Skrillex Protégé Elliphant Taught Me That Electro-Reggae Dubstep Is A Thing
Last night, I attended Elliphant’s concert at the Beverly Hills Troubadour, where not only did I interface with what felt like the entire Scandinavian population of LA, but I learned that Swedish reggae dubstep is a thing. Elliphant, is the Swedish-born pop singer who’s making it, and Skrillex — one of her mentors, along with Diplo and Dr. Luke — cosigns it.
I’d read a few interviews with the singer before, and learned that she likes to talk about her work as an entity aside from herself. I myself was under the impression I would be interviewing the singer, so I parked myself in the upstairs lounge at the Troubadour, and watched Elinor Olovsdotter, the 28-year-old Swedish native perform.
Skrillex also happened to be the first person I saw when I arrived at the venue. Me and three attractive Asian girls wearing Reformation and Kendall Jenner-esque belts stood behind him while he spoke to the will-call desk.
“Thanks for the tickets,” one of the girls offered up.
“Hey, it’s no problem,” Skrillex said. “I’ve got tickets on tickets.”
I only had one ticket, so I picked that up and headed inside. The energy levels of the concertgoers, Swedish and otherwise, were high. Elliphant performs her brand of electro-pop enthusiastically, frequently taking breaks from patois-inspired verses — is it the Die Antwoord effect? — to exclaim how happy she was to be exactly where she was. Elli, as her friends call her, is extremely tall, and looked something like an Amazon princess, black sports bra, and camo drawstring pants. She recently chopped her hair into a sporty pixie cut. Her fans really love her. After her hour long set, she stepped offstage momentarily, and the crowd chanted, “Elliphant, Elliphant!” until she returned, with Skrillex in tow, to perform a few more songs.
I walked up into the VIP section afterwards to greet the singer, and found her caught up in recounting her excitement about the performance to her mentor.
“I have to go back to the studio,” Skrillex said, while I creepily eavesdropped. “But I’m so, so proud of you.”
She wrote to me the next day:
“I had Ma final show on Ma Us tour in LA!! We went out with a Bang!!! Full house n blissed guests like Ma hero big Freedia n Ma bliss Skrillex! I was lucky that also Ma Pakistani brother was in town. Big up to Adil Omar! Mazive Love to Ma always so supporting la PHaNTs!!!! What can I say, just a perfect show in Ma way! Blisseh”
And judging from her concert last night, whatever her “way” will be, know that it’s really about to become a thing; you can check out her most recent album, Living Life Golden here. Blisseh.
Image via HypeBeast
