Five Minutes With Elliphant

A brief chat with the Swedish star, in the country for some shows including Southbound this weekend.

8 years ago

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Equal parts crazy club girl, hip hop gangster, R&B baller and hippie spirit, Elliphant, real name Ellinor Miranda Salome Olovsdotter, toured Australia earlier this year, playing to a huge crowd at Splendour In The Grass as well as two sold out sideshows with MØ. With her hit single Love Me Badder, a much anticipated debut album Live Life Golden due for release on January 29, and some new Aussie tour dates kicking off this week, we caught up to ask her about travel and small town syndrome.

Travelling is a huge part of what you do right? What are your pros and cons on travelling.

For me the important travels I’ve done have been before the music. Since I started Elliphant, it’s been crazy I’ve been in the air over 200 times and we have just been everywhere. But you don’t get to break away and go experience the places, it is still amazing that I get to do all of this as Elliphant but for me travelling before Elliphant was the defining part of my life. It made me whole.

The idea of being out in the world on your own, exploring everything socially and all those kind of things, everyone needs to do a journey on their own and get away from what they come from. If I didn’t go out travelling I wouldn’t have been who I am. When I was young I was introduced to a friend who knew people in India, so I went there and I created things there. I made clothes and jewellery I could create things to make money and be on my own, and if I was in a bad situation I was in a bad situation and if it was good it was good. It wouldn’t have been the same if I went on my own. Travelling made me feel that there is always a parachute. If everything goes to shit there are places in the world I can go to, to escape.

Everybody should leave when they get the chance right?

Yeah but the world wants you to stay, everyone back at home is stuck there, my friends from school they study or work in restaurants, and they study and they don’t even get jobs some of them and they are now older. And they’ve never had a chance to go and leave. The world can just trap you into comfort. Humans need to experience nature and reflect, to sometimes realise what they could do with their life.

It’s like small town syndrome, people are scared right?

If it works for them it’s okay, but we live in a new world now, and the world is huge and there are new ways of thinking, all these things like family and relationships etc, things are different now, people need to see things are different now. Families and all that aren’t as important in the same way now, big families are rare now, people struggle to care for more than themselves. We need to also look after the planet, I feel extremely bad about the last couple of years I know there is a time I’m going to have to pay back nature for the amount of flying I have been doing. I wish I could just get a boat everywhere, but there is no time in this world for that.

Do you like coming to Australia?

It’s very warm, and very hospitable and social. I think it’s really interesting, Sweden is very old, Australia is quite new. How it was created in such a short time, and it feels like you guys look after nature. And the fans and industry people in Australia I love. And my boyfriend is from Australia, so yeah I really like Australia.

No ones in a rush in Australia, we are all pretty laid back and loving.

Everyone I know has good stories about how their project came to Australia and was really well received. And got lots of love. I really can’t wait to come back.