ELEPHANT GYM
Meet the answer to “Who’s your favourite band from Taiwan?”
“We didn’t think we would become musicians,” says Tell Chang, who started Taiwanese progressive math-rock trio Elephant Gym with his bass-playing sister KT and school friend Chia-Chin Tu on drums. As kids, Tell and KT learnt classical piano from their mother, although they weren’t the most diligent students. “We hated practising and our mother punished us every class,” Tell explains. But when they discovered rock music as teenagers, they found their passion. While all three live in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan’s third-largest city, they formed the band at university in Taipei before releasing their debut EP, Balance, in 2013, and an album, Angle, a year later.
“We started with a math-rock sound,” says Tell. “It had a strong analogue and live feeling. On Balance and Angle, most of the sound came from our instruments, we seldom used sound effects.”
The band took a break in 2015 while Tell and Chia Chin completed their compulsory military service, before resuming in 2016.
“After that, we have wanted to develop a unique music world,” says Tell. “We needed more elements to build different soundscapes, so we used more synths and sound effects on our latest album. However, we are very careful of using digital sound because we want to keep the analogue feeling. To us, bass and guitar and drums are the three main characters in the movie, the rest of the sounds are scenes and twists.”
At home, they’ve played arenas opening for pop stars, and performed at Kaohsiung City’s big Megaport Festival, but it’s not easy for Taiwanese bands to break out globally. “Going international was our goal only one or two years ago,” says Chia-Chin. “Our first overseas show was in Hong Kong in 2013.” But they’re picking up steam quickly. In August they’ll land in the UK to play at ArcTanGent Festival, and earlier this year the trio undertook their inaugural American tour, including performing at SXSW. “It’s fun and I drank a lot!” laughs KT, looking back.“We sold out every show on the USA tour. Audiences in the US can dance and when we saw them dancing, it was a very powerful feedback and gave us more energy. It was a really good time.”
Asked to describe their sound to someone who’s never heard the band, the drummer replies: “Fresh, adorable, cool, groovy, emotional, but not like what you’re imagining right now!” Underwater, their latest release, draws from math rock, funk, progressive fusion and even hip-hop. Many of the songs are led by KT’s remarkably nimble bass lines that flow over Tell’s harmonies and Chia-Chin’s inventive, oddtime beats. “We like groovy and natural music,” says Tell. “However, when we turned from listeners to musicians ourselves, we accidentally became experimental and nerdy. We want to create special sounds that we can put our ideals and personalities in. Besides, we get bored easily so we’re always looking for interesting ways to entertain ourselves. And we hope our creations can entertain someone who shares the same feelings.” dW