Music / bristol music
Tamasene: ‘Music got me out of trouble’
“Music was the thing that got me out of trouble when I was a teenager,” says Elliot Ellison Holder, reflecting on the birth of his compulsive creative expression.
Multi-instrumentalist Elliot now plays in three bands as well as fronting his solo project Tamasene – a first record and EP under his belt, and a bunch of songs that will make up the second album ready to go – and directs a charity offering art workshops in prisons as well as mentoring creatives ‘on the outside’ and working as a graphic designer.
Any spare time goes towards “obsessively” learning and practising new instruments.
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On lead vocals, guitar and trumpet with Cousin Kula, Elliot Ellison Holder says with solo project Tamasene he is being true to himself, his sound and his vision – photo: Chelsea Cliff
“Art is all I know really, that’s been my journey,” he explains. “I’ve always compulsively written music, and I’ve always done things obsessively. I learnt the trumpet by just playing it all the time for two years. Then Covid happened and I taught myself drums.
“A friend came round to dinner and asked, ‘So what new instrument are you learning?’ It’s funny that’s just a standard question to ask me!
“People use the word ‘obsession’ in a negative way but I think with creativity it’s positive obsession, it just makes you feel good. I don’t get that flow state from many other things, maybe cooking occasionally…
“Being creative has given me so many beautiful friendships and experiences, and put me on a really positive path.”
It’s these positives he hopes to share when leading art workshops in prisons, watching attendees become happier as they’re lost in the art and a “sweet vulnerability” takes over.
“There are numerous and infinite benefits that creativity can have on people that weren’t given the opportunity to explore that side of themselves,” he says.
“Just creating anything – not just for people in prison but it’s especially valuable for those that are vulnerable – it unlocks something where they feel they can give something to the world, feel value, self-worth and escapism, ‘beyond the prison walls’ perhaps.”
It was a turbulent childhood – albeit one filled with music – that set Elliot on the creative path which eventually led him to Bristol, studying illustration at university while playing with bands, one of which became Cousin Kula in 2016.
“Gigging relentlessly,” the much-loved band had a ton of success, flaunting their groovy jazz-tinged psychedelic soul round the UK and beyond, playing a Boiler Room session and winning acclaim from Gilles Peterson among others.
But Elliot had something else in him, a different musical side he felt compelled to explore.
“For years, 30 per cent of the songs I’d write wouldn’t feel like the right fit for Kula and songs were dying in my bedroom which was sad,” he says.
“Around 2019 I wrote a shit ton of tunes, they all started flowing out of me and I thought I’d better do something with them! So I made my own project and it just clicked straight away. It felt like something that was meant to happen.”
For Tamasene – his mum’s middle name: “She’s my best friend, I love my mum very much” – he’s pulled on elements of his childhood and personal story.
Elliot, who says 95 per cent of his friends in Bristol are from creative and musical communities, picked a few to form the live band for Tamasene and “it just clicked” – photo: Sion Marshall-Waters
“The human experience is the term we’ve used but it’s really about themes of love and heartbreak, growing up around alcoholism and things like that,” he says of the songs on his first solo album, Hangin’ In or Hangin’ Out.
“Being a visual artist as well it helps to think of things very visually. I really enjoyed projecting the themes outside of me onto bits of almost-fiction.
“Some of the songs are cartoons in my head, stuff like my dad being drunk all the time, then I’d remove myself from that and have characters and scenes which allowed me to be more poetic and stretch out in ways which weren’t always directly true to my experience. That allowed me to be abit more playful with it.
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“The songs are intimate and delicate, and there’s storytelling in the music.
“With Tamasene it’s important to be my authentic self – though that’s a phrase that gets bandied around a lot – but to be true to myself with the songs. For people to see me through the music.
“It’s quite a weird thing, really, to open yourself up to a room of people intimately in that way.”
Elliot is hopeful that his album tour show at the Beacon in June will be an opportunity to present his music in all its authentic glory, offering the audience an opportunity “to feel something” as a result.
The night features a stellar cast of Bristol luminaries: his live band will be augmented with flugelhorn, flute and Mossfellow on lapsteel as well as a string quartet with parts arranged by Bethany Ley and including alt-folk artist boci, who also plays a solo set in support.
A second support slot is filled by sad-bop alt-poppers Mumble Tide.
“It’s going to be a great night of amazing music, a special night of collaboration,” says Elliot. “I just want people to get it and to connect with the songs.
“I hope they’re moved. It’s going to be a beautiful gig.”
Tamasene play the Bristol Beacon on June 18. Details and tickets can be found here.
Main image: Chelsea Cliff
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