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Clip from Elefant's 'Lolita'POP MUSIC
Elefant will never forget sounds of '80s
BY DANIEL CHANG
dchang@MiamiHerald.com
Three years can make a big difference in a band's sound. Touring, traveling and a busted-up romance have made a tighter unit of the New York City quartet Elefant, which plays Fort Lauderdale's Culture Room tonight.
With a new album to promote and a stuck-in-the-'80s image to shed, Elefant lead singer Diego Garcia is psyched about the band's new album, The Black Magic Show, which already has earned praise from critics in advance of its April 18 release.
Speaking by cell phone from Nashville, Tenn. -- midway through a 33-city U.S. tour with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club -- Garcia comes off as a romantic who isn't afraid to mine his love life for inspiration, as trite as that technique may be in the pop music world.
''Touring has a lot to do with growth, for sure,'' he says, ``musicianship and just getting to know each other better. But I feel this record is different because my life, the making of [Elefant's 2003 debut album] Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid, has been different since I made that record.
''The first record, I was this innocent kid dealing with the growing pains of first love,'' he says, no trace of irony in his voice. ``It was the first kiss. The second record is me dealing with the struggles and the growing pains of love lost. It's a different place where the second record was born. The setting is more late nights New York City . . . strung out on the floor at four in the morning.''
When Elefant first hit the scene in their hometown of New York City in 2001, the band's '80s sound -- a clean and melodic pop -- drew comparisons to The Smiths and Garcia's melodramatic stage presence conjured up Morrissey. Not all of the comparisons were flattering, but that didn't deter Garcia and his band mates.
In fact, Garcia says, ''It's an honor . . . The Smiths were timeless. I can't really say they were '80s, and I hope to make music that's timeless.'' On this point, Garcia rejects what he calls ''the '80s card'' as something that ``critics or labels have to kind of do to sell something.''
He insists that 'time will tell [Elefant's sound] is not '80s; it's very 2006. But who the hell knows what 2006 is until 20 years have gone by. There's probably going to be a band in 20 years that writers are going to be going, `They sound so 2000.' That's what music's all about, constant evolution.''
Yet Garcia is not entirely averse to that '80s thing. After Morrissey invited Elefant to open for him in Los Angeles and again in London, the comparisons became more flattering than critical. And if it annoys the band, Garcia isn't letting on. Besides, he jokes, they're not entirely alike.
''I think the big difference is . . . that I love women and that I like steak,'' he says, referring to Morrissey's claims that he is celibate and vegetarian. Later on, Garcia asserts ``I'm much prettier than Morrissey.''
Kidding aside, Garcia may not be up to emulating the striking stage presence of the former Smiths frontman when Elefant plays Fort Lauderdale.
At a Philadelphia concert on Feb. 19, Garcia scaled a stack of speakers in a Morrissey-like bit of showmanship and leapt to the concrete floor -- blowing out the seams of his boots. He didn't break any bones, he says, but he is on crutches. ''I got a lot of tricks on one foot,'' Garcia says.
He likely won't need gimmicks to win the crowd over, though. Garcia's experience as a first-generation American born to Argentine parents should resonate with many in South Florida. ''There's definitely a Latin thing in the air that I definitely connect with,'' he says of the area.
Garcia recounts a childhood where his mother played Julio Iglesias records at Christmas and his father would come home from work and spin tango records by Carlos Gardel. Sundays were spent grilling steak and sipping mate.
Born in Detroit and raised in Tampa, Garcia spent the winter of 2003 traveling through South America -- an experience that inspired and informed many of the songs on Black Magic.
''The setting that I was in was just really, really, really conducive to writing and to kind of capture what I was going through in New York,'' he says. ``So it was a nice kind of push and pull. I was in New York living this life in this urban jungle and then I was in Argentina and then to Colombia through the forests and the ocean.''
The effects of his travels, Garcia says, can be heard throughout the album even if they are difficult to pin down. He explains it this way:
``There is a sense of almost, a good way to put it is, imagine if a Berlin, Germany, early '70s glam rock kind of period existed in Brazil. I think a lot of the melodies are Latin inspired and they're floating over this post-punk industrial music.''
