The Indigo Elephant Newsletter

I was going to continue the Indigo Elephant history lesson and talk about how Cliff joined the band, but since we have such a big announcement I’ve decided to pivot…

We’re happy to announce our upcoming album releasing on October 24th:

While some songs on The Art of Erosion have been around since 2019, thoughts of writing a new album started in January 2024. I remember walking around Oakland with the band, grabbing dinner before rehearsal in our new practice space. The year before, we had released our EP “While We Were Away” as well as the single “You Are Loved”, so conversations looking towards our next project were only natural. As we crossed the intersection of 42nd St. and Telegraph Ave, I distinctly remember turning to the band and saying “I think we have at least one more in us, I think we can write another album.”

During that dinner, we took that proposition a little more seriously than before, and started to ideate.

How do we want to approach songwriting on this new record?

Do we have any songs in the vault that we want to finally share?

Will we continue recording the music at home, or are we going to attempt our first studio album?

Indigo Elephant operates as a band where all of it’s core members are contributing songwriters. For example, even though I drum for the band, I’ve also contributed lyrics, melodies, and even arrangement ideas - we are all multi-instrumentalists, so we all have the chops to work on parts of the music we don’t play on stage. While we have some overlap on our favorite bands and influences, each of our musical backgrounds lent themselves to a variety of song ideas that maybe wouldn’t gel as a complete body of work. Therefore, with this record, we decided to see what happens when each individual member aimed at what they think “indie-rock” and “indie-pop” sounds like. While it’s always fun to write whatever you want, we wanted to narrow our focus, look for common ground, and write a cohesive statement together. Throughout 2024, we wrote as many songs as we could, then looked at what we created and made some hard decisions. We also looked back on old demos to see if there were ideas that could be brought into the menagerie. We’ve been around for a few years at this point, so the idea of bringing our demos to a recording studio and working with a producer was alluring.

I’d love to get more into the detailed creative process, how expectations lined up with reality, the song-by-song breakdown, the funny anecdotes, but that’s for after the album is in your hands. This record took a lot out of us creatively, emotionally, and honestly even physically. However, we’re really proud of what we’ve created, and in tandem with the art direction, it really feels like we’ve succeeded in making something worth listening to.

With that, I’ll leave you with a statement about the record:

In writing their first studio album, The Art of Erosion, Indigo Elephant spent all of 2024 rediscovering what it meant to be a band. Composed of Julius Pasion (drums), Cliff Yang (guitar, bass), and Brenden Phung (guitar, synth), the band crafted a project that represented each member as openly as possible — smashing all their desires together and trying to make sense of the madness. Within that chaos lies vulnerability, and sometimes even understanding. These songs hold all the uncertainty, introspection, and bittersweet feelings of a tumultuous year, capturing a moment in time where tension and release came in equal measures. While Indigo Elephant has been together for nearly 8 years, its members believe that the end of an era is also a new beginning. With this record, they are still taking the first steps towards what truly is their sound.

A sneak preview of the album!

Click the link below to stream the intro track from The Art of Erosion!

[INSERT COIN] - Indigo Elephant

If you’re reading the newsletter, you’re a real one, so you get to hear a track off the record before everyone else!

Until next time,