Today, we sat down with Elephant Takedown to to talk about music inspiration, advice for musicians and much more! Be sure to check out their music below on Spotify after the interview!
Interview:
What is your inspiration to write your music? Is it your surroundings?
Most of the time it’s people that inspire our writing. Anxiety, paranoia, and the sociopathic tendencies of humans as a species are equal parts interesting and confusing for us. As a result we often end up writing about conspiracy theories, depravity, selfishness, and the other destructive habits we have.
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
The answer definitely differs for each of us. For Phil (Lead Guitar) it’s a lot of the more old school hard hitting stuff, Black Sabbath, Rob Zombie, and Black Stone Cherry to name a few. Alex (Bass) is more into modern metal in all its forms, bands like Periphery and Architects for example. Simon is out and out punk and pop punk; Blink 182 is his favourite band, but The Ramones and All Time Low are up there for him too. Ben is somewhere in the middle, but growing up both he and Alex had a lot of influence from the electronic scene too. Ben was even a DJ for a few years.
Is there someone you looked up as a hero?
We can’t all put a finger on an individual, or set of individuals, but for Alex, it’s probably Devin Townsend. Devin’s such a phenomenon when it comes to his lyrics, his stage presence, and the way he composes. Meanwhile Ben would point a finger at Frank Turner, again purely for the way that he writes his music.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing today?
Probably what we’re already all doing today! Music isn’t (yet) a full time activity for us as much as we may wish it was! We all work our 9-5 jobs in software development, data analysis, scientience, and logistics.
What advice do you have for our fans out there that want to create
music?
Pick up an instrument and crack on! The great thing about music is the skill floor is pretty low, depending on the instrument. You only need to know a couple of chords and you have most of the tools you need to write a song. For people who already play, it can be tough to find a group; it took us a year to get a stable line up as a band, but there are websites out there to help you find bandmates, and if you would rather record alone, there’s lots of free software out there to help you, lots of guides, and you can get some great recording gear for very little money.
Music:
