V2 records news – Elephant announces new album ‘III

Announces New Album "III" & Shares New Song "20k"
ALBUM OUT 28 MARCH 2025
Elephant - 20k (Official Video)
6 May 2025 Live @ Depot, Leuven

Elephant, Rotterdam-based purveyors of silver-toned songs, blow off steam on their darkened new album called III and will be out 28 March on Excelsior Recordings, followed by a European Tour.
Even Elephant gets it under their skin sometimes. On III, their third, the sundrenched rock band from Rotterdam at last let in some of life's darkness, treading into more experimental territory in the process. But worry not, because at the end of the day, the band will always choose the light. This is Elephant, part III: deeper, freer, and no longer wary of friction.
In four years time, Elephant has quickly become a consummate live band – playing gently in the morning sun, or fierce and fiery, when at a festival like Lowlands. It's a contrast that becomes apparent on III. As per, the songs take center stage, but plenty goes on around them. The now-familiar melodic indie rock a la Wilco and Real Estate is supplemented with shoegaze, vocoder and ambient experiments; a fruitful liaison with Sofie Winterson; and a reignited love for Band of Horses, Nada Surf and Blink-182, whose tender love song 'Always' the band covers. There are guitar solos, of course there are, but there is so much more.
While on Big Thing (2022) and Shooting for the Moon (2023) they chronicled the life of an up and coming indie band; on III, Elephant is first and foremost a group of close friends. Four friends who can spend weeks on end in a van together. Friends that have been chasing and chasing and chasing for four years straight. Friends for whom, too, things can spiral out of control. Depression and substance abuse leave their mark on 'Tried to Sleep' and 'For a Friend', and on 'Real Love' and 'When You're Down' the four find their way out of the woods again – together.
The band's softheartedness comes to the fore, when they assure the listener: "Trust me, I feel it too" – we are not immune to the world's misery. But whenever the guys gather around their kitchen table, pen in hand, and talk through their troubles, dogged optimism remains the only viable path. And so, the album - and with it a tumultuous year - comes to a close with 'For a Friend, Pt. 2', an instrumental postscript that calls for rue and rumination. 
Alongside regular producer Pablo van der Poel, Elephant has found a like-minded spirit in indie pop multi-instrumentalist Sofie Winterson, who makes several appearances on III after supporting the band on tour. Rotterdam artist Goslink, whose work turns fruit into totems, provided the painting for the album cover.

Album 'III'

Tracklist

1. For a Friend
2. 20k
3. You Wanted the Same
4. Trust me I feel It too
5. Tried To Sleep
6. Memories
7. Real Love
8. When You're Down
9. Always
10. For A Friend
    
    On 20k, the poignant second single from their album 'III', Elephant embraces experimentation. Armed with a hypnotising vocoder sound and a hip hop-like beat, the Rotterdammers are treading unfamiliar territory – for both the audience and themselves.
    In 20k, the band sings about the importance of thinking for yourself and resisting the temptation to blindly follow charismatic figures who promise the world but fail to deliver. "You never even flew high, before the well ran dry". What Elephant does on 20k is undeniably against the grain. It's proof of a band that stays true to itself, doing what feels right and charting its own unique course.
    
    06-05 Depot, Leuven