SPOTLIGHT: The Evening Elephants Are Calling From Echo Park’s Backyard to Tell You It’s Not That Serious
ANYONE FAMILIAR WITH THAT SITCOM TROPE — in which an obnoxious band moves in next door and deprives you of sleep every night as they rehearse their god-awful music? Yeah, neither are the Evening Elephants. Made up of vocalist Sam Boggs and drummer/producer Brandon Leslie, aka B, the indie duo is not only some of the friendliest neighborhood rock stars you could ever encounter, but their intimate backyard shows and feel-good music will make you forget all the woes of life in the simulation — all while wrapping their set by 10 p.m. to coincide with your bedtime.
To celebrate their first official release, “Life is Swell,” back in March, the two and their ensemble hosted their second-ever backyard show for the crowd’s own evening with the Evening Elephants. The outpouring of support for the show surpassed expectation, with roughly 100 guests piled onto the turf of the very spot Sam and B first met and eventually spawned the band over a year ago. Before that fateful Sunday afternoon, self-taught B had been working in the industry for 10 years, producing and songwriting for other artists, while Sam was ready to give up music altogether following a brief solo project pre-COVID. Over buzzing LA traffic, passing the outdoor taco stand where we’re all loitering, the frontman tells us how he credits crossing paths with B for helping him fall back in love with the craft:
“I hadn't slept in, like, three days and we were at my friend's house,” he says. “I was pretty out of it, then this dude just rolls up, mid-afternoon on a Sunday, out of nowhere, and sits beside me on the bench. We started chatting about life, [things we had] in common, interests, and outlooks, really vibing with each other, and [we] thought that we should do music together. But it didn't happen for a whole year because we kept seeing each other again and again to be like, ‘We should do it. We should fucking do it.’ I was like, ‘I don't know, I don't really like music that much anymore,’ and [B] was like, ‘We should do it.’ Eventually, it just caught on. He knows I would have quit music without him, fully. I was very done.”
After overcoming the push and pull, the only thing left to figure out was a name for the band. Sam coined their moniker after a forbidden combat move, “Evening Elephant” from Naruto, an anime he holds literally close to his heart, even sporting a tattoo of Sasuke’s eye on the left side of his neck.
Had things lined up any differently that day, we may or may not have seen today’s Evening Elephants as soon as we did, but one thing’s for sure: the probability of their respective talents going to waste was highly unlikely — partly because of the undeniable brilliance, but mainly due to their trademark of doing anything except holding down a steady job. When B’s previous dream of becoming a firefighter eventually fizzled out, he jumped into hustling various projects within the industry, having synced music for TV and film and making rap beats for successful artists.
“I just dove straight into music and haven’t looked back since,” B explains.
Much more rocky than B’s experience, the working class spat Sam out on multiple occasions.
“I got fired from my first job ever,” he describes. “I was a referee for soccer and I refused to give red cards out. Then I ended up cussing out one of the parents telling them that they're a bunch of fucking six-year-olds, it doesn't fucking matter. I got fired from that. When I moved to LA, I got fired from my catering job because I was late a few times because I didn't have a phone, because I didn't have money to pay for my phone bill, and I had to MapQuest all my routes to my [jobs]. The last one I just got let go of because of COVID. I was babysitting and teaching private lessons for soccer. The kids just didn't like soccer that much so they let me go, but I was good. I was good with kids — they love me. I’m not a role model, but I’m a kid.”
For most, the transition from being a solo artist to operating as a group can come with more creative roadblocks than they would care to admit, but the opposite has been true for this eccentric pair. When asked if they ever butt heads, they shrug it off. B reveals it’s been smooth sailing since the moment they met.
“I met Sam and it was the most seamless writing process I've ever been a part of,” he says. “We're always on the same wavelength. He's like my brother in another dimension — we just never correct each other. I think it's so important to not cut off someone's creative flow and just allow them, because there's a different imprint than you can bring to the table. We're open to hearing each other's ideas. I'll get on helping him with the vocals, and he'll get on and help with production because he's a good producer as well. It’s very seamless and easy.”
The perfect balance of their personalities is mirrored similarly in their writing process — where Sam is more open and mildly unfiltered, B stands closer to reserved and thoughtful, though both are still extremely laid-back (as yin and yang would have it).
“Most of the songs that we've made, we did in his kitchen between the hours of 1 to 5 p.m.,” Sam explains. “Every song [is done] in three or four hours, just because we leave space for each other to have the idea and try it out. If it doesn't feel good to us both we move on. But yeah, [B] stays mostly in the producing lane. He comes to the vocals whenever he feels like he needs to be present and I come into the producing side whenever I feel I need to be present. We just both respect each other's music, so we have to say that we cover each other on all bounds.”
