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SXSW Interview: Elle King

Tuesday, March 12, 1am, Buffalo Billiards

By Doug Freeman, Fri., March 8, 2013

SXSW Interview: Elle King

Elle King's brassy, brazen voice turned heads with the release of last summer's eponymous EP. With four songs, the 23-year-old Brooklyn songwriter inhabited an eclectic sweep of styles and moods, from the defiant growl of "Playing for Keeps" and twanged, banjo-backed "Good to Be a Man" to the sparsely mournful "No One Can Save You" and lascivious cover of rapper Khia's "My Neck, My Back."

"You never know which Elle you're going to see day to day, because I wake up in different moods," King laughs from London, where she's writing for her new album. "Sometimes I'm really funny, sometimes I'm quiet, sometimes I'm shy, but I'm constantly changing.

"I don't think people listen to albums as a kind of whole, cohesive record anymore, anyway," she continues. "And I know I have so many different influences and so many different sounds and so many different types of music that I like to play, so that's just probably what my album's going to sound like. I think the one thing that ties through all my different sounds is my voice, and I think we're all just trying to figure out how to tie everything around that.

"I hope the album comes off as more of a full story."

King already understands the unique pressures of the limelight, performing since she was young in some of the films of her father, former Saturday Night Live cast member Rob Schneider. With her LP bow slated for release this summer, King steps into a more direct spotlight

"Sometimes I feel a little pressure, but I think it's mostly excitement," she says. "I'm really not good at anything else, so if I don't make it as a musician, I'll probably just end up living in the woods with a bunch of dogs."

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