Elise Trouw, a young pop singer-songwriter who dabbles in multiple instruments including the drums, piano, and bass guitar, started performing as a kid but really dove into it post-high school. Currently, Trouw is on her “Losing Sleep” tour which stops in Louisville Wednesday, April 5 for an all-ages show at Headliners Music Hall (1386 Lexington Rd.) with Lacey Guthrie. Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 day of show. Tickets are available online.
LEO spoke to Trouw about her current tour, what goes into making it, and other experiences she’s had so far in her career.. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
LEO: What are some of your musical inspirations?
Elise Trouw: I grew up listening to a lot of like Top 40s music…you know, like Keith Airey [and] Taylor Swift. And then, when I started playing drums, my music teachers introduced me to more classic rock or kind of old funk music and stuff like that, like from the ‘70s. Tower of Power, Steely Dan and those kinds of bands. Lately, I've been really inspired by bands like Little Dragon, Tame Impala, this artist Meshell Ndegeocello. I mean, that's kind of like a broad overview.
What work goes into creating and performing a tour like the “Losing Sleep” Tour?
A lot of the time that I spent prepping for the tour was [due to the fact] I'm doing like a lot of live looping. It's just, like, me on stage, so kind of getting all the songs arranged and determining some like technical stuff with the live looping. I've been live looping for a couple years, but we were adding some new tech to the show for this tour in particular. And so working out the kinks of that, adding some new elements to it, like new pedals and stuff. I find that was the main portion of getting ready for the tour. This is the biggest headlining tour I've done and I'm hitting a lot of new cities that I haven't been to. I’ve done West Coast runs, East coast runs, a little bit in Canada and stuff before.
What has been your favorite song to perform on tour?
For this tour, a lot of the songs that I'm playing are obviously originals. I did throw in “Look of Love” by Burt Bacharach. I'm doing a vocoder with a breakbeat over it. It's an interesting take on this song that I really love. It’s the newest addition to my set. So it's still one I'm most excited about, which is always the case with anything I've added.
What has been your favorite stop so far on the tour?
They've all been really different in terms of like the type of venue and the way the crowd is. But I guess like the most recent show in DC, I felt was really strong. I felt [it was a] really good performance there. And I also felt like the audience was really engaged, but also respectful and seemed they were excited. It was really cool to play in New York, also, because a lot of my family came out, [because] my mom's from there originally. I had a bunch of cousins and aunts and uncles that were at that show. And that venue was really great as well. But yeah, those are probably my two highlight shows so far.
What was it like to perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live!?
Yeah, that was a blast. I mean, I was back when I was probably like 18, or 19. I was pretty nervous, honestly, because it was only the second time that I was live looping in a live setting. I kind of had only made my first live looping video, two months prior to them, reaching out about having me play on the show. And then I played one show. And then that was my second time doing it live. So it was pretty nerve-wracking for me, but it was also such an incredible experience to be on such a big production there.
