Moving almost 7,000 miles across the world in pursuit of your ambitions is one way of demonstrating you’re serious about them.
For Indonesian band Elephant Kind, relocating from Jakarta to London in 2022 was about discovering how far they could take a career which had already made them one of their home country’s best-known alternative acts.
Four years later, that journey brings them to Newcastle for the first time, with a date at Gosforth Civic Theatre on September 25 as part of their latest UK tour, which kicked off this week.
It comes during a particularly busy period for the trio, who have spent the past couple of years playing festivals and radio sessions, touring to sold-out audiences and making their latest album, More Time.
But while there is a sense that things are moving up a gear, frontman and founder Bam Mastro says there’s little danger of Elephant Kind feeling they have arrived.
“I think we’ve always tried to be the best version of ourselves as a band by pushing the bar we’ve set for ourselves higher every day. The result is starting to show, and that’s really exciting. But at the same time, we’re still very hungry. Every milestone just makes us want to see how much further we can take it.”
Elephant Kind began more than a decade ago in Bam’s bedroom in Perth, Australia, initially as an introspective solo project before he moved to Indonesia.
The band evolved into a trio with Kevin Septanto and Bayu Adisapoetra, building a sizeable audience and collecting awards and nominations in Indonesia. Their success also led to collaborations with brands including Gucci, Dior, Vans and Dr. Martens, while they have supported international acts including The xx and Franz Ferdinand.
But international ambitions were always part of the picture and, in summer 2022, the three musicians swapped Indonesia for London.
That sense of movement between places and cultures runs through More Time, which was recorded in London, mixed in Los Angeles and finished in Jakarta.
“Definitely. The whole album was made during a period where we were constantly moving between different places and different versions of ourselves,” says Bam.
“London gave us a lot of new musical references and a completely different environment to work in, while Jakarta will always feel like home and carries a different kind of emotional weight for us. So having the record travel between those places felt very natural.
“In a way, the album is a reflection of that journey. More Time was developed over a few years of change for us, so the different places became part of the record without us necessarily forcing it.”
The album also saw Elephant Kind loosen whatever remaining restrictions they might have placed on their sound.
‘Genre-fluid’ and ‘borderless’ are labels which have been attached to the band, whose music moves between alternative indie, rock, electronic and dance music, with hip-hop and Eastern influences also finding their way into the mix.
For More Time, they decided to give even less consideration to where one genre ended and another began.
“I think the biggest difference is that we stopped worrying about what Elephant Kind was supposed to sound like,” says Bam.
“We gave ourselves permission to follow whatever felt exciting at the time. We’ve always been pretty open with genres, but on More Time we really leaned into that. There are moments that feel like a band, moments that feel like dance music, moments that are more electronic or introspective. We just wanted to make the most honest version of Elephant Kind at this point in our lives.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, when you ask Bam to explain the band to someone encountering them for the first time, the advice is not to search for an explanation at all.
“I think you have to be in a zone where you open yourself up to whatever is about to come. Don’t try to put it into a box too quickly. You might find something in there that you didn’t expect,” he says.
“That’s probably how we approach making music too. We don’t really sit down and say, ‘Let’s make a rock song,’ or ‘Let’s make a house song.’ We start with something that feels exciting and then follow it wherever it wants to go.
“That’s why you might hear hip-hop, house, rock, Eastern influences, dance music and things we probably can’t even name on the same record. For me, Elephant Kind is more about curiosity than genre.”
There is a similarly considered approach to the visual identity surrounding the music. Photography, videos, artwork and what happens on stage are all intended to belong to the same Elephant Kind world.
“The most important thing is that it becomes iconic,” says Bam, simply. “Whether it’s a photograph, a video, artwork or something we do on stage, I want people to see it and immediately feel that it’s Elephant Kind. That’s something we’re constantly trying to build.”
If moving to London meant leaving behind an audience they had spent years building, last year provided fairly emphatic evidence that Elephant Kind had not been forgotten at home.
A return to Jakarta saw the band sell 3,000 tickets in less than five minutes.
“It means everything. Jakarta is home, and there’s nothing quite like feeling loved by the people who discovered your music, put you on the map and continue to support you even after you’ve been away for a long time,” says Bam.
“We left Indonesia to explore a new chapter in London, so coming back and seeing that people were still there waiting for us was incredibly emotional. It reminded us where we came from and how important that community has been to Elephant Kind from the beginning.”
Now there are new audiences to find closer to their adopted home.
The September 25 show will be Elephant Kind’s Newcastle debut, something Bam says adds another layer to the experience of touring.
“We’re really excited about it,” Bam says. “We’ve been touring around the UK for a while now, but there are still so many places we haven’t played yet, which is one of the things I love about touring here.
“I’ve heard great things about Newcastle and the North East, and we’re looking forward to finally experiencing it properly, especially by playing a show there. We’re always excited to discover a new city through its audience.”
And anyone planning to provide that first North East audience should probably bring their dancing shoes.
The new album has shifted the live show in a more dance-oriented direction, while retaining the guitar, bass and drums – and physicality – of a live band.
“There are moments where you can just lose yourself in the rhythm, but we’re still very much a live band, so it has that physicality too,” says Bam.
“They can expect a lot of energy. We’re bringing a set that moves between different worlds, but the main goal is for people to have a really good time.
“We’ll be playing a lot from More Time, alongside some older songs, and we’re trying to make the whole thing feel like one big journey rather than just playing a collection of songs.
“Come ready to dance, sing, and hopefully leave the room feeling like you’ve experienced something.”
Sounds like a tempting invitation.
Elephant Kind play Gosforth Civic Theatre on September 25. For tickets, visit www.gosforthcivictheatre.co.uk