The biggest difference between Eleni Drake’s new album and the collection of songs she’s previously released is that “these have not been recorded in my bedroom,” Drake laughs! CHUCK is her first album released as a signed artist to MNRK. The album presents musical tones of jazz, folk, and indie melodies, beautifully merged with vulnerable and poetic storytelling.
As a self-producing artist, Drake usually creates her masterpieces at home but, this time, she spent the majority of a month producing at Voltaire Studios in Stockwell. As an artist whose forte is steering the ship solo, when co-producing CHUCK with Frank Colucci this time round, Drake assures me that she never “struggled to let go of anything, because I knew that I was in capable of hands, I was very open and honest with Frank about my ‘control-freak-ness,’ and he was really good with me. We’re very connected, and when I have an idea, he’s either already executing it or he’s like, that’s great.”
During the writing of CHUCK, Drake found herself tackling challenges regarding the sound she wanted the world to hear: “There was one song on the album that, on the very last day of recording, I was like, pull it.” Drake chuckles at the dramatic memory of that last day. Every response is a humorous declaration of honesty. “I don’t know if I’m allowed to say, but it was ‘Ripples,” which is the tenth track on CHUCK. “It’s because it’s the happiest tune I think I’ve ever made. Lyrically not, but musically. I was like, ‘Oh my God, am I like cheating on my sad self?'” However Drake knew then she’d made the right decision with Colucci when he “basically slapped some fucking sense into me and was like, get over yourself. It’s great.”
CHUCK is a bold title, immediately giving meaning without reason; however, it certainly had thought behind it. “It’s very boring, but to chuck something out, throw it away, it’s frivolous, like this is nothing.” Everything Drake says reminds me of the opposite (being the point). CHUCK is evidence that emotions are both frivolous and the most purposeful tools we have; they are chucked out as if unimportant, when really they build our history, identity, and, in Drake’s case, inspiration. The second reason for the title is based on the lead characters, Ned and Chuck, from the series Pushing Daisies. To summarise, they “have this romantic relationship and long story short, they can never touch; they find other ways to be intimate with each other and fall in love with each other that doesn’t necessarily mean by physical touch.”
As a young, half-Greek woman born in South Africa, raised in the UK, Drake seems to have lived many lives; however, even so, music was rare in her household growing up. One day, she was gifted a CD player and shortly after misinterpreted Nirvana’s famous ‘Never Mind’ album cover for her favourite genre, ‘whale music’ at the time, Drake’s mind was blown, and the rest was history.
One of Drake’s strengths is certainly her storytelling ability in regards to her songwriting, “I think my process is actually very boring. I don’t usually jot things down. Once the inspiration comes, I have to sit down, and then I have to commit to it.” There are some habits Drake can’t kick to the curb like solitary writing, “I finished all the tracks at home with my guitar and just vocals. I didn’t want to touch them, I knew that I’d get into like my control freak-thing.” Drake has been making music for a decade with a number of released EP’s and albums; Vanilla Sky, Can’t Stop The Dawn, Surf the Sun, Above Deep Water but CHUCK is different, “I think the biggest change has been actually feeling like a legitimate professional musician,” Drake notes that working with a co-producer and record label definitely made her feel more professional giving her the opportunity to work on a bigger and bolder scale, “I brought loads of my friends over who are these crazy talented musicians to play a whole bunch of instruments from string instruments to wind instruments.”
Drake has encompassed a variety of different sounds on CHUCK, the initial three singles have given a wonderful insight into the plethora of sounds, ‘I Don’t Not Love You’ begins stripped back and gloriously revealing Drake’s emotional vocals leading us into her jazzy strengths, whereas ‘Half Alive’ gives a more indie listen and lastly ‘Dolores’ is an original acoustic beauty. There are always moments in a songwriter’s career where they take a second to take pride in their work, and for Drake, writing ‘Let It Go and Let It Be’ stands out, “because when I think of that song, I think if someone else wrote it, I’d be jealous of them.”
Drake hints that sometimes it’s important to “have zero expectations,” when performing, which is exactly how she felt performing at SXSW in 2024: “it was all a blur,” and similarly when opening for Will Varley on tour. However, “European audiences are violently locked in. They’re silent and they’re just there to listen, which is a bit nerve-racking.” Drake is a reminder that all artists feel the wrath of nerves like any creative: “I’m a really unconfident person, and I think it was good to come out of my shell and own the stage by myself.” Drake also immediately admits, “My heart is beating as I’m putting myself back in that position, and it’s like freaking me out.” It’s refreshing to see Drake’s acknowledgment that stage fright is a regular, natural experience.
Drake listens to questions; instinctively replies humbly and slightly self-deprecating. She then retracts and answers in a well-thought-through, insightful manner — then apologises for it. You’re left wanting to brew a cup of tea and unpack her life experiences further. “I truly want for someone to sit down on a couch and listen to the album start to finish, but we don’t live in such a world. Well, we do, but it’s not as common.” It would be a sin not to listen to CHUCK in the order in which it’s meticulously chosen to be published. “I want them to listen and in their own time, in the silence, where they’re feeling good, walk away going, you know what, man? Life is s***, but it’s also fantastic; and I think the premise of this whole album is that for me things come to an end and they don’t last — much like the seasons of our life, and even though some of them were painful, you can reflect back on them and go, that was actually really nice.” If this doesn’t make you want to listen then her conclusion will, “we have a very funny way of pinning someone down to be a villain in our story, and sometimes they are, but, other times when you a reflect on it, you go, they were shit for me, but they’re not shit.”
Eleni Drake is the definition of ‘a girl who can do it all,’ with her album CHUCK being an alternative, jazz-infused, acoustic collection of beauty. If you swoon at the sounds of Mazzy Star, Adrienne Lenker, and Cleo Sol, CHUCK is for you. Last week Drake performed a stripped-back acoustic gig at Rough Trade Records in celebration of her vinyl release in preparation for her London debut headline at Neon194 on the 19th of November — tickets are now on sale.
