“I miss sincere music, you know? So I’ve just been trying to make something unique and fresh — I’m tired of hearing the same formula over and over again.”
Sometimes, to break new ground, you’ve got to totally deconstruct your process. And for an electronic music producer, that can mean letting go of your gear and just picking up a damn acoustic guitar. Elephante did just that on his single “Come Back for You,” and while it doesn’t forgo synthetics entirely, it does beam with a folk-inpired glow.
“A lot of new dance music all sounds the same to me — it feels like a lot of artists are only chasing the latest trend and not making anything authentic, so it all kind of blends together,” Elephante tells Billboard. “I miss sincere music, you know? So I’ve just been trying to make something unique and fresh — I’m tired of hearing the same formula over and over again.”
For inspiration, the Los Angeles-based musician turned to his favorite rock icons.
“The guitar riff came first,” Elephante explains. “It was one of those things where I was just blocking out chords as an outline and I was like, ‘This is actually kind of dope. Let’s roll with this vibe.’ Reminded me of some old school Incubus or something. That led me down this path of super organic sounds, like if we’re gonna do acoustic guitar, let’s throw some horns in there and do a full Mumford & Sons-meets-EDM thing. I really challenged myself to start fresh on the production — no presets, no fallbacks, no cop-out habits.”
It’s a song with bite. it draws you in with the spare acoustic chords and slowly builds into something that would be just as fun in a smoky bar as in a daytime concert feild. There’s an earnestness in the rapid strumming pattern, and it’s equally tempered by the vocals of collaborative singer-songwriter Matluck.
“It was amazing working with the writers Matluck and Peter Hanna,” he says. “The song just has this amazing energy and spark to it, and Matluck knocked it out of the park singing it. He’s got this crazy, old soul voice that feels like it’s seen some shit. It was super inspirational. I’m super stoked on what the song became and hope everyone loves it.”