Adelle Elwood, known on stage as Keeper E, is establishing herself as a rising indie-pop star and emerging East Coast artist.
Her latest single, “Fourteen,” was played more than 10,000 times on Spotify since its release on Sept. 17.
“Fourteen” was selected by Spotify for some of its most popular playlists – ‘New Music Friday’, ‘Indie Pop & Chill’ and ‘It’s a bop’.
Elwood, a recent Mount Allison University graduate, had musical aspirations since middle school. She would ask anyone who could play an instrument to start a band with her.
“When I was in Grade 9 or 10, it was getting too hard to form bands with people. So, I decided to learn to do this by myself,” she said. “That’s when I first started to learn how to record and obviously as a fifteen-year-old, I was really bad at it and I was just making horrible covers with random instruments.”
During her undergrad, Elwood started to write her own music. At first, she was nervous to share her music with others, but once she overcame that fear, she quickly began making plans to start recording.
“I took off two months between school and working in the summer. [Recording] was something I wanted to do for a while and it felt pointless to be writing songs and not be recording them,” she said.
In those two months, Elwood took the time to hone her process and discover what type of music she wanted to create. She realized she preferred to create electronic music and taught herself how to use digital software. Using her laptop, a mic and a keyboard, she recorded her album.
She was picked up by the label LHM Records where she released three singles and then her album The Sparrows All Find Food.
Elwood said she originally had a more “realistic” mindset so that she wouldn’t get her hopes up about her music’s success. So, she was surprised when her music started gaining popularity.
Since the release of her album, she noticed it is challenging to find women to join her team.
“It’s disheartening,” said Elwood. “There are lots of women singer/songwriters and stuff like that but in the producer world basically everyone is a man.”
Still, Elwood said that being part of the music community in the Maritimes so far has been an incredible experience.
“This past month has been really great, since things have been a bit more open, shows have been happening again.”
