Shaylee is the songwriting project and avatar of Elle Archer, a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter based in Portland, Oregon.
Elle uses her music as a platform to explore her unique lived experience as a a queer trans person, with her songs functioning as diary entries that she crafts as a functioning one-woman band. Having been making records at home for almost ten years, her arrangements bear the maturity of artists twice her age, recalling the intimate aesthetic of fellow Kill Rock Stars-signee Elliott Smith, as well as the synth-laden sounds that bands like Wilco and the Flaming Lips were exploring at the turn of the millenium.
Wholly unique yet potently familiar, Shaylee is a project intended to showcase queer and trans excellence at its most honest and unflinching.
Today Glide is excited to premiere Elle’s vibrant take on Elliott Smith’s 1995 tune “Alphabet Town,” one of the late songwriter’s best known songs and also one that references Portland, which is where he spent years of his life and become part of the city’s lore. Elle draws on this connection to inspire her version, which contrasts the minimal acoustic guitar and harmonica arrangement of the original with a more psychedelic, rocking sound that actually more reminiscent of acts like the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Cloud Nothings. The backing band adds a fullness and a different kind of emotion to the song, one that is more dreamy and expansive. On its own, Elle’s version is an impressive rocker, but what’s fascinating is the way she is able to present Smith’s work in a whole new light that feels simultaneously faithful and totally different. By the end of the blistering synth-guitar jam conclusion, we’re left with a feeling of excitement at what we can expect from this young artist down the line.
Elle describes the inspiration and process behind recording the song:
I chose “Alphabet Town” because the song distinctly reminds me of Portland, which is not only where Elliott originally wrote and recorded the song, but also where I recorded my version of the track in my basement. It’s also a track that not many folks have covered or done their own spin on, and as an enormous Elliott fan (Either/Or being my favorite album of all time), I wanted to do something unique. My intention with this cover was to make it sound like it could have been on XO or Figure 8, with a much more fleshed-out and psychedelic full band arrangement.
LISTEN:
Photo credit: Eric Harrod
