Los Angeles based singer and multi instrumentalist Phil Danyew debuts retro inspired indie-rock project ‘Elephant Castle’. Phil was a touring member of the band Foster the People for the last six years, but recently quit to pursue his own sound.

Transporting listeners back to the nostalgic period of the 60’s, Elephant Castle presents a love of early influences blended with a love for analog synthesisers on ‘Cool To Be Unhappy‘.

Taking a different route for a normal break-up ballad, this number makes you feel that times ahead won’t be as dark as they may be right now. Featuring a powerful set of lungs, the vocals infused with the rhythmic arrangement will have you glued to the track. This is the sound of the future and THIS is an artist that’s ready for the big time.

“Cool To Be Unhappy” is about a girl I once loved who thought it was cool to be unhappy. Needless to say, it didn’t work out. I wrote the song about five years ago and I’ve reimagined it a few times. Originally it had a fast syncopated synth line throughout the whole song. The synth had lot of energy but it took up too much space. Once I committed to killing the synth line, there was so much room to work with. I ended up replacing a lot of the synth with older keyboards like some Mellotron flutes and Farfisa organs.

I used tape as much as I could and limited myself to play / sing it until I got it right. This lended itself to not editing the soul out of the music which I think is common in today’s pop music. We have the incredible capability to make things sound (too) good and (too) perfect. All this over-editing and processing comes at the cost of the human-ness of the art and is something I tried my best to avoid.” – Elephant Castle

A track to listen to on either an excellent set of speakers or headphones, this single is an experience in itself.