We recently had the pleasure of hosting Copenhagens mathrock duo Michael Ellis on their first ever UK tour so we took the opportunity to find out a bit more about the band following their jaunt around the country.

If you’d like to introduce yourselves and tell us a bit  more about Michael Ellis and how the band name came to be? 

 We are a Copenhagen-based instrumental math-rock duo consisting of Mads Ulrich on guitar and Søren Høi on drums. We’ve had a close friendship for 15 years and have played music together for just as long. Over the years, we’ve been involved in many different projects, but Michael Ellis began 10 years ago out of a mutual need to experiment without any preconceived ideas of what the music should sound like. We wanted a band that worked as a playground, with room to breathe and an open approach to composition. The name “Michael Ellis” comes from an episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ fourth season, in which Eric Idle’s character is repeatedly mistaken for someone called Michael Ellis in the department store where he wants to buy a pet ant. The number of people who have guessed the reference is quite low.

As a masked duo with no vocals, how do you cultivate a connection with your audiences during live performances?

For many years, we didn’t really think much about it, because the music often spoke for itself, and we’re far from the only instrumental math-rock band out there. But over time, we’ve developed a more mature approach to the band’s presence. It can be difficult to stand out in a sea of impressive, technical instrumental acts, so with masks, costumes, and choreography, we distinguish ourselves more clearly. In a world of increasing screen time and shrinking attention spans, a strong visual identity helps capture people’s attention. For us, it’s less about personal connection and more about giving the audience a fully-formed live experience, where our almost alien-like, mysterious presence works to our advantage.

How did it feel to embark on your first-ever UK tour? Any particular moments or stories that stand out?

We had long wanted to come to the UK to play, as we are aware of the vast amount of people that are into post-rock, math-rock and other kinds of weird rock (a lot more than we have in Denmark for sure.) Our tour went as well as we could have hoped, meeting lots of kind people in audiences and in bands we shared the stage with, many of whom seemed to understand and appreciate what we had come to do. Nothing too crazy happened, but we did make a strong bond with the Brighton-based duo Ensemble 1, who demonstrated on stage how to tastefully explore rhythmical concepts in 10-minute pieces, and off stage showed us just how good vegan bacon and sausages can be in the UK.

How did UK audiences respond to your uniquely energetic, instrumental math-rock sound?

We had some great audiences, especially at Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes in London and at JT Soar in Nottingham. We felt a surreal sense of belonging to this scene, almost like we ought to move over there.

Were there any differences in crowd energy or reception compared to Denmark or mainland Europe?

Denmark audiences vary a lot, sometimes going nuts with crazy dancing and other times standing still 5 meters from the stage. We found that this was also the case in the UK.

Can you unpack how game soundtracks influence your compositions? Are there specific games or composers that have left an imprint on your sound?

Besides being musicians, we’re both huge gamers! We’ve played tons of different games, and we pay a lot of attention to game soundtracks. Since our music has many metal elements, it makes sense to point to boomer shooters, with Mick Gordon’s Doom soundtrack leading the way. Also games like Jazz Jackrabbit (Robert A. Allen) and Ratchet & Clank 2 (David Bergeaud) have very cool soundtracks.

You blend heavy metal intensity with complex math-rock frameworks—what’s your songwriting process like? Do riffs come first, or does rhythm drive things?

It depends. Our drummer usually gets quite rhythm-based ideas, and our guitarist tends to come up with the beautiful melodies and harmonies – very typical, we know. Our process has never fully established itself, however – it changes as we go on, depending on what we happen to become inspired by.

Having toured the UK, do you see yourselves returning soon? Any plans to target other territories?

We are definitely interested in coming back to the UK. Now we have sort of started to establish ourselves in the underground, and we hope this will make it possible to do a bigger tour when we come back with a new album in a couple of years. We also want to make another tour in Japan, where we went in 2022, as that is another country with a lively scene for the sort of stuff we do. We also love the food there.

What’s next for you guys—any upcoming releases or tours?

We are going to record our next album in the spring. That is the plan for now.

Are there any bands you’d particularly like to tour with?

We would love to tour with Ensemble 1 again. We would also say yes to touring with Imperial Triumphant, Frontierer or any band featuring Matt Calvert.

Any parting words of wisdom?

Not that we are particularly wise, but just this: We think nerdy music often benefits from hanging on to some basic humanness. We hope to provide a way for people to come together in unison headbanging while we express our love for odd sequences of subdivisions.