Perhaps the most magnetic thing about Evening Elephants’ charm (besides their addictive music) is their radiating authenticity. While intimidating based on looks alone, the pair seem to initially keep to themselves. But once comfortable, they’re just as goofy and lively as they are on the stage. Just like in their songwriting sessions, nothing has to be forced with these two — except when it came to promoting their newest and first official release, “Life is Swell.”
Lovers of TikTok like the rest of us, Sam and B’s approach to the marketing aspect of stardom consisted of low-effort, silly videos about their management begging them to promote the single. Their main solutions involved getting the track name tattooed on the back of their necks in Sam’s handwriting, which was taken off the bass drum from their first show, and getting drunk at Chili’s for the first time after making it onto the chain restaurant’s nationwide playlist.
And if you’re wondering how many shifts they could last working at a Chili’s: Sam predicts making it to day three as a host before a customer pisses him off, while B is confident he wouldn’t even pass the training period. What can we say? Some habits die hard.
“Life is Swell” came about during a catch-up session on each other’s lives. “When we feel like we've vented enough, we're like, ‘Okay, let's sit down — enough cigarettes,’” Sam tells us. “[B will] start with the drum or piano most of the time, and he'll hang around for 20 to 30 minutes, maybe not even that long. I'll just sit there, and as soon as I hear something I like, I'll start mumbling or he'll catch a melody.”
The song itself has a rawness that only furthers Evening Elephants brand of not being overproduced, which was proven true when the backyard show’s live version sounded nearly identical to the recorded one, give or take some audience shouting. The band’s favorite thing about the track is its fun play on words:
Shoulda, coulda, woulda,
But it's not my shit
We could fall in love but I’m not your bitch
“I remember the starting line… I was like, I never want to call a girl a bitch in a song,” Sam says. “So I’ll be like, ‘But I'm not your bitch.’ I think that's how that started to come together. It's really kind of a play on how we perceive life as not being swell, but you just go with the flow. One of the lines is ‘I could park my car now, but there's probably another spot somewhere else. Well oh well, life is swell, can’t you tell that I'm in hell,’ you know, so a lot of people would take it as a happy song, but it's more like a middle ground of accepting that fucking shit sucks dick. It's also kind of fun at other times, making fun of it.”
Much like the inability of their overall sound to fall into any single genre, B shares on the production end how “Life is Swell” stands out from their previously released demos:
“I think it's the mixing of like two worlds that makes this song. It's not straight hip-hop, it's not rock, it's not surf-rock. It's like a mash of everything. It doesn't take itself seriously. Like we said, it's a message that a lot of people can relate to. I can.”
“It's a good medium of the types of songs that we have in our arsenal,” Sam adds. “Some are very punk, some are really hard, some are sad and slow. This is kind of a medium blend between all of them. It was a good baseline for us to release so that we could attract whoever.”
“Life is Swell” will be featured on the duo’s upcoming EP. Not too much is known about the project, except the single word B uses to describe it: eclectic.
“There's just a lot of different vibes,” he describes. “I just want people to be able to feel our personality come through and the ultimate authenticity. That's what matters. When I met Sam, I produced based on the person's energy. I knew he was super deep, but smiled all the time, so I was like, ‘We need to make a sound that matches that,’ and so that really comes up [on the EP]. It's happy-sad.”
While the Echo Park backyard will remain home to the Evening Elephants lore, expect to see the duo hosting venues instead of their good friend’s 1000 square-foot home. Despite not breaking even on last month’s release show, they hope to still throw future intimate events around LA for people to come and enjoy the music together. For now, you can catch the nutty Evening Elephants at Adults Only bar in LA on May 28th, Pianos on June 10th for NYC’s Gov Ball weekend, Knitting Factory in July, and guest performing at a San Diego scooter festival in August.
If for some reason you’re still on edge about whether or not to tune into the band, the boys are here to convince you:
“You'll have a good time, I think,” Sam says. “Yeah, you'll have a laugh and have a good time. The beats are always hard because he makes them. It's just kind of fun for the most part — you’re not gonna find yourself listening and hate it, hopefully.”
“I just feel like so much music is plastic wrapped and fake,” B adds. “This is a really authentic project. It's such a good representation of who we are as people, and if you fuck with our music, you'll fuck with us. That’s all I care about really.”
As far as life goes, the Evening Elephants know that its “kind of fucking serious sometimes,” but leave you with their key to getting by: welcoming the uncomfortability that comes with it.
“Most people will fight the waves, but I think it's better to welcome them in and know that maybe you can swim out after shit calms down,” Sam concludes.
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