ELEPHANT, ROTTERDAM-BASED PURVEYORS OF SILVER-TONED SONGS, BLOW OFF STEAM ON THEIR DARKENED NEW ALBUM. III IS OUT 28 MARCH 2025 ON EXCELSIOR RECORDINGS, AND WILL BE FOLLOWED BY A EUROPEAN TOUR. 

Even Elephant gets it under their skin sometimes. On III, their third, the sundrenched rock band from Rotterdam at last let in some of life's darkness, treading into more experimental territory in the process. But worry not, because at the end of the day, the band will always choose the light. This is Elephant, part III: deeper, freer, and no longer wary of friction. 

‍In four years time, Elephant has quickly become a consummate live band – playing gently in the morning sun, or fierce and fiery, when at a festival like Lowlands. It's a contrast that becomes apparent on III. As per, the songs take center stage, but plenty goes on around them. The now-familiar melodic indie rock a la Wilco and Real Estate is supplemented with shoegaze, vocoder and ambient experiments. And we hear a reignited love for Band of Horses, Nada Surf - with whom Elephant joined as a support act on their latest European tour - and even Blink-182, whose tender love song 'Always' the band covers. There are guitar solos, of course there are, but there is so much more. 

While on Big Thing (2022) and Shooting for the Moon (2023) they chronicled the life of an up and coming indie band; on III, Elephant is first and foremost a group of close friends. Four friends who can spend weeks on end in a van together. Friends that have been chasing and chasing and chasing for four years straight. Friends for whom, too, things can spiral out of control. Depression and substance abuse leave their mark on 'Tried to Sleep' and 'For a Friend', and on 'Real Love' and 'When You're Down' the four find their way out of the woods again – together. 

The band's softheartedness comes to the fore, when they assure the listener: "Trust me, I feel it too" – we are not immune to the world's misery. Following this, in ‘20k’ the band sings about the importance of thinking for yourself and resisting the temptation to blindly follow charismatic figures who promise the world but fail to deliver. “You never even flew high, before the well ran dry,”

‍But at the end of the day, when they gather around their kitchen table, pen in hand, and talk through their troubles, dogged optimism remains the only viable path. And so, the album - and with it a tumultuous year - comes to a close with 'For a Friend, Pt. 2', an instrumental postscript that calls for rue and rumination.  

Alongside regular producer Pablo van der Poel, Elephant has found a like-minded spirit in indie pop multi-instrumentalist Sofie Winterson, who makes several appearances on III after supporting the band on tour. Rotterdam artist Goslink, whose work turns fruit into totems, provided the painting for the album cover. 

‍III is out on 28 March 2025 on Excelsior Recordings, after which Elephant will tour the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom.


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