From busking in Bury to captivating millions online, Elliot James Reay has channelled the sounds of his idols to emerge as one to watch…
Hailing from Bury, Greater Manchester, Elliot James Reay is a 23-year-old artist who draws inspiration from 1950s music to create fresh sounds for a 2025 audience.
Organically amassing millions of followers and hundreds of millions of views across social media, Reay began by covering his favourite artists before releasing his own songs. The video for his debut single, I Think They Call This Love, has garnered 30 million views on YouTube since it premiered on 25 July 2024, while recent follow-up, Boy In Love, achieved more than 550,000 streams on Spotify in its first week alone. Vintage Rock meets the amiable young star, who is undoubtedly a name to look out for.
VR: Can you tell us how and when you first started performing music?
EJR: I think my initial interaction with music was when I was about seven and I got my first instrument which was a ukulele. From then on I’ve always been performing. From the age of around 12 I took my music out into the streets, busking in Bury. It’s in my blood I guess and I’ve been singing since I was a toddler. My parents can both sing and they said they’re either going to have an Elvis Presley or a tone-deaf kid. Luckily, after my voice broke, my style of singing all came very naturally to me.
How much of an influence were your parents?
They were the ones who first put me on to Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison, but they never shoved it down my throat and said, ‘oh this is what we think you should do’. I fell in love with the music of Elvis and explored his influences, the likes of Arthur Crudup and Big Mama Thornton. From there I went on to discover people like The Ink Spots, Fats Domino, Sam Cooke and hundreds of other artists from that era. I listen to Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly and Richie Valens daily. The more I listened, the more I became enraptured by the way that they sing and the techniques that they used. Then I started to look into the messages of the songs and started to really connect with some of them. These artists have all inspired my music and hopefully you’ll be able to hear that in the future.
Do you have a particular favourite song to cover and are there any that you would like to tackle?
My favourite song is If I Can Dream by Elvis, because of the message and the way he delivers it. I’ve always tried to capture the emotion but have never been able to do it to the point that I feel totally satisfied. I just keep trying it and it gets better every time. In terms of songs that I would like to cover, I haven’t done much Tom Jones and would like to try something like I’ll Never Fall In Love Again…
On the flipside are there any tracks you dare not touch because they’re so iconic?
I don’t know if I would cover Sam Cooke because I don’t think I could do him justice. His voice is so pure and so down the middle and my voice is slightly different from that. He’s got a different register, so I feel like if I was to give that a go I’d just be ruining it slightly.
You’ve got something of a young Billy Fury look about you and you’ve adopted that cool 50s aesthetic. Did that come with your love for the music and what did your contemporaries make of it all?
Obviously at school you wear uniforms, so I didn’t really have a way to express myself other than to quiff my hair. I stopped doing that when I decided to change and try to give people what I thought they wanted to hear. I didn’t really enjoy that because it didn’t feel right. My girlfriend said, I should just do what I wanted to do. So, when I started playing gigs and open mics, I’d dress up and quiff my hair… she said, ‘this is who you are’. It really gave me the confidence, which is great, and I’m really grateful because it has all come together.
People have made Elvis and Ricky Nelson comparisons, but there’s an interesting comment from a fan on your social media saying, “He isn’t the new Elvis he’s the first Elliot James Reay.” How do you feel about that?
I mean those comparisons are very flattering because they’re obviously my idols and it’s definitely a massive compliment to be likened to them. However, I would also slightly agree with that comment, because I’m not trying to be Elvis… I’m just influenced by him. I’m trying to be myself. I want to show people that this is what I like and listen to, while keeping it slightly modern.
You harnessed modern social media to get your music out there – were you surprised in anyway when it all took off?
A little bit, yeah. I didn’t expect anybody to want to know anything about this style or genre. For people to have picked up on it is a really good feeling because it’s all that I want to do. It made me want to do more and more and more. I was the only one thinking nothing would come of it. My parents, girlfriend and friends were expecting it to take off, so it was a ‘see, we told you so’ moment for them.
You’ve gone on to release your debut singles. Can you tell us about the creative process and can we expect an album?
I’m more of a music man than a wordsmith. So, I’ll usually come up with melodies and things like that and take it to the team – I work with a duo called Soap (Josh Noble and Karl Ziegler), Glen Roberts and Annielle Lisiuk. We’ll sit down and write words to it. I’ll just think of ideas in my head while I’m doing menial things like cleaning and cooking. Then I’ll take it to the studio where we flesh it out as a song. I just signed with Interscope and Island EMI. We’re going to record an album of original material as soon as possible. In the meantime, we are just going to release singles and hopefully do a couple of shows. I’m hoping that we get on the road as soon as possible.
What kind of audience do you attract when you play live and what has the reaction been like?
I think people expect me to sing with a sweet, soft, voice, so it’s a real surprise when they hear this big, mature-sounding vocal. I’ve always played to a mixture of ages to be honest. It’s nice because I always have older audience members tell me their stories and I love that they really connect with my music. Similarly, I think younger people enjoy it because they get to identify with their grandparents or parents. I like to think that I can hopefully bridge the generation gap and give everyone something to enjoy and share.
There’s always a concern that the music that we love will get lost and forgotten as generations pass. Do you think it ever will?
No, I don’t think it ever will, purely because all the music that we ever listen to today stems from rock’n’roll, blues and country music. I think everything enjoys a renaissance. It’s like an infinite loop where people recycle music from the past.
Looking ahead, what do you ultimately hope to achieve through music?
We’re planning a tour, a couple more singles, and then straight into the album as soon as possible. Ultimately, I’d love to be selling out arenas, that’s the goal… Maybe even a Vegas residency one day. [laughs].
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*Feature image credit: Christine Wolff
Dan Biggane
Dan Biggane is a writer for Vintage Rock and Classic Pop magazines. A former entertainment editor at the Bath Chronicle newspaper, he’s interviewed numerous big names from the world of rock’n’roll, including Dion, Jerry Allison, and Slim Jim Phantom. He has also contributed a number of cover features for Vintage Rock including Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, Billy Fury and Bo Diddley.
