Elias
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Elias

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | INDIE

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | INDIE
Band Rock Alternative

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

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Press


"ChartAttack review Elias"

“Every band has particular strengths and, for these guys, it’s their vocals. Falling somewhere between Radiohead and Nada Surf, they have a great sound that they make all their own.” – Chartattack.com - ChartAttack.com


"Spin reviews Elias"

“…they succeed in making the kind of pulsating, loud rock that the Mars Volta or Radiohead might approve of in equal turns.” – Spin.com - Spin.com


"Elias @ CMW"

Background/Composition:
Elias is frontman Brian Healy, guitarist Robert Tornroos and drummer Stefan Tavares, a pop-rock act from Vancouver with a rich live sound and an assertive stage presence.

Grade: 88

Comment:
The band came out strong with an instrumental intro, Healy leaning into his keyboard with feeling. Elias maintained the same high energy throughout their performance.

Achievement of Rock 'n' Roll Expectations
80-100: Exceeds skill and knowledge expectations, i.e. rocked us so hard we peed our pants.
70-79: Achieves required skills and knowledge. Meets rock 'n' roll standard.
60-69: Demonstrates some skills. Approaches rock 'n' roll standard.
50-59: Demonstrates some required skills and knowledge in a limited way.
00-50: Has not demonstrated required skills or knowledge.

Learning Skills: E=Excellent, G=Good, S=Satisfactory, N=Sad Really

Oral And Visual Communication:
Eye Contact: S
Pronunciation: E
Stage Presence: E
Stage Banter: E
Image: G
Appearance: G
Use Of Stage: E

Strengths/Weaknesses/Next Step:
Elias communicated much more through body language and stage moves than through eye contact and banter. You could feel the emotion of the songs with the performers as Healy laid into his keys, guitarist Tornroos threw his head back and forth and drummer Tavares kept the beat going with a cheeky smile on his face.

Musical Analysis:
Level Of Participation: E
Problem Solving: G
Teamwork: G
Work Habits: E
Organization: E
Audience Participation: G
Sound: E
Composition: E
Songs: E

Strengths/Weaknesses/Next Step:
The band's vocal harmonies, coupled with Tavares' crisp rhythms, exhibited Elias' simultaneous gentleness and determination. Healy didn't just stick to his keys — at different points during the set he played a maraca and a tambourine, lending an unexpected texture to Elias' live sound.

Other Skills And Areas Of Interest:
Charisma: G
Problem Solving: G
Teamwork: E
Sexiness: S
Haircut: G
Indie Rock Footwear: S
Nods To Disposible Fashion: S
Cool Equipment: G
Level Of Inebriation: S
Actual Ability: E

Strengths/Weaknesses/Next Step:
Elias ended with "All We Want," a piano-based track with upbeat drumming and a Celtic-sounding guitar riff. While their recorded material has established Elias as a solid act instrumentally, their live show is testimony to their true musical chops.

http://www.chartattack.com/reviews/80146/elias-cmw-2010 - ChartAttack.com


"Vancouver's Elias Hits Rock Chart"

BILLBOARD CANADIAN UPDATE
March 11, 2010

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
By Paul Tuch
paul.tuch@nielsen.com

Vancouver’s Elias re-enters the Canada Rock chart
at No. 50 and is bubbling under the Emerging Canadian
Artists chart with its first charted single, “All
We Want.”
Vocalist Brian Healy and guitarist Rob Tornroos
first met after graduating from
high school in 2000, drawn together
by their love of the British
rock bands of the period like
Oasis and Blur. The two have
played together since then in onand-
off-again projects.
In 2005, Elias was born with
the recording of a three-song
demo. For the next three years,
the band booked its own shows and put out an EP,
building a strong West Coast fan base. In 2008, the
group recorded its first full-length album, “All We
Want,” which received strong press from both sides
of the border.
Elias underwent some personnel
changes after the album’s release,
adding drummer Stefan Tavares.
The new lineup recorded its Wax
Records debut album, “Lasting Distraction,”
in Vancouver. The set consists
of 12 songs, half of which are
new and the other half rerecorded
versions of earlier tracks including
the radio hit “All We Want.”
The band is part of the Snocore tour, which begins
later this month in Montreal and features
Protest the Hero and Hawthorne Heights.
- Billboard


Discography

Lasting Distraction (2009)

Photos

Bio

**Watch the video for "All We Want" here: http://youtube.com/eliasband

Brian Healy and Rob Tornroos were destined to make music together. The two ringleaders of Elias first met after graduating from high school where their mutually independent love affairs with the Brit Rock bands of the time eventually drew them together. Through high school, while their other schoolmates were punting to late 90’s rock staples like Bush X, Moist and Our Lady Peace, Brian and Rob were enthralled by the sounds of bands such as Oasis, Blur and the Stone Roses.

