Hailing from Los Angeles, Elohim, Hebrew for God, sings with god-like control and confidence. Although her latest singles “She Talks Too Much” and “Xanax” have been released by B3SCI Records for two months, they’ve gained popularity, generous reviews and various re-mixes by artists and bands such as COIN, BECOME and Gosh Pith, and it’s easy to see why.
“She Talks Too Much” is an indie-electro pop song on the calm of mind disturbed by a woman who, as the title suggests, “talks too much.” As she weaves with her lush-yet-sugared voice on the relational problems, she brings an element of maturity that holds the song together and prevents it from being melodramatic and mundane. She sings with a yearning of closure from nihilism and meaninglessness embodied in her conflict, and as she describes her toxic experience with the titular woman of the song, she enjoys it dangerously for both the high of confrontation and release provided when the pain ends, as we hear in the repetition of “tiger restless” and “system’s empty.”
There’s an interesting juxtaposition, not just in the schizophrenic lull between false peace and then conflict as shown by the belligerent verses followed by “I’m on a good one now” and “Coast is clear,” but also in Elohim’s voice itself compared with the material sung on: her voice is sweet, siren-like and hearkens to that of Grimes or Bjork, while the lyrics blend carnal instincts subdued by self-command. The self-command is ironic; the speaker of the song attempts to defend herself from the increasing domination of the titular woman and her own intoxication with the other woman’s abilities of expression. Elohim describes it as inspired by “the introverted feeling of not having a voice in a room or conversation.” It is a humanly recognized desire of connectivity and the inability to do so combined with the envy, coping, and escapism that arise from it. “Xanax” is similar in its desire for independence; Elohim chants, more mellowed, on her “panic attack” that is destroying her coupled with her escape from drug dependency. The name Elohim itself represents the messages encapsulated in the songs of shunning an incongruous fate in favor of a perfect inner world, existence, and liberation. “She Talks Too Much” and “Xanax” present unique, synthpop-esque, and highly polarized shouts into the void.
Elohim has been playing piano for much of her life and started singing since she was nine; her influences come from her sounds, surroundings, and musicians ranging from Rachmaninoff and Debussy to Thom Yorke. In the past, she has collaborated with many musicians and worked on a handful of projects. Most recently, she’s worked with Casey Veggies in “All That Gold.”
Elohim describes her music as “experiential” and “refined yet obscure,” akin to an “eleven-pointed star, with many sides and a strong core at the center,” which is clearly expressed in her work: she utilizes ethereal indie-pop but what is most salient and connective is again, the universality she brings. She loves people: she adores what her songs can mean to them as a fresh, fantastical journey and the inspiration people in turn give to her, as she states, “everyone around me genuinely sparks my interest. The way they interact and dissociate. What makes one cry, while the other laughs. The differences between us and the similarities. Love. Love is fascinating and beautiful. Life is crazy. Life is beautiful, and life is interesting.”
And that is what represents Elohim; she sings of one experience that transcends as a result of her focus on and immense dedication to her audience. She sings, sensitive to multi-facets and omnisciently as her name suggests. She sings, mixing raw emotions and technical instrumentals. Elohim is an up-and-coming artist, with new music being developed and further released in the rest of the year and a complete body of work in the future; each song will “create an experience”
distinctly Elohim.
Text by Lillian Dong
Photograph by Darian Zahedi