From Deseret News archives:
Elswick lets strangers look into his heart through eclectic style of electronica music
"I was 3 or 4," Elswick said, "and my parents gave me one of those Fisher Price industrial record players. I remember still that two hours later I was lying on the floor of my room listening to the records over and over. I wouldn't leave the room."
Elswick grew up in Southern California as more a listener than a player. "My parents were fond of melodic folk music, so I grew up listening to Gordon Lightfoot and Simon & Garfunkel. That's why I'm still fond of expansive melody and storytelling songs."
He did not have piano lessons, but when he visited his grandmother, he spent time at her piano, picking out melodies. In high school he was the DJ at all the school dances. "The cheerleaders would come to me to put together tapes for their routines. That was pretty cool."
Elswick also remembers the day that music became something more. "I was leaving on my (LDS Church) mission, and at the (Missionary Training Center in Provo), I heard one of the guys playing the piano. It just hit me. I realized I had to do something more with music."
Over the next few years, Elswick taught himself to sight-read music. As a student at Brigham Young University, he took some theory and songwriting classes. "Then I bought a keyboard, and I began to lay down layers."
All the while, he continued his education, earning a B.A. in history, a masters of philosophy from the University of Dublin, Trinity College, in Ireland, and then a law degree from the J. Reuben Clark law school at BYU.
Now a full-time attorney with the Provo firm of Ascione, Heideman & McKay by day, he is still making music by night. His first CD, "The Dawnseeker," produced under his Sleepthief moniker, has just been released nationwide by Florida-based Neurodisc Records.
The album is touted as "one of the most highly anticipated releases in the world of electronica," and features collaborations with some of the most respected singers in the field, including Kirsty Hawkshaw, Caroline Lavelle, Harland, Kristy Thirsk, Jody Quine, Kyoko Baertsoen, Nicola Hitchcock, Roberta Carter Harrison, san.drine, Jerry Eckert and Lauren Edman.
"It's my dream list," Elswick said. "I've listened to some of these women for 15 years. I'm still not quite sure how it happened. I'm quite nonplussed to think I talk to them on the phone now."
It happened because, in his spare time, Elswick became a freelance music critic for the popular Web site www.musicaldiscoveries.com, and in the course of writing reviews became acquainted with many of the leading ladies of electronica music. "I was originally going to use just one vocalist, Jerry Eckert, who's local. But she'd just had a baby and was busy, so I began touching base with some of the others."
