All Our Exes Live In Texas

So Elana, what are you looking forward to most at Bluesfest 2021?

I mean, I’m just looking forward to it actually being on! That’s the main thing. I’m so pressed by that, just the tenacity of going again – like, this is what? The third time it’s been postponed? It might even be the fourth, I’m not even sure at this stage. As a human, you take so many knock-backs, and after a while you’re like, “I’m just going to see what happens.” Because I so badly want Bluesfest to go ahead. I feel like if Bluesfest can’t go ahead, I don’t know what can. Basically, all my hopes and dreams are pinned on Bluesfest. If Bluesfest doesn’t happen, I don’t know who I am anymore. So y’know, some casual, fairly low expectations.

I know you guys played the festival in 2018, was that the first time you played?

Yeah, in 2017 we won the ARIA for Best Blues & Roots Album, and we were like, “Yes! Finally, Bluesfest will have us!” We were just itching to play, and then they didn’t get us ’til the next year, but we were like, “Okay, that’s cool, they got us eventually.” So that was nice.

What did you find so exciting about your Bluesfest debut that made you want to come back this year?

We had a real rushed situation last time, where we pretty much line-checked and ran out onto the stage and played – I think there was some kind of kerfuffle on the way there with transport or something… I’m looking forward to just soundchecking and having a nice, leisurely gig. But I remember we played twice – we played once on a mainstage and then once in a smaller tent, which was kind of like the ‘alt-country’ tent. And I met Lukas Nelson, Willie Nelson’s son, and I felt like I’d come pretty close to country royalty. That was cool. But yeah, the whole event was amazing!

You always meet amazing people at Bluesfest, y’know? Even if you’re in the audience, you tend to stumble across them all in the crowd, and that’s exciting. I saw Questlove there one year – not when I was playing with All Our Exes, but when I was playing there with a different band.

Who are you keen to see this year?

Well, I mean, the royalty of Midnight Oil, Paul Kelly and Kasey Chambers – you can’t really go past those guys. I’m really excited to see John Butler because he’s a friend of mine, I toured with him for a year – it was just two years ago now, but it feels like a lifetime ago. I miss him! I miss Mama Kin – they’re my friends, so I’m very excited to see them again! The Cat Empire are playing a different day to us, so I might not get to catch them, but I hope I do. The Waifs are very great friends too, I love them all very much.

Pretty much everyone on thhere is amazing.

... I’m very excited just to see a large gathering of people in one spot, to be honest.

Do you find that as a performer, there’s a different sort of atmosphere you tend to embrace at a festival, compared to a bespoke All Our Exes show?

Well, I guess you’re kind of spruiking a little harder than you might for your own crowd, y’know? You’re also playing on a bigger stage, so you kind of have to fill that space with a giant crown of a huge dress, or some kind of pyrotechnic. But yeah, we just generally stand very still and play our instruments and sing, and hope that’s enough to get us over the line. I feel like you’re also trying to appeal to some people who may have other bands they’re scheduled to go and see, so you try to keep them there for as long as possible.

My bandmate Katie [Wighton, vocals/guitar] has a good trick. I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but when a bunch of our audience members are starting to walk away to go see another act, she gets everyone to cheer really loudly on the count of three. She says, “Okay, let’s all pretend the best thing ever just happened,” and it makes the people that just left feel like they’ve missed out on something. And it’s worked! It’s actually a brilliant idea. She’s very sneaky.

It’s been a hot minute since All Our Exes put out any music – we’re coming up on five years since y’all dropped WhenWeFall. Have you been working on any new tunes?

Yeah! We’ve got heaps of new stuff, and a lot of it is recorded and ready to go – it’s really just a matter of waiting for the right moment. I mean without touring, it’s very hard to justify putting out any new music. Everyone’s been doing their own thing for a little while – I have a baby, the other girls are doing solo music, I’m doing solo music – but y’know, I think once the wheels of the world start turning again, we’ll get back into the swing of it. Some of the songs that we’ve recorded are some of my favourite Exes songs, so I’m excited to get them out.

Is it too early to say when we might get our ears around some of those?

Well, we were on the road for six years nonstop, and we kind of burnt out in terms of, like, road weariness and self-management. And since then, it’s been very hard to get everyone in the same place. I’m in Wollongong, Georgia’s in Sydney, Hannah and Katie are in Melbourne – and now with border closures, it’s been very hard for us to all even be at the same gig, even if we’re hired to play for something. So I feel like saying anything at the moment would be insane. Nothing can be predicted, y’know? We just have to see what happens – and in the meantime, we’re all putting out our own music and looking after ourselves and our families. But I miss seeing those girls every single day. I love being close to them and being a little family.