ELEPHANTS finally left my bedroom. After weeks of playing it solo on acoustic guitar, we brought it to rehearsal space yesterday. What happened next was magic.
I showed the guys my phone demo – that raw recording from April with all the street noise and rough vocal takes. They listened without saying much, nodding along to the broken melody. Then we started playing.
First attempt was a mess. Everyone tried to follow the demo exactly, but it sounded flat. The drummer couldn’t find the right pattern because my original recording had no clear rhythm. The bass player looked lost with the chord changes that don’t really follow rules.
Second attempt was better. I told them to forget the demo and just feel what the song wants. The drummer found this groove that’s not quite standard, not quite anything else. Perfect for the chaos in the lyrics. The bass started following the vocal melody instead of normal progressions.
What’s cool is how the song changed when other instruments joined. Those broken, cut-off verses suddenly made sense with drums cutting in and out. The guitar parts I wrote became layers – my acoustic underneath, electric guitar on top adding texture.
We spent two hours just on the chorus. “Give me one more chance” hits different when there’s a full band behind it. We tried it soft, we tried it loud, we tried it with everyone dropping out except bass. The final version builds from whisper to scream in about eight bars.
The bridge was the hardest part. In my demo it’s just me repeating “Bring me out” over and over, getting more desperate each time. Live, we needed something that would translate that feeling without being repetitive. The drummer suggested this stop-start pattern that creates tension, like the music itself is struggling to breathe.
Recording rehearsals on the phone again, but now it sounds like an actual song instead of a bedroom experiment. You can hear how each musician brings their take. The bass player adds these subtle runs that weren’t in my original idea but feel completely natural now.
We’re still working on dynamics. The song needs to feel unstable, like it might fall apart any second, but also solid enough that people can follow it. It’s walking this line between chaos and structure that makes it interesting.
Next month we’re booking studio time. The song is ready to be captured properly now that we know what it wants to be. From solo acoustic demo to full band arrangement – it’s been quite a journey.
The rehearsal process taught me something important. Sometimes you need other people to help your songs find their true voice. ELEPHANTS is still my personal story about miscommunication and anger, but now it has the sound to match those emotions.
Can’t wait to share the final version with everyone.
— Indie pop artist, musician Anastasia Ledovskaya