I met up with Elephant Stone in a quintessential Austin-type bungalow in South Austin. Upon my arrival, the group offers me tea and coconut water. We sit down in the living room – myself, Rishi Dhir (bass, vocals, sitar) Gabriel Lambert (guitar, backing vocals), Stephen (Venk) Venkatarangam (keys, bass), Miles Duprie (drums), Rishi’s wife Kirsty, their three year old daughter and band manager Ted. It is an intimate setting.

We dive into a conversation of sorts. The Montreal quartet is young and highly personable, with cognitive knowledge of music and not only for the type they love. Together we crowd around the microphone and dabble into the soundscape of Elephant Stone, future plans for the band and their instruments, which include the classical Indian sitar.

Immediately, I notice this group is different. They are the kind of people you want over for dinner and to play their sonic goodness in your speakers at all hours.

Band sound test – Hello, hello, hello

Kristen Blanton – Ok. We’re ready to go.

KB – Welcome to Austin. How has your experience been at Psych Fest so far sans playing?

Gabriel Lambert – Last night was fun. That’s all I can say man. Went to the opening party.

KB – And who are you excited to see?

GL – We want to see Goat.

Rishi Dhir– I actually wanted to see Rain Parade last night, but family comes first.

KB – You’re playing Sunday, the big day.

RD– Yeah, Clinics playing, The Black Angels, The Growlers.

KB – You just finished a tour with The Black Angels and Allah-Las. Can you tell me about that experience?

Rishi – Yeah, well I’ve known The Black Angels for 8-10 years so it just worked out that both our records came out at the same time. We’ve been talking about touring together for a while so the stars aligned and we got to tour together. It was great – they’re like family to me so it was a really good tour. And the Allah-Las, I heard their name kicking around a bit and when we played together we just jelled really well personal wise and music wise. Yeah, it was a great tour with all three bands.

Venk Venkatarangam – It was really great to meet the Allah-Las and The Black Angels. It was just a good experience all around.

KB – How did you get started together, what’s the story?

RD – I was in another band before this and quit it in 2006. I was just going to focus on classical new music and then I was going to move into fusiony, electronic stuff but I started writing pop songs again and things just snowballed from there. We ended up recording a record with a bunch of friends, went through a few members until we ended up with this lineup. With this new record it all came together really well.

KB – You’re from Montreal. Is there a difference playing for an American audience?

RD– Well, we’ve toured almost exclusively in America – Canada is such a big, spread out country, it’s so hard to go between cities so we’ve done pretty much just Toronto and Montreal. Most of our experience has been the US and it’s been great. We toured Europe twice. That was great. We sold out London and Iceland twice. I use to think the UK like drag music, but America seems like that too. Especially with The Black Angels, real music fans seem to be coming out.

KB– Where do you find your inspiration?

RD – I guess for me, it’s all about The Beatles. It’s what I was raised on. They basically set the blueprint for any great rock and roll band. Over ten years they did everything. We’re not reinventing the wheel or anything.

VV – I would agree with The Beatles as well.

GL – We’ll stick with that. There’s a lot of music out there you can talk about, you know.

RD– Most bands bring it to three bands right – The Beatles, The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin.

GL – Yeah, I guess our band is The Beatles out of those three.

RD – I don’t sound like Robert Plant, but you (GL) play like Jimmy Page.

Miles Duprie – Pink Floyd

RD– Pink Floyd is in there too.

KB– What’s on the horizon? Are you working on any new material?

RD – This summer we’re going to be demoing for the new record. There are already a few things in the works. We’re contributing to a Doors tribute record. There are a lot of great bands. Clinics doing it, the Ravonettes, Black Angels, Dead Meadow, Night Beats.

KB– How did you get in contact with that gig?

RD – They just reached out to us. I think we’re doing LA Woman.

KB– That’ll be great. In terms of writing your material, is it a full effort?

RD – It usually starts with me. I’ll have a melody and I’ll demo it on my laptop and then I’ll bring it to the band.

GL  – That’s why it’s actually been able to happen in a quick way. When we did this album, Rishi demoed for maybe, two weeks. Then we arranged the material for two weeks and then after that we were recording the album. When you’re writing music, four people as equal partners, it takes forever. Direction is hard to get. But in this case, it’s good because the skeleton is basically there. As band members we change a few things, add a different sound, bounce different ideas but it comes together pretty easily.

RD – There are always these pleasant accidents that happen. I remember on Heavy Moon. I had this middle eight in there and I remember Gavin was like, “This isn’t working. This doesn’t work.” And I remember I wanted to dampen my bass sound so put some foam underneath my strings, but then what happened was it changed the key of the string. I went to play the note, the wrong note but it actually worked. Everybody said, “Keep playing that, keep playing that.” That kind of stuff can’t happen with a guy and a computer. It has to happen with four musicians.

KB– To be able to run with that new sound, to have an ear for it and push for it because you hear it and you know it’s there.

GL – Exactly. You basically have to keep an open mind about the music and be ready to change things when you know that’s what’s needed with the music.

RD – You have to acknowledge your limitations right? You have to know when other people have to do their thing and you hold your place.

KB – Do you ever write on the road?

RD – When I write it’s just ideas that come into mind or phrases that people say. I remember one of the songs from our first record called Don’t You Know. Mark Eitzel from American Music Club, he played Montreal a few years ago and Kirsty and I had him over for dinner. He’s this really intense thoughtful guy and he said, “Sometimes I feel like a ghost passing through these walls.” That line stuck with me and I used it. It’s how he feels; he can’t relate to people.

KB– You’re always listening?

RD – I absorb so much. I’m like a sponge. I toured with The Black Angles all last year so I learned so much. I think it’s come across in our shows we’re a lot darker. Not intentionally, it’s just the headspace we’re all in.

KB– Do you find there’s a particular track you play that the crowd really responds to?

GL – I think as soon as Rishi plays sitar, people start filming.

KB– How long have you been playing sitar?

RD – I bought my first one in ’97. Venk and I, we’ve actually been playing sitar just as long. That’s how we met – two Indian guys working at a call center. We saw each other’s sitar and were like, “Oh, hey!”

GL – You brought your sitar to work? Were you sitting at cubicles next to each other?

RD – (laughs) Yeah. And then after I told Venk I was playing with my band and that I was going to start taking lessons. Then he showed me something and I was like, “Whoa.” He gave me his teacher’s number and we’ve been taking lessons for the past 13 years.

GL – I didn’t know that story. How did I not know that story?

KB – Do you get a lot of support from the sitar community?

RD – No, not at all. What we do isn’t classical; it’s actually looked down upon. Pop music is considered light music and not serious music. But in the rock idiom we look pretty serious.

KB – Just a matter of perspective is what it comes down to.

GL – If you’re open minded, it’s good.

With their self titled sophomore album in the works, we are already anxiously anticipating next summer when Elephant Stone will be on the festival circuit grind and pouring out all that material that currently lives in their heads.