Elephant Stone | website | facebook | bandcamp |
By: Martyn Coppack
Elephant Stone recently released their third album, The Three Poisons, and a magnificent blast of upbeat psychedelia it is too. We sent our very own psychonaut Martyn Coppack to talk to main man Rishi Dhir and find out a bit more about what makes them tick.
(((o))): Hello! How have you been? Have you been nervous about the release of the new album?
That’s a pretty loaded question! I’ve been up and down… here and there… Some days are brighter than others. We just got back from a European tour so I’m totally spent. However, I’ve got very exciting news that my wife and I are expected our third child! It was totally unplanned, but ultimately wonderful news. As for the band, we made the best album we could with the resources and experience we had. What the world does with this album is ultimately out of our hands.
(((o))): It’s a very upbeat album, what inspires you to such heady heights?
Life, I suppose… Music is very mysterious to me, a song could be written in a thousand different ways. Ultimately, the song has to pass my goose bump test: I have to feel something special in it. I suppose that’s what helps the songs to soar.
(((o))): The influences on this album are plain to see but also arranged in such a fantastic way as to make it your own sound. How do you manage to meld the disparate range of sounds together? Is it through jam sessions or are the songs written in other ways?
I listen to a lot of music. I’m a total music nerd and have been since childhood. What the band sounds like is the music I want to hear. I never think of another band when writing a song. Still, a lot of music I listen to might seep into our music subconsciously. (Or intentionally, I flip flop a lot.)
(((o))): ‘Knock You From Yr Mountain’ is a great example of your uplifting style, it almost reaches Screamadelica proportions in places. Do you have one eye on a, shall we say, “ecstatic” culture when writing songs such as this?
Thank you! I absolutely love Primal Scream and Screamadelica. I definitely want our newer songs to be able to move people. I have been getting into more house-based music recently, starting with ‘Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat’.
(((o))): Key to the albums sound is your sitar playing. Now, an unusual sound…once upon a time synonymous with psych and pop. How did your love for this instrument start and what influenced you to play it?
I grew up with the Beatles and Bollywood music. So, the fusion of sitar into pop wasn’t so foreign to me. I picked up my first sitar on a family trip to India back in ’97… My inspirational Aunt Rekha (RIP) gave me a cassette copy of her favourite Ravi Shankar recording. I tried to learn by ear for a couple of years until I met my teacher/guru/friend Uwe Nuemann.
(((o))): You’ve played with the likes of Black Angels and Beck in the past, what is it like when you get a call off someone like Beck? How do you prepare for something like that?
Keep my cool, I suppose. My teen years were spent as a total fan boy always trying to meet my heroes. The Beck thing was pretty surreal and I have a deep respect for him and his art.
(((o))): Do you get much of a creative role when asked to play sitar? I’d assume its not an instrument that is au fait with a lot of musicians although they may have preconceptions of how it sounds. Do they say “play it like this..” or do you just get free reign?
Yeah, they’re usually not so sure of what they want except that it has to be sitar… I guess they trust my good judgement. However, you don’t really want to mess around too much with the ‘Loser’ riff!
(((o))): It would be nice to think you get free reign as it’s an instrument that is very fluid in its playing. How does it blend in with your particular sound? Are the songs based around a sitar sound or does this come later as added colour?
It depends on the song, I suppose. A song like Knock You, I added the sitar really late in the recording, I wasn’t so sure what I would play. Whereas a song like ‘Sally Go Round The Sun’ was totally built around the Sitar.
(((o))): How do you feel you fit in to the current psych scene? You have a much more classic sound compared to the more generic view of psych these days?
It’s hard to say… We’re a pop band first and foremost. A lot of “psych” bands are all drone and no songs, but there are always the diamonds in the rough! Honestly, I’ve been making the same music for the past 20 years. I remember when everyone was calling it “Freakbeat” back in the early 00’s. Labels/tastes may change, but the music stays the same.
(((o))): What is psych? Is it an individual viewpoint or is it something more? A community of sorts? Who would you pick as perfect examples of psychedelic music?
Good question! Sorry, no answers here. I guess ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ would be my perfect example of psych – dancey and headey
(((o))): You’re given a festival to curate…who do you choose?
Wow! Where to begin… Teenage Fanclub, Primal Scream, Ride, Big Star Third, Temples, Tame Impala, Solange, Caribou, Suuns, Cornershop w/ Bubbly Kaur, Michel Pagliaro, The Horrors, The Black Angels, Charanjit Singh, The Who, The Jam, Ty Segall, Panda Bear, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, ELO, Beck, the list could go on and on.
(((o))): And finally (an Echoes and Dust fave question!), what is your favourite biscuit?
Sorry, I try to avoid sweets in my old age! But, if push comes to shove, it would have to be a cannoli (does that count?)
(((o))): a message for our readers?
Be good to each other and do not let life pass you by.
