Photo by Adam Parshall

In the few years that they’ve been playing together as a band, Elephants have gone through their fair share of lineup changes. Started by the songwriting duo of guitarists Loren Ipsum and Ryan Young while the two were going to college in Western Mass, Elephants have since relocated to Boston. After a few lineup changes over the years, the band recently added the talents of bassist Andrea Neuenfeldt and drummer Chris Gaudette. This week, they will release a seven-inch single, coinciding with their show at Great Scott on Friday, June 8th, where they will receive support from Mint Green and Hexpet. Since that show is presented by Allston Pudding, you know it’s going to totally rip, so buy tickets here!

Allston Pudding: Thanks for taking the time to meet with me! Y’all have a new 7” coming out on June 8th that coincides with your Allston Pudding show at Great Scott. Tell me about that song.

Loren: It’s two songs, an A and B side. We recorded them in February 2017 – which was forever ago! – with Converse Rubber Tracks. Then, we went through the mixing and mastering process slowly. Now we’re going to release them into the world!

Chris: There were also some member changes along the way.

Andrea: Chris and I weren’t here.

AP: How does your recording process usually go?

L: We’ve only ever recorded live in the room. All the rhythm guitars, bass and drums are recorded together. We mic everything and record that way. Then vocals and guitar leads are when we’re done. We like to do it [that way]. It feels more natural. We’re really used to playing the songs together. Usually by the time we record, we’re pretty well-practiced. We’ve probably already been playing the songs for a long time.

Ryan: We applied [to Rubber Tracks]. I had known some friends who had done it. They hit us up several months later and scheduled some time for us, and we went in and recorded.

L: [The songs are called] “Burger Drama” and “I Dream of Sherbet,” so we have kind of a weird food thing going on. That was… that was unintentional, because we’re terrible at naming songs.

R: I think we’re great at naming songs! What are you talking about?

L: No, I mean we’re terrible at being serious about them. Like, “Let’s name the song something that makes sense!” We don’t do that. So we had these working titles that we just kept. It ended up that there’s also a birthday cake on the cover of the 7”, so… I don’t know.

A: Was that intentional?

L: The birthday theme was intentional. Not to go with the food theme, but we kind of had this birthday cake concept art that we were kicking around for a long time, and having the actual vinyl itself look like a plate of cake after you eat it.

R: It’s like funfetti.

L: So the art was a concept, but the burgers and the sherbet were totally accidental.

AP: Does the food theme extend to the content of the songs?

L: [Laughs] No, not at all. The title of [“Burger Drama”] was inspired by a friend of mine, who… uh… let’s just say she and I had a really interesting conversation we had about a really strange message she got on an online dating site about Tasty Burger, the restaurant. [At one point] she had said, “I don’t care about your burger drama!” I was like, I can’t not make that a song title. It’s about learning how to move on and rebuild your life after getting out a relationship, which is something I don’t usually write about that often, but it happened, so I wrote about it.

“I Dream of Sherbet” is more about accepting your own flaws and being okay with yourself. “I understand that I’m not perfect, and nobody is, and I’m gonna live my life.” It seems really simple, but it’s hard to actually come to that realization. There are some themes, I guess. I’m not good at talking about what songs are about.

A: You’re better than us, though.

R: You actually wrote the lyrics.

A: You’re doing a good job.

L: Thank you! It actually makes me a little nervous. Every time someone asks me, “What’s this song about?” I’m like, uhhhhhh….

R: Just say the inevitability of death.

C: Then all the stresses melt away like sherbet in the sun.

[Loren sings that line back]

AP: When you’re writing lyrics do you start out with set images and themes in your mind?

L: Sometimes I start with a phrase, and I kind of build a story around it. Usually I get a couple of lines in my head, write them down, and I run around with my notebook in my backpack for two months. Then I see them again, and I’m like, “Oh whoa!” and it comes to me. I don’t usually sit down and make myself go, “I want to write a song about this!” and then I just sit there until I do. I have to let things hit me, and when I have enough pieces, put them in place and connect the dots.

AP: At what stage do you add the lyrics to a song?

C: Usually the process is [Loren and Ryan] start writing a song and throw it at us.

A: In various states of disrepair.

R: We usually come up with some guitar parts first, more-or-less finished. We may not be totally done with melodies, or I might be figuring out exactly what I’m doing. But we’ll bring the skeleton to Chris and Andrea, and from there, we’ll figure it out together. It might change a little bit, slowly over time as we work it out together.

