By Noemi Carretta
Ely & the Good Boys is a band born in 2021 in Barcelona thanks to a causal encounter during a jam session. For the four musicians playing together that night was a “magical moment” that led spontaneously to the formation of the band. The front woman is Elena Rey, a singer and guitarist with a gritty and exciting musical language. She describes their style as a union of the different individual styles of each member, all united by the motto “the blues it’s our business“, this leads the band to be mainly blues with contemporary rock notes.
Elena describes the birth of the band as a casual and fun encounter: on July 17, 2021 the singer and her husband Max Mojo Moritz, bassist of the band, met with Victor Solana, drummer, and Carlos Saura, guitarist, for a jam session, with the sole purpose of getting back to playing after the long months of confinement and relive the adrenaline that only live music can cause. They immediately felt a strong musical connection between them, they knew the same songs and “after the session it was clear that we would start a musical project together” says the singer.
The name of the band was born just as spontaneously, at the end of the jam the bassist Max Mojo Moritz simply said in English that they had been “good” and launched the name Ely & the Good Boys.
Elena Ley was born in Milan and entered the world of music at a very young age: she started singing at the age of 12 learning blues and gospel at the Centro Professione Musica in Milan, and at 14 she sang in a rock-pop band in Milan with which she won the Rising Star award in a rock music competition. But her passion for music was born much earlier: already in her early childhood Elena told everyone she wanted to be a singer, she danced and sang for her parents and improvised shows in front of the juke box in the club where they worked. She amusedly recounts an experience she had: “my mother remembers with great pride that when I was only six years old I approached a guitarist in a restaurant and asked him to play for me. I sang Elvis’ “Are You Lonesome Tonight” with him in front of all the restaurant patrons, without shame or fear. ” Over the years he continued to study singing, attended several opera masterclasses in Germany and had a country and blues training in Nashville (USA). Her first album in Italian “Brividi” was produced in 2007 together with the band’s current bassist Max Mojo Moritz and was a turning point in the singer’s career. In 2019 she released her second album “…And so on” in Nashville (USA) produced by Steve Williams.
The years she lived in Nashville were a great source of inspiration and professional growth for the lyrics and melodies she produces.
During her musical career she has performed in many clubs, festivals and bars as a soloist or collaborating with various artists; besides Italy, her country of origin, she has sung in various countries around the world, such as Holland, Belgium, UK, Germany, USA, and in Spain, the country where she currently lives. Elena was a semifinalist in the 2020 MIN Awards and her song “Find the Way” was a semifinalist in the ISC USA competition for the best song in the “Americana” genre in 2020 out of 24,000 entries.
Her musical style is influenced by many genres, from rock to blues, from country to pop, and by various artists such as Joanne Shaw Taylor, Etta James, the Eagles and Stevie Ray Vaughan; for the singer the really important thing is not to follow a defined style but to fully identify with the music and the story she wants to tell. As Ely quotes “music is something that brings people together, it’s important to feel the music as a feeling, an emotion, and that’s what we do“.
Max Mojo Moritz is the bassist and producer of the band. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, into a family of musicians. Since childhood he has been a music lover, he grew up listening to styles such as rock, blues, jazz, funk, Latin and reggae. His current musical style is influenced by progressive-rock, funk and blues, and artists such as BB King, Otis Grand and Dave Kelly.
Carlos Saura is the guitarist and musical director of the band. A musician born in Barcelona and raised in Málaga, he learned to play guitar at the city’s “Conservatorio Superior de Música”. He lived a few years in Hollywood where he studied at the Musicians instituì (G.I.T). He grew up listening to different styles, from blues to rock to soul; his current musical style is influenced by names such as Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Scott Henderson. Some of his musical creations have been used as soundtracks for a large number of videos, multimedia and artistic works, video games and commercials.
Victor Solana is the drummer of the band: born in Barcelona, he studied music in the United Kingdom and the United States. He has a degree in popular and contemporary music from Newcastle University. He has always had a passion for Afro/Latin/Brazilian music, and for the last few years his passions have been indulging blues, funk, reggae, soul and folk. His current musical style is influenced by an eclectic mix of Hindustani, electronic, rock, soul, blues, funk and jazz, and artists such as Jolly Damper and Klaatu.
The band Ely & The Good Boys started out as a casual live performance that unexpectedly turned into a real, long-term project with great potential and a strong passion for music and the blues. They have just finished recording their first album and the projects for the future are many: you can find in the most important music platforms four songs belonging to it, and in the next months more will be released together with videos. The year 2022 will see the band involved in various concerts in halls and festivals and also a tour in Germany; it will be a year dedicated to growth, writing and expanding the audience, with the aim of finally being able to return to normal and start playing live again, after so many months of break.
Booking: ItaliaES.eventsandshows@gmail.com
