About Us
Elm (Emily Semple and Ellie Lewis) are a Leeds-based folk duo captivating their audiences with layers of rich cello harmonies and floating voices. They inspire meaningful connection in a rapidly changing world through their delicate songwriting and arranged material.
As classically-trained cellists with backgrounds in various disciplines of singing, they use their broad combined experiences to create the music that they love. Elm write original music and arrange traditional and contemporary songs for voices, two cellos, and accompanying instruments including shruti box, guitar and percussion. They tell stories of a shared love for the natural world, protest songs, and their inter/intra-personal experiences.
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Influences on their songwriting include This Is The Kit, Diane Cluck and Vashti Bunyan, as well as poetry and artistic sources. At the heart of Elm is traditional songs and stories from this land and sometimes further afield that makes them feel more at home and part of the land and culture they grew up in. They hope to inspire more people to partake in this tradition that has been getting lost to the capitalist society.
Elm have played at many venues around Leeds supporting other local folk musicians, have been on tour with a trad folk band based in Falmouth and have played at many local events around South Wales where they began playing together in 2023.