Pink Elephant

About

“We always want to push ourselves and we always think things can be better,” singer and guitarist Bonnie Fraser tells Apple Music of Stand Atlantic's second full-length, <i>Pink Elephant</i>, the follow-up to 2018's successful debut <i>Skinny Dipping</i>. “None of us were expecting it to go as well as it did. So it was just like, 'Oh shit. Okay. Now we've got to pull our socks off once again and just deliver.'” <i>Pink Elephant</i> plays with that idea of tripping on your own problems and overcoming that hysteria with honest, open, and often tough conversation. Whether it's the pulsating New Wave energy of "Blurry," the explosive "Jurassic Park," or the melancholy "Drink to Drown," the Australian-based quartet delivers 11 tracks that expand Stand Atlantic's sound beyond any one particular genre. "It's just about breaking that box that other people put us in there, which is fine, everyone's going to do that," explains Fraser. "But this record was particularly important for us to break the barrier and prove to not only ourselve, but to everyone else that we're capable of doing anything." Below, Fraser takes us through <i>Pink Elephant</i> track by track. <b>Like That</b> “So ‘Like That’ is just an over-embellishment of having a huge crush on someone and you have that connection that you can't really describe. And so that is even how the lyric came about. 'Cause I couldn't describe it to a producer when I was trying to write it. I'm like, 'It's just like that, like that.' And that's literally how the song, how the hook came about. It's just attempting to describe that indescribable feeling between like two people.” <b>Shh!</b> “‘Shh!’ is about feeling like you're not speaking up for yourself and letting other people talk over you or talk for you and kind of realizing that and going, ‘Wow, okay. Fuck that. I'm not going to do that. Why would I ever let someone else say something for me when I'm the only one that knows what's best for me?’ It's just taking control of your own conversation—taking control of what you want to say and what you want to do.” <b>Blurry</b> “‘Blurry’ essentially is about a toxic relationship, or just toxicity in general. That kind of push and pull of ‘I love you, but I hate you, but I need you, but I don't want you.’ Like just the back-and-forth, not knowing where you stand, and it puts you in a haze, like blurry, no pun intended.” <b>Jurassic Park</b> “So everyone thinks this is like a party song. And it's just so not about that. I read the lyrics back then, like, ‘Oh my god, it does sound like a party.’ Obviously everyone talks about mental health and how important that i. And that is great in its own right. But growing up, I was in a very dysfunctional family and I was around mental illness quite a bit. And substance abuse and addiction. And my mom was a partner to a person with those struggle. And it's so sad to see that person kind of start crumbling, but then it's also really sad when your own mom has to deal with this and pick up the pieces and be hurt over and over. And I just wanted to put more emphasis on partners or loved ones who care so much for this person but that person won't get help unless they help themselve.” <b>Eviligo</b> “This song is the first time I've ever just made up shit. Obviously I do take it from some kind of elements of a real place, but the entire story of it is completely made up. I am not a stalker by any mean, but it is about the kind of obsessive mentality that you can sometimes find yourself maybe flipping into at one stage or another and just put up to 11. And basically having a crush on someone so big that you want to wear their skin, essentially. We were just playing around with lyrics in that one.” <b>Wavelength</b> “‘Wavelength’ is about like trying to talk to someone and sometimes you feel like you're speaking a different language, because they have a different way of seeing things or saying things to you. And you're literally just not on their wavelength and sometimes take it really horribly when really I didn't mean that at all. And that's okay. Like, everyone has different ways to see thing, obviously, but just that concept and just not taking it lightly and feeling like everyone's against you, but when really they're just not speaking your language.” <b>Drink to Drown</b> “I find it really hard to write about relationship, and I know it's so corny, but this one was just about feeling like you've given your all to someone and it's just not being reciprocated. Everyone has a different love language. Just because you're not feeling it doesn't mean they're not showing it in their own way. And I think the whole song can just be summed up in that one line that say, 'If you love me, saturate me.' It's just like, you feel like they're not giving you enough and you need it all. Because you're a greedy motherfucker.” <b>DWYW</b> “I kind of lost sight of what I even wanted because I was just hearing so many opinions and there was a lot of pressure to do well, and I obviously didn't want to fail at all. And it kind of got to the point where I just felt like a dog lying on its back, just being like, 'Just take me. Just throw your knive. I'm done.' There's a line that say, 'Take me close to the sun/I'm just hanging from your silver tongue.' And that's talking about how you can let people do anything if they're like complimenting you and treating you nicely. It covers it up, in a way. It’s basically feeling like you want to give up and let people have their way.” <b>Silk & Satin</b> “Fun fact: We wrote that for <i>Skinny Dipping</i>, but it didn't fit on the album. It also used to be like a full-on rock song and we still really liked it. So we revisited it and just kind of completely changed the whole vibe, essentially. It was written a few years ago, at a time where I just felt super alone and I didn't have anyone to turn to or talk to, which was totally not the case at all. Just sometimes the brain eats away at you. It was just that feeling of helplessne, not really knowing who to turn to, and also feeling guilty for even feeling bad when only great things are going on in your life.” <b>Soap</b> “That is just talking about everyone having their own vices—it doesn't have to be like a substance or anything like that, but everyone has their ways of dealing with it. Some people love to buy clothes or read book, even. You can have healthy vice, but I guess at the time I was wanting something to fill whatever void I felt like I had. And I was kind of just doing anything I wanted to my body and not knowing where you stand in life.” <b>Hate Me (Sometimes)</b> .

via Apple Music

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