Elefantilize

Elefant Photo credit: Christy Bush

You might expect a certain kind of attitude from a band such as Elefant. Touring with Interpol and getting your videos played by M2 after only one short year together might breed a certain kind of egotistic monster. I half-expected to meet a pack of aloof, cocksure rock stars busy hatching plans for an egregious concept album about witches. Instead, I sat down to a late dinner with a group of sane, workmanlike young musicians who oozed sincerity like their burgers did chili sauce.

Then again, I didn’t meet their singer, Diego Garcia. So far the press has mostly focused on the man Spin named “New York’s most eligible bachelor.” Prior to this interview, I had read another website’s chat with Garcia packed with invitations back to his room, queries about sex acts, and drug use, and I approached my interview just a tad apprehensive.

His band mates shrug off Garcia’s antics. “He likes to fuck with a lot of people, he’ll say anything,” admits Mod, the band’s guitarist.

There are few people who fit the frontman formula better than Garcia. Armed with his model-ready long hair, dark eyes and olive-skin, he’s the sort of singer who seems not just used to the pawing hands of female fans but made for that purpose. At the densely packed Velvet Lounge here in Washington, D.C., the only hecklers he had to deal with threw such serious softballs as “You’re pretty” and “Take off all your clothes.” After the show, women crowded the merch table just to snap a photo with him. Meanwhile, the rest of the band remains unfazed by the lack of attention they receive in comparison.

“You’re not the first journalist that’s asked me about Diego,” bassist James Jeffrey Berrall tells me. “It may seem like that from the outside, but it doesn’t seem like that to us. We’re just some little indie band. We can’t turn down something like Diego in Vogue just because my picture’s not in there. Any publicity is good publicity.”

The band also has no concerns about scanning reviews of their own albums. “PopMatters... didn’t you guys rip up our album?” asked Berrall without a trace of bitterness. Though Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid received more than a few lukewarm comments and backhanded compliments, “I thought we’d get ripped more” he remarks.

Instead of running the album into the ground through a few years of touring, à la Interpol, the band is already testing out a batch of new songs on the road. In their newer work they’ve expanded their repertoire, adding darker, moody tunes like “Black Magic Show” and “The Clown” to their shimmering, blissful pop catalogue. They seem to have no qualms about ending their set with a new song; something the audience has no chance of singing along to. Drummer Kevin McAdams says that the goal is for another record by November. “I don’t want to be a band that waits around forever before they record,” he says. “Recording’s probably my favorite part.”

Elefant’s current tour marks their first effort as headliners, and so far the trip has been fairly easygoing. They’ve already had the pleasure of playing some sold-out dates. McAdams says one of the most surprising moments came when he realized there were fans willing to follow them on tour for a few nights. “I’ve always surprised people tell us they drove like three hours to see us,” he says. “We keep telling them ‘You’re out of your fucking mind.’”

Perhaps one of the most unusual aspects of their tour has been that they’ve traveled alone, relying on local venues to schedule their opening acts. Here in Washington, they had no opening act at all. Though they certainly can draw a large enough crowd all by themselves, their solo tour seems odd. Most bands bring along friends or up-and-coming bands that could use the exposure. Certainly their opening slot with Interpol gave them a welcome boost of publicity.

The band members reject any notion that they belong to some sort of community of musicians, and especially not a New York City scene. Instead, they say that their adopted hometown is just another way of branding. “New York Rock” has become as much of a genre as “New Orleans Jazz” or “Delta Blues”.

“There are some publications, magazines, and people who will pick something up just because it’s from New York,” says Berrall. “That’s probably not the same for Seattle or any other place right now.”

The aura New York City affords them became even more apparent while touring with Interpol in England.

“The kids there are really interested in anything out of New York,” says Mod. “They’re instantly attracted to it. It’s funny that all the bands here are trying to sound British and all the bands there are trying hard to sound American.”

If the timing seems right to be known as a New York band, Elefant is willing to accept the title. They keep a detached view of the publicity storm revolving around them, trying top focus instead on the business of making music rather than the music business

“I just want to be solvent,” claims Berrall. “It’s such a cliché, ‘I just want to pay my bills, man.’ But I don’t really care about shopping, I don’t want my face in magazines. We’d really rather stay in the back. We’re more than happy having Diego be ‘The Face.’ Truly, I want to make money playing music.”