Earlier today, the Swapmeet band member Maxwell Elphick released a new solo single under the moniker of elph on all streaming platforms called stick around.
A versatile talent and a crucial component of the band’s playful, multi-faceted image, Elphick contributes to guitar, drums, and main and backing vocals in Swapmeet and also plays bass for post-punk outfit War Room.
Louis Campbell, Elphick’s War Room bandmate, has nothing but high praise for his fellow musician’s protean abilities.
“Maxwell musically can be a bit of a chameleon. He’s incredibly good at a wide variety of things, whether that’s songwriting, or guitar, or bass, or having an idea about aesthetics that go along with music, sonically and visually.
“It’s a pleasure to have Maxwell in War Room and he is absolutely an intrinsic part of our songwriting process. He really goes with his gut when it comes to making parts and coming up with melodic phrases.
“That gut instinct he’s very in tune with, whenever he’s able to express it in playing, always comes out incredibly tasteful, and with a lot of finesse.”
The multi-instrumentalist and songwriter shows off his chops on stick around, a short and intimate track with a slick beat and canny DIY production. His voice, imbued with a boyish charm, is soft, whispery, making the listener feel as if they are sitting with him in his bedroom as he hits record and sings.
The song was recorded on an 8-track cassette recorder, which, according to Campbell, “plays into the whole sonic aesthetic and the tone and the emotion behind the song.”
He refers to stick around as “a beautiful example of how [Elphick] can just jam out a song and interact with songwriting emotionally and on a deep level.
Stick Around is reportedly part of an upcoming elph EP, along with previously released singles notice and keep to myself.
More details are to be announced later this year.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
