Elephant Stone

Combining the influence of Indian classical music with the influence of British Invasion bands like the Kinks and the Beatles, Canadian neo-psychedelic outfit Elephant Stone is the brainchild of Rishi Dhir, formerly of the High Dials. The project’s first album, 2009′s The Seven Seas, demonstrated Dhir’s knack for breezy melodies as well as his use of instruments like sitar, dilruba, and tabla in a Western rock context. Elephant Stone was operating as a trio by 2014′s Three Poisons, and they made use of a children’s choir on 2020′s Hollow, the project’s fifth album. The French-language EP Le Voyage de M. Lonely dans la Lune appeared in 2022.
Inspired by his own ongoing Indian classical music discovery, Dhir formed Elephant Stone in Montreal in 2008. With Dhir singing lead and handling nearly a dozen instruments, he recorded the project’s debut album with help from several guests, including producer Jace Lasek. It arrived in May 2009 on Dhir’s own Elephants on Parade label (with Fontana Distribution). The Glass Box EP followed in 2010 on Elephants on Parade and 360 Degree. The group then signed with Canada’s Hidden Pony for 2013′s Elephant Stone. Settling into a regular lineup of Dhir, Gabriel Lambert on guitar, and Miles Dupire-Gagnon on drums, Three Poisons arrived in 2014, also on Hidden Pony. They covered “L.A. Woman” for that year’s A Psych Tribute to the Doors (Cleopatra). Some of the other contributors included the Raveonettes, Clinic, and the Black Angels.
The trio released Elephant Stone’s fourth LP, Ship of Fools, with Burger Records in 2016, before returning with the five-song Live at the Verge, which captured a session at Toronto’s Verge Music Lab in February 2017. The Ship of Fools remix EP Remix of Fools followed in September. The band’s fifth full-length, Hollow, split guitar duties between Lambert and Robbie MacArthur. Also featuring a children’s choir, it arrived on Elephants on Parade and London’s Fuzz Club Records in early 2020. The 2022 French-language EP Le Voyage de M. Lonely dans la Lune saw MacArthur and Jason Kent taking over on guitar. ~ Marcy Donelson