A guy, a girl and a singing contest.
Elenowen (Josh & Nicole Johnson) had a stand-out performance on NBC's
The Voice with their dreamy rendition of The Swell Season's Oscar-winning song "Falling Slowly." The couple radiated a tender sincerity further magnified by their luminous harmonies. They didn't make it to the final round but
Elenowen is on the path to carving out their own brand of success.
Their single "Honey Come Home" rose to #1 on the iTunes singer/songwriter chart. They launched a web series,
The Basement Sessions, that chronicles their music journey and recorded a new studio album. With lyrics like "
let me pour you a glass of red / to get your mind off the things I said" layered with depth and maturity, and steeped in bittersweet storytelling, Elenowen is one of the best duos to emerge from the 2011 music scene.
I chatted with Nicole about her quest for authenticity in her music, fashion and beyond.
On watching the Oscar-winning Irish film Once:
It was a really special moment when Josh and I saw the movie for the first time.
...Sitting in the theater and when that scene comes up when they're in the music shop and singing that song ["Falling Slowly"] it's just so real and passionate and we just, both of us started crying, in the theater, like man, this is what we want, this is who we want to be, real artists. And... shortly after that we started Elenowen.
What does authenticity mean to you and how does it influence your art?
A lot of it is a matter of opinion. One song, one movie can stir you, can move you and can really change you. And then for someone else it doesn't do anything for them, so I think Josh and I's goal has really been to make sure our music is really moving us.
It's meaningful to us but not everybody is gonna understand it. We're not expecting everybody that hears our music to become a mega fan because everyone's entitled to their own opinion. We're just always trying to make sure that we're writing genuine music. Whether it sparks from an idea that we get from a story we heard ...or whether we're writing literally from a story that happened to us today, whether we're writing about an argument we just went through, a hard time, a great time, whatever it is we're writing about we really try to make sure that it moves us. And that at the end of the day when we listen to our music that it's real. That's the way we try to stay authentic and stay true to ourselves.
What core beliefs did you and Josh promise to stay true to, whether or not fame came into play?
Before we went out to L.A. for The Voice we honestly did not see it coming. We were kind of plowing through our plan which was make music, put out a new record and just kind of do our own thing. When our management company was contacted by NBC to see if they had any new upcoming talent and our manager said 'Would you guys be interested in this?' And we're like 'Sure, why not, we'll just see what happens.'
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