Elliphant, AKA Ellinor Olovsdotter, is feeling a little under the weather.

It’s probably the first time in a few years that she’s slowed down, and it seems that all her running about has finally caught up with her.

It’s been more than two years in the making for Elliphant, but she’s at last released her debut studio album, Living Life Golden. Literally made while on the road, the record’s list of collaborators and producers is suitably impressive, with guests including Major Lazer, Joel Little, Skrillex and Azealia Banks.

“It’s been kind of finished for almost two years. This is … a good collection of songs and I like [them all]. I’ve been selecting stuff for EPs and so probably 70 per cent of the album is actually made up of two-year-old songs; it’s just a couple of songs that have popped up in the last year. To make this album, I actually just collected the whole experience of doing Elliphant while I’ve been going from Sweden to America, and all these people that I met. Everything that’s been happening – it’s a whole new life touring the whole world and [it] has to do with that album.”

Elliphant’s career has moved from one high to the next since she began life as a professional musician only five years ago at the tender age of 25. The young Swede has an impressive ability to attract high-calibre musicians and producers – a talent that presumably owes a lot to her effortlessly cool nature, confidence and that decidedly husky voice.

The diversity of those involved means there are bursts of reggae, EDM, dub and pop littered throughout the record. The combination may seem pretty frantic initially, but the result is a strong mix of warm, catchy, anthemic tracks. The fact Olovsdotter didn’t have any idea about what she wanted to do from the outset merely adds energy to the piece.

“It is very changeable and it is all over the place – it’s like a, you know, shuffle generation album,” she laughs. “I think if you don’t havean idea of what you want to do, then you’re open to everything and you’re going to have a lot to do because there’s so much out there. I understand that some artists don’t want to do that but I don’t know what I want.”

Lyrics, however, are something she has complete consciousness of. “I talk very stupidly but I’ve always had a really good way of writing. I just really love writing. Right now I’m writing an amazing, realistic children’s book that I’m so excited about.”

Whenever she explains her lyrics, one gets not only a sense of her intellect, but also that she was obviously hurt by the recent chatter over the simplicity of the suggestive lyrics on ‘Spoon Me’. “Because Elliphant became something very easy-going, very strong, also kind of political, very feminist but still not so uptight, I just felt that I needed to find a language in Elliphant that was universal, that everybody could understand. I’d rather have a lot of people understanding the music then have a couple of people. I use a very simple language when I write. I just hope it’s clear and that it gives people some positive strength and emotions. Good feelings, you know?”

The 2015 leg of Splendour In The Grass resulted in a few more collaborations for Elliphant, with Azealia Banks popping up as one of the more surprising guests on the banging track ‘Everybody’. Their joint effort was the kind of project only someone like Olovsdotter could have brought about during a particularly contentious time for Banks.

“I made the song and I sent this to her already, so when I saw her go to the bathroom before her show, I was just like ‘Azealia! Ey!’ and she was like, ‘Oh fuck! Elliphant! Come to my place after the show.’ I went to see her and we had a really good time. She said, ‘Oh, when I go back from this, I’m going to record it.’ And she just did. She just put in a really tight fucking verse on the end of the song and I think [it] really needed her.

“That was a really great festival. So fun! Peking Duk, they reached out when they heard I was doing the festival and asked if I would do one song with them and since then we’ve been really close. They’re amazing guys. We’ve been doing some stuff but they’ve been touring and we need to just have some time and space to sit down – [to] get like a good moment.”

Unsurprisingly, upcoming work with Peking Duk isn’t all that’s on the cards, with European and American tours, a Red Bull mentor project and festival season all approaching. Although her stay at home is brief, Olovsdotter says she’s taking some time to reflect on what’s ahead.

“I want to see what songs people feel they’ve connected to. I feel like I need to just stand chill after this big rush and just really reconnect with all these amazing musicians, people and contacts that I haven’t really been able to nurture yet, you know? I need to just take some control back and really try to make an amazing third album and, you know, that’s all! I just want to hang out with cool people and make cool songs and live the life, you know? So I just…that’s what I do. And then it just happens! I could talk for hours.”

[Elliphant photo by Dan Monick]

Elliphant’sLiving Life Golden is out now through Sony.

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