Elephant Race

On The Spot: Elephant Race

Talking to Kamal Rasool Guitarist of Elephant Race

How did you come up with your band name?

Well basically, we had gone through a few other band names along the way, but one day I just blurted out the name Elephant Race when we were all out. Everyone agreed and it all started from there. Another way we like to look at though is that an Elephant Race would be insanely chaotic, natural, unpredictable and just plain surreal, comparing to the music we create.

Could you give us a brief description of each member of the band?

sure:

Kaci Goucem Lead Vocals

Kaci is half English and half Algerian and is influenced by such bands as Pink Floyd, The Hives and Bloc Party! He comes from a very musically talented family, his father being a talented guitarist, teaching him how to play guitar and sing and his younger brother also being a talented guitarist and in a band himself!

Sam Rowe Bass and backing vocals

Sam is half English and half Welsh and is influenced by such bands as Foals and Rage Against the Machine. Sam is actually also a talented drummer who has entered competitions such as the Young Musicians of the Gulf! He decided to self teach himself the bass about 2 years ago, he is quite musically multi talented and takes ease into learning new instruments and giving input into our tracks. He also provides the high pitched vocals we need for some of our tracks!

Charles Prest Lead Guitar

Charles is probably the most experienced musician within the band, having been in a couple of bands in the past and being playing guitar since he was very young, he is the man who cracks out the insane solo’s! He is half Jamaican and half English and takes influence by progressive rock bands such as The Mars Volta and At the Drive in. He is probably the most modest within the band, being very positive and always giving input into the structure of our songs!

Kamal Rasool Rhythm Guitar/ Lyricist

Kamal is half Turkish and half Bahraini and probably the least musically experienced within the band, having only started self teaching himself guitar around 2 years ago! Needless to say, he does bring a lot to the table by taking influence by such noise pop and psychedelic groups as Animal Collective, Deerhunter and Micachu! Being the only A level English student, Kamal finds ease and comfort into writing lyrics for the songs, the context of these lyrics often very different from one another, although the rest of the band do contribute as well towards the lyrics of various songs.

Miguel Cardoso - Drums

Miguel is half Portuguese and half English and takes influence by a lot of electronic indie stuff such as Late of the Pier and Midnight Juggernaughts, although from a drummer point of view is also very influenced by Foals. Miguel is probably the most laid back/chilled within the group, just taking it as it comes and providing input when only necessary!

How would you describe your music?

Well, we like to take the genre indie experimental. Just because of how many different genres and bands were influenced by, our songs may sound very different to one another take that as good or bad, we like it that way and its interesting in live performances to see peoples opinions of us. You cant really nail us down to one genre you know.. were not hipsters. We take indie rock as our main genre, well because that’s why we started the band. We all love indie, we all love being independent and that’s what our music’s about, its up beat catchy riffs, layered down with a lot more, it can get hectic at times!

So how long have you been together as a band and how did you manage to incorporate each others style into one product?

Its been about 1 and half years since we started the band, a lot has changed since then though and we have actually have grown/developed a lot as a band, to the extent that incorporating our styles within songs is just, well, pretty easy for us. I mean just a few months ago, Sam was like ‘check out this funk riff I made the other day’ and we were all like ‘okay sweet, lets do this’ and that’s how our song ‘Trippy Slide’ was made, within about a day or two. We always do make sure though to keep that indie element close to each and every one of our songs though, as if we took that way, we wouldn’t really have any closure on where the line is, how far we can go with this ‘experimental’ idea you know.

Would you describe your music as lyrically influenced or musically influenced and why?

To be honest, it may be a bit of both, but the stuff that were all into as a band really does have very little comparison to our own music. This stands out the most within the lyrically influenced side of things I think, I personally love to listen to the lyrics of songs, no matter what genre, but I don’t really take that into consideration when I write lyrics to our songs, it just comes from a thought or experience, and I think it’s the same when it comes to being

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Interview with Bahrain’s Shout Magazine!

What type of music do you play?

Alternative Indie/ Rock and everything in between that sounds good, we like to mix up genres and be different.

What are your favourite bands and why?

Cold War Kids, Foals, The Strokes, Rage, Arctic Monkeys, Late of the Pier, Animal Collective, because they are awesome.

Do you model yourselves on any other bands and/or singers if so why?

No, because we prefer not to live in the shadows of other bands because we think being independent and having a new sound is the way forward in the music industry of the future.

Do you sing covers or are all your songs original?

We started off playing covers and now we perform both covers and our own material.

Where are you all originally from?

One English white boy, one Algerian master, one Portuguese tortilla, one Turkish kebab and a Jamaican wizard.

How did you get together as a band?

It started off with Sam and Miguel and another guitarist who left after, and then we added Kaci for the vocals. Charles then joined afew months ago with his crazy guitar skills and then finally Kamal came with all of his ideas for our songs.

What do you guys want to do after school?

We want to go to different universities so we probably won't be together there. In university we will party hard, work hard, be really successful in life and have music on the sideline.

What's the most embarrassing moment each of you have had on stage?

We waited for hours to play a gig and then finally after we set up and had a crowd waiting, within the first 2 minutes of our performance, we were struck by a power cut and left standing in silence on the stage, as our drunken drummer continued a quiet beatit was really bad but funny experience.

What are your fans like?

Already within our short career, we have acquired three excellent band ho's/groupies and have quite an average fan base from those who have heard us. We hope to expand our audience by releasing our EP and song's on the radio and internet.

Would you want to be so famous that paparazzi would be digging through your rubbish?

Only Sam, Kaci and Charles would enjoy that lifestyle. We think it would be awesome to be a really famous rock stars. Kamal and Miguel wouldn't really want that.

Do girls throw themselves at you?

Only our band ho's we strive to get a lot more chicks diggin' our sound.

Have girls ever thrown anything at you whilst you were playing a gig?

Yeah we get the bras and panties lobbed at us all the time No not really, but one day it will happen

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Hopefully be starting our careers and jobs, some of us may still be in university doing longer degrees. OR if our music takes us into fame, then we'll be rocking out at Reading Festival in front of thousands of raving fans.

If you could be any band for the day - who would it be and why?

Pink Floyd, as they evolved in a time were music was pushing and exploring the boundaries of sound. We loved their views, lifestyles and innovative music. They were the pioneers of the progressive psyche rock scene of today.

Would you let your gran come to a gig?

As long as she rocks out Hell Yeah!!

Living in a place where gigs don't call out for you like they do say in the UK or America, you have to search and work hard for your gigs. Luckily our band has managed to grab the attention of a lot of venues stretching from

Rock n Pop festivals, clubs, bars, house parties, islands, waterparks, an F1 track, school events, we even hosted a one day Indie/Alternative festival called The Wizard Festival which was a huge success in opening Bahrain up to underground music...in other words things that todays modern radio does not expose to the general population!

Pink Floyd

Arctic Monkeys

Rage Against The Machine

Foals

Cold War Kids

The Mars Volta

Animal Collective

Radiohead

The Shins

The Strokes

The Doors

www.myspace.com/elephantrace

Download our music here of course, or www.reverbnation.com/elephantrace

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