The Elms are four particular guys from Seymour, Indiana who are fiercely devoted to one another: Owen Thomas (Lead Vocals), Thomas Daugherty (Lead Guitar), Nathan Bennett (Bass Guitar) and Chris Thomas (Drums). Owen, also the band’s lyricist and chief songwriter, cannot imagine the band any other way. The Chess Hotel is a literate, wound-up, highly emotional collection. It presents 13 songs about life in a small town. The songs sound, according to Owen, alternately “loose,” “noisy,” “tatty,” “riffy,” and, not least, “loud.” For The Elms purposes here, he argues, hi-fi studio creations would have been dead wrong.
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