Your Soul, engages in a multitude of
musical influences.
“We want to tap into the listener; try and engage with their
heart music-wise,” Hite said. “Beach Boys meets The Verve. The Beatles meets
Elton John. Father John Misty meets Neil Finn. Queen meets Super Tramp topped
off with a bit of Neil Young…”
“The album is a unique patchwork quilt of influence and
taste,” Carter-Brazier adds. “One minute we’re crying over past love and the
next we’re serenading the lost, recalling tales of cats and adventures at sea. It’s
a real mix bag of sounds and influences. We’re extremely excited to release her
on the world.”
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