A Year and A Month

It has been way too long since I have written a blog post. I mean seriously dude, it doesn't take that much. Last August I started my first year at the Kogod School of Business. Going full-time for the MBA program has obviously taken up a bunch of time. More learning, less creating, but it's the summer and there is some time to do both now.

Last fall I launched www.nickelefante.com as my online "resume". A place for people to check out a lot of what I can do. Almost every musical project I have worked on is up there, plus some of the design work.

As school has subsided, I have taken a more active role in managing Y Wonder and the Wonder Whys. A local Hip-Hop/R&B band that has been gaining momentum over the past year. Playing shows at the Velvet Lounge (and filling it), The Pinch, and DC9 a week ago. Follow the link to hear the live show from DC9. Also, you can follow the band on twitter @Y_Wonders, Instagram: ywonder, and see pictures and videos from most of their shows in pinterest, tumblr, vimeo, and YouTube.

The harder I work, the more opportunities present themselves.

Have a GREAT first day of SUMMER!!!!

Peace & Love

So Much to Let You Know!

The "First Round Draft Pick" video was loved and blogged about many times since RGIII
was drafted (yesssss!). I swear the D.C. sports scene is changing because of his mojo. You
can see the video on YouTube here. Special thank you's go to Yohan Ferdinando for putting
the video together and Skin legends LaVarr Arrington and Brian Mitchell for retweeting!

Stemming directly from the FRDP melee, I completed the theme song for BurgundyBlog.com.
It's got a nice rock feel and it sticks in your head. Helping a fellow Skins fan was a pleasure.

Last, but certainly not least. "First Round Draft Pick" is up on iTunes. Help a starving artist out
and buy it. Share it! Let the WORLD know about it!

Special thanks to mom for photographing and putting the FRDP flyer together!
More music coming shortly…

Peace & Love

EE

"First Round Draft Pick--

Elefante"…Is the name I wanted to give my first son, but seeing as I am not really like
that, and I don't have a son, I decided to title the song it instead. I have been inspired
by the recent hope that RG3 will be the 'Skins first pick…maybe this will nudge him
in the right direction? Also, life is good and I consider this the icing on the cake for my
application into b-school. Pick ME! C'mon! I'm your first choice, right?!?!

Seriously folks, I made this song in less than one day. Actually, I completed the whole thing
in 4 hours. I straight ad-libed the vocals…which gives the song its charm. My first
listeners have called it soul. However you vibe with it…it should put a smile on your face,
which is why music is the coolest!

The music video will be on YouTube ASAP...

First Round Draft Pick

Written & Produced by N. Elefante

Performed by N. Elefante & Y. Ferdinando

Peace & Love

EE

Many Days in the life of a Producer

Again, I invite you to become a fan of the ElefantEar band page
and check out some more pictures of me and the extended family
doin' our thing. Looking back on 2011, I have to admit,
I am beaming with pride. Two albums completed, ("Potential" and "Blunt Inspiration")
two more projects in the works, the band has been formed, and the
word keeps spreading. Is there anything better than creating music?

Happy New Year!

Peace & Love

EE

ElefantEar Live Studio Session

Last week, ElefantEar dropped into Forman Performance to record 5 original songs.
A million thanks to engineer extraordinaire Brian Forman for set-up, take down. and
sprinkling that "crack" on the tracks to make 'em pop! We did good for three hours
and the instrumentals are ready for vocals. I took pictures to stamp the whole experience.
Here is a glimpse of ElefantEar doin' the damn thang!

Peace & Love

EE

BLUNT INSPIRATION!

The Mixtape is finally done and ready for your ears! A true VA production.
"Blunt Inspiration" (double entendre people), was put together over the
course of the past year with Tha Product, Kastro, E.P., Natural Born Spittahs,
Don P, Hookstars and myself. 18 original tracks...hot verses over fire beats!!!
No matter which you like, you will find at least a few that you can break ya neck to.
Hard copies coming soon. For now.....go to this link and start cranking!

BLUNT INSPIRATION

Peace & Love

EE

Thursday Baby!

Even though I am deep in Calculus (simultaneous boo and cheer), recording with
the band, and studying; this song came together for me about ten days ago.
For no good reason I took the whole month of August off and hadn't really
been making any new beats until that night. Recently I have been
challenging myself to make songs in under 8 tracks. No duh you say? Well,
My goal in production has been to try and make more with less (and it has been happening
at a snails pace). This offering marries both my writing skill and production skill
into one happy, simple partnership. What are the three truths of life again?
Death....Taxes....and...

GRAVITY

Written and Produced by N. Elefante

Peace & Love

EE

Studio Session and More!

Tomorrow, ElefantEar will jump into Forman Performance Studios (Arlington, VA)
to record live tracks for our press kit. The transition from synthetic sound to live sound
has been eye opening for the band. The songs become this awesome fusion of pop,
blues, rock, and hip-hop. Your ears will be pleased by the results. Once the press kit is
finito, we will be able to play more gigs! Thursday I will do something I haven't done in
soooo long, which is release a new song. It has taken a few months to figure out how to
juggle going back to school and keeping up with this, but when you love what you do,
you find a way...

