Elliphant

On April 1st, Record Company TEN/Kemosabe/Mad Decent unleashes Look Like You Love It, the new, highly anticipated new EP from Elliphant. Elliphant is the music-making moniker of Swedish wild-child Ellinor Olovsdotter, who’s made waves internationally with a series of unclassifiable catchy jams, outrageous, stylish videos, and an unpredictable, outspoken persona. Look Like You Love It – the first U.S. official release from Elliphant – demonstrates the considerable impact she’s already achieved: it features production from Skrillex, TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, Dr. Luke, and Diplo himself, in addition to innovative tracks from cutting-edge beatmakers and guest vocalists spanning Europe, Jamaica, and the States. And of course, over the top of it all is the irrepressible voice and iconoclastic attitude of Elliphant, whose buzz led her to be signed as a flagship artist for Dr. Luke’s Kemosabe label (already home to the likes of Ke$ha, Juicy J, and megastar songwriter Bonnie McKee).

Olovsdotter calls the music she makes as Elliphant “provocative pop,” and that’s exactly what she serves up on Look Like You Love It. “It’s not following any of the rules of pop music, which is very controlled,” she explains. “My music is very wild and constantly changing – it can be rock, electronic, soft and hard, about nothing or everything. There’s a statement inside it, too, even if it doesn’t put you in a box.” According to Olovsdotter, the seven tracks on Look Like You Love It showcase what she calls the “four worlds of Elliphant.” The unrepentant banger title track produced by Dave Sitek shows Elliphant’s love of “very loud, physical rap and clean bass beats. It’s just saying ‘Everybody, here we are, and we don’t give a fuck!’ I went to Dave’s house, whom I’d never met before, and he put this mad beat on. I started freestyling, and we made the song in an hour.” “Revolusion,” meanwhile, highlights what Elli calls her “hippie side – it’s unfiltered expression, and a bit political.”

“All Or Nothing,” meanwhile, features Diplo collaborating with U.K. producer Rough Rider and dancehall toaster Bunji Garlin: it reveals Elliphant’s more pop side, putting her own contemporary global twist on Aaliyah-influenced ‘90s R&B. Diplo actually discovered Elliphant from her hooky Euro hit “Down On Life,” which here gets a new, hands-in-the- air-on-the-dancefloor remix from London Future. Elsewhere, “Booty Killah” and “Only Getting Younger,” find her “just going crazy and screaming over mayhem.” “Only Getting Younger” is an undeniable club anthem produced by Skrillex, reflecting Elli’s love of both

classic electronica like Prodigy and current DJ sounds. “Sunny [Skrillex] has believed in me from the beginning,” Olovsdotter says. “I got a call one day from him, and he said, ‘Hey, I got your number from Wes [Diplo] – I want to work together. Two days later, he came to Sweden, and we starting making songs.”

All of these tracks feature Elliphant’s distinctively haunting yet aggressive vocals, which put an individualistic twist on the West Indian flavor spanning ragga rave, drum-and-bass MCs, and reggae/dancehall vocalists from Elephant Man to Lee “Scratch” Perry.” “Only in reggae and hip-hop do you get to be open and creative with language like that,” Olovsdotter says. “The words might change and mutate, but you still know what it’s about from the vibe. I did a couple of songs like that, and everyone was like, ‘What the fuck are you doing? Don’t do that!’ But I really enjoyed it, and now I’m never going to let it go.” All together, the elements of Elliphant create a freewheeling cosmopolitan sound that has engendered comparisons to the likes of M.I.A. “She also makes provocative pop,” Olovsdotter notes. “I’m very thankful for the success M.I.A. has had. She made the world ready for a project like mine. I want to make music people all over the planet can enjoy, which is a reflection of everything I’ve experienced in life.”

As such, Elliphant’s personal story proves as unlikely as her music. She was raised in a rough part of Stockholm as the daughter of an absent father and a drug-addict mother. “My mom’s a full-on punk – she was into amphetamines and heroin,” Olovsdotter says. “But she loved music, and made us stand in the record store for hours listening to albums after school.” In her childhood, Olovsdotter was exposed to a wide range of sounds and genres – David Bowie, The B52s, Swedish black metal, early rave music. “I was a really pretentious kid into Leonard Cohen and Jeff Buckley,” she says. “Then I discovered Massive Attack, Portishead, and No Doubt. I loved that Gwen Stefani did whatever she wanted – that was an inspiration. I’m a woman, I do whatever I want, and it’s okay.”

Olovsdotter’s leap into music came when she dropped out of school at 15 after struggling with ADHD and dyslexia. By 19, she’d become a world traveler – living on the streets of Indonesia and India (where she sang with an electronica band), absorbing the club scenes in London and Berlin. “I was just going crazy – making new friends, having amazing sexual experiences with different people,” she says. “It was like summer camp!” It was while partying with her sister in Paris, however, that she met her initial musical collaborator, Tim Deneve; the tracks they’d made upon returning to Sweden caught the attention of TEN Music Group, who had exploded internationally with the success of acts like Icona Pop.

Look Like You Love It, meanwhile, remains only the first salvo in what will be Elliphant’s inevitable world domination, on her terms: a tour will follow immediately, with a full album to be released following the summer. “Since I was a little kid, I always knew I wanted to express myself in every way imaginable,” Olovsdotter says. “Ellipant is my channel: I began to realize we live in a world full of illusions and ideas, and it’s 100% my responsibility to create my life how I want it. The only thing I think is cool about me is that I can be open. We’re at an original place in human history, and I have the courage to share myself with the world.”

“I met Elli on another planet – she’s like the sixth element!” – Diplo

“Listening to Elliphant’s music may induce ear boneritis.” – Dr. Luke