Dante Elephante brings disco R&B vibes to Innovation Fest this weekend
After taking a brief hiatus from touring to focus on new music, Ruben Zarate and his band Dante Elephante are hitting the road again and prepping their indie-disco-R&B tunes for a Crown Center gig this Saturday, August 5, 2023.
Formed in 2010 with the help of some Craigslist ads, the L.A.-based band has since released four albums with a philosophy non-adherent to a genre: “Let’s just write the best song, whatever the best song is,” says Zarate.
The result is a notably diverse discography, including surf and indie rock-influenced albums like German Aquatics (2013) and Anglo-Saxon Summer (2015), and the disco R&B sound of their latest album, Mid-Century Modern Romance (2021).
The band is looking ahead to a busy fall season touring with , with 14 shows lined up in October and November—including a handful of headliners.
Ahead of the Innovation Fest show this week, The Pitch spoke with Zarate about his exhaustive timeline of musical influences, forming the band, cultivating their sound, and new music in the works.
Tickets to all of the Innovation Festival’s music performances can be purchased here. Doors open on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Crown Center Square, and the show starts at 4 p.m.
The Pitch: How were you originally introduced to music?
Zarate: I started playing drums when I was twelve—that was my first instrument. After that, I joined a band at 14. I haven’t not been in a band since I was 14. I’m 33 now—it’s been a long journey. I started singing and playing guitar when I was 15, and then I also started writing songs almost immediately because I wanted to contribute to my high school band. Even though I was a drummer, I was like, “Oh, I think I could write songs.” I taught myself how to play the guitar and how to play keys. I just figured it out slowly, step by step. That’s how I got into music. My grandmother’s really musical, so that was a big influence on me as well. We’re kind of a musical family.
Who would you say your influences are?
I’ve gone through a lot of different eras. John Lennon was huge. I’ve listened to a lot of his interviews. I just like listening to him talk. I think I know a little too much about John Lennon now, along with all the complexities of the Beatles and their interpersonal relationships.
Getting older and trying to discover my own taste, I was trying to find more stuff like the Beatles because I was just so obsessed. And that’s how I got into Dr. Dog. And then Dr. Dog said that their favorite band was Pavement, so then I started listening to Pavement. Once I started Dante Elephante we started talking about the Pixies more and then Oasis, so there was this 90s sound we were chasing. And after you get past Oasis, you just kind of get down to the Scottish Glasgow scene and work your way through the progression—The Pastels, The Vaselines, Orange Juice.
Dante Elephante was formed in 2010. Can you tell us what that looked like?
In 2009, I was playing drums for three or four garage punk bands, and I was getting really tired. It wasn’t very fulfilling anymore. So in 2010, I put a Craigslist ad out and I met my buddy Kevin and we started the band. We needed a drummer so I put another Craigslist ad out and that’s how I met my drummer Tommy. Kevin’s buddy Kevin joined us as our bass, and that was the core band up until 2016.
Three years later you all came out with your first EP, German Aquatics. Can you tell us about how you got there?
We spent the first three years just trying to be a band and figure out what that meant. We were writing all these songs and playing all these shows. But I wanted to make a record immediately before we even played a show—which I see a lot of bands do now and I don’t think that’s the right way. I think you need to just start playing and get good on stage first. Eventually, by the end of 2012, we recorded the EP.
How has your sound as a band evolved since that first release?
Even if you go back to our first meet after finding each other on Craigslist, the mentality of our band has always been, “Let’s just write the best song, whatever the best song is, then we go that route.” So that first EP was very surf influenced—but I was trying to do like a 50s girl group thing like Connie Francis. But then it got transformed into this surf rock thing.
When bands like Real Estate were becoming a thing, we were getting pushed into that world. And then the L.A. garage scene was just starting to pop with Burger Records and Lollipop Records and all that, so we got kind of swept up into that world. But we didn’t want to sound like just another L.A. band. By the first record, I was so deep into The Pastels and Orange Juice that I was mainly trying to do that now.
I think it would be kind of silly to be around since 2010 and have all my records sound the same, right? I think that’s why I have so few records in that span of time. It’s because I take so much time in between making all of them and I change a lot in between them.
What does songwriting look like for you? Are there any topics you particularly like to write about?
I mainly wrote about my life, like a lot of writers still do. I usually write about what I’m going through, so my old songs are about like, “Oh I want this person, but they don’t want me back, I’m so sad.” And with my new stuff, I’m in a happy relationship so it looks a bit different: “What am I up to? Oh, I’ve watched a “90 Day Fiance” every Sunday with my girlfriend and my dad.” So I just wrote a song about that. It’s just me trying to find a more creative way to talk about my happy relationship.
What can you tell us about the music you’ve been working on?
I have about four demos right now that I’m just working on. There are about 15 songs, but my process is I’ll write too many, and then I’ll strip it all down and be overly critical. Then I’ll find the eight to ten that I actually like, so it will get trimmed down a lot. I’m just working, grinding, doing the work. I don’t know what’s gonna happen with the songs or when they’re gonna come out.
How would you describe to someone else what our sound is like, genre-wise?
People keep asking me that and I’ve been trying to answer this question in the best way that I can. I recently started a new approach at a Fourth of July party with some old friends where I described it as a disco R&B band. And they laughed. Because they’re so used to the old projects, where it’s so like indie rock and The Pixies, kind of syrupy. But now it’s sort of disco and R&B, and I think people aren’t used to me saying that. I don’t think I’m used to saying that.
Would you describe the sound of your next release similarly? Disco R&B?
Maybe less disco but definitely more R&B. I also want to throw in some dub reggae. But I don’t know yet. I’m still working on that.
Tickets to all of the Innovation Festival’s music performances can be purchased here. Doors open at 3 p.m. at Crown Center Square, and the show starts at 4 p.m.