Elephants with Guns

We’ve taken some time off over the holidays (yeah, again…), but our recording sessions (and so many other things in life) are back in full swing.  That, and…next weekend is one of our favorite shows of the year, the I Just Wanna Dance show, which will be in Redondo Beach this year.  Tickets are somewhere around $10 a piece, but it all goes to charity.

There’s going to be a few guests playing with us at that particular show–we decided our short Bhangra song that we used to use as a quick exit needed some extra melodies and a few dhol players (yep!)  So come to the I Just Wanna Dance show and see it!  We don’t do this all the time!

Happy new year, everyone!

We had a great time playing for the NetIP gala (see the pictures HERE)!  The Kyoto Grand Hotel in Little Tokyo was beautiful, all the organizers and staff members were friendly, and we met a bunch of really cool people in the meantime.

Now for the title:  As you know, Elephants with Guns claims several influences…from rock to reggae to South Asian to Latin Jazz, we’ve got a bit of…almost everything.  I remember a few practices ago one of us made an offhanded comment that the only thing we didn’t have as an inspiration that we could trace was Japanese culture…maybe now we do, after our brief experience playing at the Kyoto Grand Hotel.  The outside patio on the other side of the all-glass wall for the banquet hall we played in featured a patio furniture set made entirely of what looked like white marble slabs.  The hallways beyond that were mirrored on both sides, with one end leading to a spa and the other to the huge entrance room of the hotel.  I’m not very good at explaining, so definitely take a look at the pictures above

So…we’re back in LA!  We were incredibly grateful for our recent opportunity to play for SAIFF in NYC this past weekend, but now that we are back, we are back to our heavy schedule of practicing and recording…back to that and some lovely rainy CA weather to greet us!

Driving down to practice today was less than a pleasure…in NYC, they have actual traffic hazards, like snow and ice.  Here, we have rain, and that is about as bad as it gets.  Nonetheless, though, no one knows how to drive in the rain, so it took twice as long to get there.  That coupled with the fact that I feel like I’m getting sick did not make for a pleasant journey, or practice!  It’s all good, though–we beat mapped another song (that is, we figured out tempos and transitions for recording,) jammed a bit, and called it an early day.

As you probably know already, we’re heading to NYC this coming weekend to play for the South Asian International Film Festival.  You can check out the address/times/etc. on our events page!

Today, instead of a full-fledged practice, we basically took the time to talk about the details, since this will definitely be our biggest show yet!  We talked about everything from attire to song order to specific details of what the venue would be like.

We’re looking at a pretty intense flight schedule–there’s a flight going straight from LA to NYC Friday night, and then after losing three hours, we get to assemble for an early morning meeting.  Then it’s going to be sound checks and maybe a bit of sight seeing before the show…which, by the way, has us going on at around midnight!  (That hotel might get some sleeping use after all!)

PS–we decided to go with both the bass riff and the drum solo.  You’ll have to come to the live show to see it!

This weekend was (my) shortest studio time ever!  We were recording “Rainy Season”, which doesn’t have a lot of flute in it, so I got to chill at home for a while before coming in and putting down my few seconds of music.  That’s not to say that the guys didn’t work hard, though–they had been there for a good 5 hours before it was time for me to add on a layer of sound.

(PS – check out the album version when it comes out to hear the super sweet intro Sagar added to the beginning!)

By the way, if you haven’t checked our events page, we are going to New York in just a couple of weeks!  Yay!  It will be a private event for the SAIFF (South Asian International Film Festival), which is going to be a totally AWESOME event put on by HBO (yes, HBO!)  Sooooo, wish us luck.  We’re getting together again tonight to practice our set and make it as solid as possible.

We had practice at Omar’s house last weekend.  It was great to see a lot of people again that I met at previous shows, and we got to meet a lot of new people, too!

First, they prepared for us a super delicious lunch.  Then, we played a few requests for some friends and family members.  Finally, Omar’s little nephew decided to join us on the drums…

I looked up and saw a giant djembe being pushed into the room, and sure enough, there was actually a kid behind it.  Once he got it into the room, he was good to go.  World, watch out!

This past weekend, we recorded “Just When it was Getting Good, I Woke Up”.  I can never say that title right!

And, after a near 8 hours in the studio on Saturday, we came out with a new track recorded.  The first two recorded were a bit easier–they didn’t speed up or slow down a whole lot, and so any trip-ups that happened were mainly due to user error (us!)

“I Just Woke Up” was a different story–if you’ve ever heard the song, you know the beginning has about 5 different identifiable speeds, if not more.  Now imagine trying to keep up with a click track (that does all of them perfectly, mind you,) and trying to keep track of what part of the song you’re in without being able to hear the rest of your band members…not as easy as it sounds!

Nonetheless, we’re on to other focuses soon…speaking of, it’s going to be a live show in New York.  So…should we add a drum circle, or a crazy bass solo to our next show?