C: Throw thing at the wall and see what sticks.

L: As far as lyrics, I’ll have some stuff, but until it’s done with everybody, I don’t apply that, because I don’t know how the song’s gonna change when it gets to the full band. It could end up kind of different, so I hold off on getting too attached to anything until we’ve solidified with all four of us what we want to be playing. It’s pretty disappointing to have to scratch something you love, so I keep it a little more amorphous until we’re good on the music.

R: Then we’ll have an idea of what the lyrics are three shows in.

L: They’re usually not done until three shows in! I feel like I’m always editing.

AP: Do you need those early live performances to suss out what a song’s going to be?

R: I think there’s been times with songs where, until we play it live, we don’t realize that we don’t really like playing this song.

L: Or this part kind of doesn’t fit in the weirdest way or whatever. Usually by the time we’re playing songs live, with people watching us, we’ve got them pretty well thought out. We do throw stuff away in practice. As far as lyrics go, I’ll change things after a couple of shows. With the music, it’s different. It’s easier to make that call with song structure and what we’re playing. But I feel like I have to play a song in front of people a couple of times to realize, I’m not a huge fan of that line or how these two parts lyrically fit together or whatever. But we’re usually pretty solid on stuff before we bring it to a show environment. We like things to be predictable for us.

AP: How did Chris and Andrea come to join the band?

C: I play in another band called Dogtooth. Ryan and Loren were seeing their drummer on his way out, and they asked me to play because they saw me play in Dogtooth. I subsequently played six shows in May [2017]. That got me right there. We played the Mayfair. That was my first show. I was in the band.

R: Trial by fire.

L: You did great.

A: Was that the first night that we played together? So I’m also in other bands. I’m in Birdwatching.

C: Who is the best band.

A: Dogtooth’s the best band. Chris and I didn’t know each other. I had never met these two. [We had played a] show at Charlie’s Kitchen.

C: That was the first show Dogtooth played.

A: That was your birthday show, right? Loren was talking to my friend Steph, and I was like, “Who is this person.” Friendliest person ever. We ended up hanging out, and as time went by, I just wanted another band to play bass in, and it worked out.

L: It was funny because that night, I caught the end of Dogtooth’s set, but we hadn’t met yet. I met you at a different show that we weren’t even playing. Then, I met Andrea that night because someone had said to me that Birdwatching is really awesome. I do a lot of band photography, too, so I was like, I would love to go take pictures of Birdwatching. I showed up and was like, “Hey, can I take picture of your band?” Then we went to a Radiator Hospital show at Great Scott.

C: I’ve been [in Boston] for three years, playing in bands for a year-and-a-half now. I’m from Manchester, NH. I came down here and didn’t find anyone to play music with. Put my drums away for awhile. Then I just needed to be creative again. I talked to my friend Nick, who’s also in Dogtooth. So now I play music again. It keeps me sane in the downtime in the city.

A: I’ve lived here two years in October. I’m from the North Shore. I’ve been playing music for three years. I didn’t ever play stuff in high school or college, other than being in chorus. But I met my band buds from Birdwatching on Craigslist, and I’m really glad I didn’t get abducted. That was cool. Everything has come from that, so it’s been a really interesting journey.

R: We found our first drummer through Craigslist.

C: Do a lot of people do that, through Craigslist?

A: I think so. At least, the same ads go up all the time.

R: I feel like it’s always bands of guys in their 40s and 50s looking for one other guy for their Fleetwood Mac cover band. My friend’s dad plays bass in a Steely Dan cover band. He was also trying to get a Tower of Power cover band going. The most dad thing ever.

A: It’s hit or miss… it’s mostly misses. But it’s funny how things work out.

L: I think when you’re new to the city, and you haven’t found your niche yet, you don’t know where to look to find people to play with. So sometime you kind of have to take to Craigslist. Just knowing who plays in what band, and who plays what instrument, and what their bandwidth is for playing in other bands. Everybody’s in multiple bands, or most people are. It’s easier once you’re already in that community. Everybody’s in each other’s bands, and all the friend’s bands play together. It’s fun; it’s a good community. But if you’re not a part of it, it’s harder to find people.

C: It’s not that we’re not welcoming, it’s just… trying to make friends in the city.

L: We keep talking about doing this show called Friend’s Fest, but every time we talk about, there are too many bands! Every band in the city is gonna play. We’ll have to rent out Agganis Arena. People go on tour, and other friend’s from the scene watch their pets.