Smitty: Yes, and you blend all of those elements so well and it still has Eliane’s signature there.
EE: Oh, good. That’s what I wanna hear (Both laughing). No, that’s got to be there, you know, so I’m glad to hear that. The interesting thing is that because people that know the body of work that I have presented through the years will see that I have some recordings that feature more of myself as a composer and arranger, others that show more of the music abilities, others that bring more of the Brazilian side. I mean, there are so many different things that I have done, but they are all true to me because they are all a part of who I am.
Smitty: Yes.
EE: When I make a recording and I have all these different sides that I can put in there, it’s kind of interesting to see, well, which one is gonna be dominant, a little more this time when I make a record.
Smitty: Yes, absolutely.
EE: Around the City, the writing was really something that I wanted to put more original than my past recording called Dreamer. The one before Around the City was beautiful, all of them all Bossa Nova and standards, American and Brazilian standards, done with orchestra like a mellow, relaxing kind of a CD, but I didn’t want to make that again. I said no, I wanna sing, I wanna play things, but I want to bring something eclectic, something sophisticated, that you can actually find around a city. But I’m glad you’re hearing like that and you perceive that and feel that. That’s great.
Smitty: Oh, thank you, Smitty. It’s just a great record and your voice just resonates so well and mixes so well with the great players that you have with you. It’s just a fantastic record. I’m loving it and I know everyone else is loving it.
EE: Thank you so much.
Smitty: Yes. So, now, are you touring right now?
EE: Yes, we did 14 concerts in Japan….then took a little time off, and now we start again in September. I’m leaving at the end of next week to Europe doing promotional tours in France and then I come back and I’ll be playing New York for a week from September 19 to 24, then we play the West Coast, we are in Seattle and Los Angeles, and then we’re gonna go back to Europe and hit again France and Belgium, Spain, the U.K., Italy, do some of those countries, then we come back and do some more of them in the U.S., and we’re gonna keep touring pretty much the next year, year and a half with the new music.
Smitty: Yes, well, that’s great to hear. I know your fans around the world are waiting for you to arrive.
EE: Oh, that’s great and I can’t wait to play for them.
Smitty: Yes. Please give me your Web site.
EE: Yes. www.elianeelias.com
Smitty: Okay, and your Web site is great. I love how easy it is to go through and you can see all the past albums of work and…
EE: Isn’t that nice? You like it? That’s great.
Smitty: Yes, it’s great, and the whole history and the tour dates and all of those great things are right there, so…
EE: You can get a sense, right, of what happened before, what was the last record…I like the way it came out. I’m glad you liked it too.
Smitty: Yes indeed. It is fantastic. So, now, other than the tour, I’m sure you’re working on some other projects and that kind of thing perhaps.
EE: Yeah, I’m always working on different things and I actually, during my time off that I had, I have been writing music, so I wrote some new songs for our next project that we will be doing sometime, I don’t know exactly when. But basically that’s what I’m doing: preparing the new show, which is ready to run, and writing some more material for the next one.
Smitty: Oh, very cool. That’s exciting.
EE: Yeah. And I’m also, you know, doing my normal stuff like during my little time off and swimming and had a nice, you know, summer and eating healthy food and exercise. (Both laughing).
Smitty: Well, that always keep you looking well, that’s for sure.
