The last thing you’ll ever want to call El Ten Eleven is one the following: A Jam band, Math Rock, Post Rock, Ambient, or Downtempo. “Please don’t write that we [are a Jam band],” begs Kristian Dunn, double neck guitarist, melody-maker, and with drummer Tim Fogarty, the heart of El Ten Eleven. The band has grown particular about the slew of nondescript genres with which the media and their fans identify them. Simply: they are known as El Ten Eleven. Born from true Southern California sunsets, surf and sand, these two have perfected their soul-clenching sound, one of life, love and loss, since their breakout record El Ten Eleven in 2004. They put on a rock show of stadium status, and when you witness it, you will be a firm believer in the no genre and no label stance of the band. We talked with the band about all things music and inspiration.
El Ten Eleven create loops of guitar riffs, basslines, and multiple pedal effects creating an opus-like vision within your mind. Their still-hit single “My Only Swerving,” off of their debut self-titled LP, will wrap its arms around and transport you from everything – or adversely, to anything – you seek. Soaring guitar melodies that build up and break down are soothing and reassuring, even. The song is named after William Stafford, a famous poet, known for his book of poetry “traveling through the dark.” With no lead singer to guide you with lyrical octaves, the organic instrumental melodies sail you through undetermined loops, seemingly rays of audible light in the darkness. It is just you and them.
One wonders how just two band members can achieve such intricacy in their music, songs that seem to start simply and end in the same place, having voyaged through complex depths. Kristian humbly explains that they are simply perfectionists. “Our process is just us thinking of a part of the music, and working on it. I will send it to Pete, or vice versa. Then we get together. The only pressure we have comes from ourselves. We will work and work…and after it is out we still critique it and think we could have changed this, or that.”