The Vancouver B.C. natives first met in 2000 when Rob joined Brian’s first band as a replacement guitarist. From that point on the two have played together on and off through various band incarnations, going their separate ways at times but inevitably rejoining forces.

In 2005 Elias was officially born with the recording of a 3-song demo at legendary Mushroom studios in Vancouver. On the back of the demo the band began their journey as an indie rock act and for the next three years took the DIY approach booking their own shows, scraping money together to record more songs, putting out an EP, garnering local press and building a substantial west coast fan base. In 2008 they recorded their first full length indie album release ‘All We Want’ which garnered solid reviews from such influential magazines as Spin who stated “Elias succeed in making the kind of pulsating loud rock that the Mars Volta or Radiohead might approve of in equal turns”, high praise for a young upstart band from Vancouver.

Following the release of the album the band went through some personnel changes, which saw Brian’s bass player brother (Jon Healy) depart the band and the addition of Stefan Tavares who took over drumming responsibilities. “We actually met Stefan back in 2004” says Rob, “but the timing just wasn’t right for him to join the band.” Four years later Elias was in need of a new drummer having parted ways with their previous one. “This is kind of a funny story” says Healy, “we were auditioning drummers at the time and no one we had seen to date was able to deliver the intensity we were looking for. Stefan had been out of commission with a broken wrist and had not touched the drums for about 3 months, so this audition was his first turn back behind the kit. When he broke straight into the drum intro for ‘All We Want’, Rob and I looked at each other…if this guy could nail that song after a 3 month hiatus, we had found our man.”

For their Wax Records debut album ‘Lasting Distraction’, the band reunited with producers Sean Penner and Aaron Nordean at their District Four Studios in Vancouver. Over a three-week period in August they laid down a dozen songs consisting of a number of revamped tracks from their indie release and a half dozen newly penned songs. When asked about their long standing relationship with Penner and Nordean and the experience this time around, Healy states, “we worked with Sean and Aaron on our indie release and have built up the kind of relationship where everyone says exactly what’s on their minds. There are five people in the room with very strong opinions and at times it can get heated. Everyone has the same ultimate goal though, to get the best out of each song. We were on some pretty tight timelines for this project and it was a lot of hard work, but at the end of the day we’re all very happy with the result.”

On working with legendary mixer Mike Fraser whose resume reads like the Fortune 500 of rock’s leading lights from AC/DC and Metallica, to Aerosmith and Rush, Tornroos says, “we received Mike’s mixes straight from Warehouse studios at about 1:00 in the morning and we were both grinning from ear to ear. He got exactly what we were going for”.

When asked about the songwriting process, Tornroos says, “it has changed a lot over the years. In the early days song ideas would often come out of a band jam session. That’s how ‘All We Want’ the band’s first single came to be. It started as a warm up jam on the classic U2 track ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ and quickly turned into this wholly formed song. We basically wrote the song in one night.”

“More recently we have changed our writing approach” states Healy. “On those earlier songs like ‘Puzzles’, ‘Broken Lens’ and ‘All We Want’ we’d work out the music first and then add lyrics almost as an afterthought, we now approach the songs as a whole”. Tornroos agrees, “on songs like ‘Dropouts’ and ‘I Hear Drums’ the lyrics are very important to us. We really want our music to make a connection with the listener.”

The band’s sound covers a lot of ground, moving from dark to light, from moody to anthemic, driven by Stefan Tavares’ intense drumming, punctuated by Rob Tornroos’ intricate guitar-work and held together by Brian Healy’s piano arrangements and soaring vocals. Chartattack.com captures the essence of the band perfectly with this quote; “Every band has particular strengths and, for t