An interview with Elkland

What’s it like, being a growingly successful band from a small town? Do you think that your roots play a definite role in your musicianship?

Growing up in a small town, you don’t really have any distractions at all. I mean, what did we have? A bowling alley, a mall, and a hockey team… I was never into sports or after-school activites, so I would have a lot of time to work on my sequencers at home while going through highschool. Today, years later, there is still nothing to do up there, and although I stay mostly in NYC, I still like to do all my music upstate. There, we can just totally focus on just that and forget about everything else. It’s pure, like a good pop song.How did the four of you meet?

Jesse and I are brothers, and we met Joel in highschool, and years later, we all met Adam through some friends. We all really loved pop music, so it was kind of inevitable that we form Elkland together.

Were you fans of Erasure prior to touring with them?

Not really. I mean, Erasure honestly never really interested me. I respect what they have done, but to me, they use a lot of really bad chord changes. I mean, I respond to music that touches me, and if it doesn’t, then I avoid it. I respond to great pop songs. There are only a few good chord changes, and they did well with “A Little Respect”, and a few others, but I think a lot of their songs are a bit lost. Vince Clark is brilliant, but the whole Erasure thing is too much, or maybe too little for me.

Are you looking forward to inevitably touring internationally?

Well, it looks like that is the next step for us. We will be heading overseas soon! That’s always been a big thing for us. We have always said that we need to go to the UK, and now it looks like things are shaping up for that to happen.

How do you manage to create such happy-sounding music?

Happy? Well I guess some people call it happy. I think its much more melancholy, than happy. I have always had problems agreeing with people on how music sounds. When I bought my first Joy Electric album, I was obsessed with it, so I would show it to anyone who would listen. Everyone’s immediate response was “oh, this is bubble-gummy

and happy” and I wouldn’t understand because to me it was extremely sad sounding and depressing. That said, if our music makes people happy, then we can’t ask for more.

How long did you spend in the studio with Golden?

We were in NYC for a month and LA for a little longer. All in all, I think it took about 3 months to complete. All of the songs had been written previously over the years in my bed-room.

What’s the story behind Golden’s cover art?

Well, we have always loved things like crests, and country flags, and swords, etc… And we really love minimal artwork. We like taking care of our artwork ourselves. So Joel, Adam, and I sat down and whipped this up one night. We honestly love it. It’s one of my favorite covers of all time, if I may say so. :D

Whose decision was it to work with Dave Trumfio as poducer, and how involved was he in the album?

The band decided to go with Dave after hearing his work with Pulsars. Dave was really invovled with producing the guitar and drum elements on Golden. He played baritone on a couple tracks. He has a lot of experience with electro-acoustic fusion bands, so we thought he would be great for us. We did all the synth work in NYC with John Hill.

Where did you record Golden?

Golden was record in two parts. One month at Sony Studios NYC and the other at Kingsize Soundlabs in LA.

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