Peace & Love

EE

One Down...More to Come!

ElefantEar the band broke the ice last Saturday September 17th, 2011 when we
played our first show ever at Ri Ra in Clarendon. We were the first act to go on
for the LocalHeadphones Band Crawl. I'd say for the first show we played well.
People were into it and definitely excited about the music!!! We have a few shows
booked for the future and I will keep you posted as to the whereabouts.
Thank you Arlington crew and strangers for coming out and supporting our
release into the wild blue yonder of performing, kicking ass....and taking names.

Peace & Love
EE

Potential is finally up!!

The whole album, "Potential", released May 25th, 2011 is uploaded
and ready to be listened to!!! My first album!!! I produced all of the songs
and couldn't have done it without the FINE work put down by
EP, DANTE DS, KASTRO, and 51Nh4!!! THANK YOU FOR
YOUR HARD WORK and CREATIVITY!!! If you want a copy
of your very own album, please contact me at elefantearproductions@gmail.com
and we will work out the arrangements.

POTENTIAL

ENJOY!!!

Peace & Love

A Strong Start

Hello! The music lives on! And where? The up and coming one
stop shop for all of the emerging artists in the DMV...(survey says?!?!)
www.localheadphones.com
ElefantEar is one of the lucky few being promoted on this site, plus
we have the two highest listened-to tracks! We are slated to be the
opening act for their release party/bar crawl September 17th. I will
return with a where and a when ASAP. But for now, check out the site,
listen to the music and sike yourselves up for our show.
This is only the beginning....

Peace & Love

July...

A lot has been going on this month. There's been some of everything.
Band practice, studio sessions, songwriting, producing and finding a new job.
51Nh4 and I are working on some things we will be happy to share with you
in the near future. It has been a very creative month! I am excited to start performing
and releasing this music to the world.

Peace & Love

Northside Coolout Type Ish

"First Time" is a song you gotta chill and sit back to. The title fits perfectly,

seeing that it was LadyLeo's first time recording in the studio. Kastro and I

wrote the hook, then turned to her and said..."we need a girl on this...make it

sound like you want us REAL bad!"(why she would have to try to sound

like she wanted us didn't make any sense) And after a few tries, she nailed it. 

To finish it off, EP came through and did what he always does. It's fun working

with people that get what you're trying to go for. If this song makes you hot,

don't worry, it's summer, we won't mind if you shed some layers. ;-)

FIRST TIME

Produced by N. Elefante

Written by N. Elefante, EP & Kastro

First Instrumental Offering

Maybe I heard The Meters too many times this week...or maybe
I didn't have a good enough melody to match the instrumental...yet.
What I do know is that 51Nh4 asked me to make a dance track this past
week and me being the competitive type,  I had to exceed his expectations.
This isn't my usual go-to genre, but when it comes to music...
who wants to be stuck in a glass case of emotion? I know I don't!

TECHNO POE POE

Produced by N. Elefante

I have so much POTENTIAL!!!

The ten song album that I have produced is finally done!

Couldn't have done this without Brian, Dante, EP, Kastro, Karl and Yohan

Can't Spell Collaboration Without the Labor

It was a treat last weekend to have S1Nh4 around and ready to create.
I made the skeleton of this beat on Friday and after getting his input
and quality guitar playing, we tracked out most of this bad boy by the end
of Saturday. The lyrics came Sunday and the missing piece of the puzzle,
James on da bass, stopped by yesterday. This song is a banana split of
back-in-the-day R&B, Hip-Hop, and Funk. So...are you hungry?
Then take a bite of this...


INSIDE OUT

Written by N. Elefante & Y. Ferdinando

Bass: J. Keith

Produced by N. Elefante & Y. Ferdinando

You don't know Jack?

Jack Labadie is an incredible artist coming out of the 703.
I have had the pleasure of hanging out with him and seeing
some of his portraits up close. Rising star is an understatement.
The kid is well on his way...see for yourself.

http://www.jacklabadie.com/

Peace & Love

Interconnected

Just in case I wasn't giving you too much...I thought people
may want to have access to the ElefantEar facebook page too.
In the near future it will be a good stop on the interweb connector
to view photos of the crew and get info about upcoming shows.

ElefantEar Facebook BandPage

When the stars align...

You make a track (thanks to Kastro) this hot, with
strong lyrical content (shout out to Tha Product and EP)
and you end up with, in my opinion, some of this trio's
best work to date..."GAMETIME"

A video and a song in one week?

That's right. ; )! Ideally, I would love every week to be like this one.
Do at least a few songs (cause I am on that Ryan Leslie ambition...
and I can get an entire song done in one day), maybe a video and
design a t-shirt or two. For this track, I made the beat, called up
Dante DS and we both put a verse on it. It's simple, yet satisfying
and as DS pointed out to me...most of the time, those are the best kind.


JUST ASK ABOUT ME

Produced by N. Elefante

Written by N. Elefante & D. Stevenson