Q&A: In Conversation with ELKE – Discovering true Comfort and Creative Expression on ‘Divine Urge’
GUIDED BY NATURE, ELKE - the genre-bending musical project of Nashville-based artist Kayla Graninger - has spent years cultivating her signature sound through a myriad of diverse influences. After releasing her EP My “Human Experience” in 2022, she returns with her new album Divine Urge–compiling art-pop, bloghouse, progressive rock, and more to convey her strong sense of self identity. Elke shares that comfort was the key to success when creating this record, expressing that being able to be 100% herself allowed ideas to flow consistently and was a large motivator to the creative process. Creating a record stemming from her ideas rather than what already exists was what led to this creatively-fulfilling project–and it shows through each song on the album.
The Luna Collective sat down with Elke to chat about what achieving this sense of comfort looked like in the album’s creative process, how she sees music connect to her sense of style, and how she is forming her community through meaningful connection on her recent travels around Europe.
LUNA: I'm not gonna lie, I'm very excited for this! I saw you open for Zac [Farro] at Baby’s All Right last year and you were so good!
ELKE: Thank you! That means so much.
LUNA: I brought two of my friends with me who hadn’t listened to you and they loved it. One of my friends bought one of your shirts, he’s worn it to work a couple times. Thank you for taking the time to do this. Honestly, I'm geeking real bad. How are you?
ELKE: That’s a dream, and I'm good! I've been away for a lot of the year and I haven't been home that long, but I'm starting my routine again, which has been really good. Just working out, piano lessons, and seeing friends. It's been good.
LUNA: Home is Nashville, right?
ELKE: Mhm yeah.
LUNA: Okay, cool. I wasn't sure if you lived in LA or New York or what the tea was, but that's so nice.
ELKE: Kind of all of them at one point.
LUNA: Honestly, if you can you kind of have to go between the three. I've always been in Toronto, so I can't say the same, but I hope to get there one day!
ELKE: I love Toronto. I've been there once. It was really snowy.
LUNA: You went during the winter? My condolences.
ELKE: I kind of loved it!
LUNA: At least someone does! We can just get right into it. Like I said, your show at Baby’s was one of my favorite shows I had seen in a while. I wanted to be there on time to see your set and you didn't disappoint. I've been listening to you for a hot minute. I listened to the new album and it’s amazing. I've been listening to it on my walks to work lately and it's so, so, so good. I love everything you've done with it. I read your last interview with LUNA and you mentioned how a grand piano and fascination for dancing and movement was a big source of inspiration for your last EP, My “Human Experience”. I wanted to know if there were any notable new developments or inspiration to your creative process for this new album, Divine Urge?
ELKE: I mean, that definitely trickled into this record. I think that grand piano and even the last EP kind of defined how this record was going to sound and I knew that. A lot of the songs on that record started out on piano. So that was a big deal. Also just working with Jake, who is the co-producer of this record, brought out so much of myself that I probably wouldn't have been able to on my own. I felt comfortable enough to be exactly how I would feel in the moment, which is sometimes really weird. Sometimesmy suggestions would be really out there, but he'd just be so game and then know what to do with my strange thoughts. He’d be like “you want me to make what sound?” Honestly,it's hard to reach that comfort alone. Where you're just 100% yourself, and to have somebody else accept you for who you are just makes you want to do it more.
LUNA: And someone who accepts your ideas and stuff too.
ELKE: Yes, yes, like somebody who not only accepts them, but also turns them into something and just runs with it. That was absolutely essential for this.
LUNA: Amazing. So the last EP you did, did you work with the same people? Or did you expand to working with new people? What were the differences in production there?
ELKE: It wasa little bit of a gateway from my first record to my second record. The first record I actually worked on with my boyfriend. He worked on that EP with me, but I also produced a little bit on that EP. I feel like in a way, I was kind of bridging out of this record working with Zac, and then being like “Oh, I can kind of produce and do this and that” and brought that tothe next record. It felt like a little stepping stone.
LUNA: You canhear so much influence from so many different genres in this album. has bloghouse, progressive rock, inspiration from 2000s pop idols, which I love. I wanted to know more about who you've been listening to, and who you listened to while working on this record?
ELKE: I remember before Jake and I even started, I was listeningto the Duchess by Fergie so much. The epiphany happened when I realized they're literally using “Oh shit” [in “London Bridge”] as a beat throughout the song. Like this is a rhythmic part of the song and they're just going, “Oh shit,” and she's just slaying over it, and I'm like, this is changing my life. I listened to that record growing up so much, especially in high school. I feel like that’s when I started tapering out of listening to pop music, but it just came back in a big wave. I was a cheerleader for a decade and would perform to hyperpop music. I feel like thanks to that and then listening to Fergie again, I have all this energy I've been storing it up.
Listening to Fergie was really, really big for this album. Also, just a fact, I'm such a fan of Genesis Owusu. So I was listening to him a lot and a lot of other people too. But I guess the important thing is I never mentioned any of this while we were making the record. I think that's something that made it feel more like a stream of consciousness. Maybe that’s why it's kind of hard to pinpoint, because it was very ping-pong’ed with thoughts rather than “I really want to get a sound like this thing.” We didn't do that on that record, which to me was such a relief in a way because I'm writing something freeform. It wasn’t really like “Hm, I want this to feel like something that already exists,” which feels like an achievement for sure.
LUNA: I know we talked about you living in Nashville, obviously, and so many extremely talented people come out of Nashville. Can you tell me what it was like growing up in such a musically-diverse city, and how your upbringing has affected your sound as an artist?
ELKE: I'm actually from the Midwest! Which even then, kind of, not really. I've moved around so many times. I would say all of my musical influences probably come from the blandness of a suburb. My dad is very old, like I have a very old father for my age. So I grew up listening to a lot of doo-wop and The Beatles and also just dad rock. Also, being from a suburb meant listening to really, really popular things like Britney Spears. Of course I'm gonna listen to all that. When I moved to Pennsylvania, I sat next to this guy in photography class and he showed me Radiohead. He also showed me a song that would change my life forever, which is ‘These Days’ by Nico. I swear, if it plays in a cafe or on a show, I can't leave. I have to stay. I was called to the spot.
LUNA: I love when you're in a public space and you hear a song that's so personal to you. It's like, wow, they knew I was coming.
ELKE: Yes exactly!
LUNA: Another thing I wanted to say that I really love and appreciate about you is you have such a cool sense of fashion. The way you express yourself visually, your personal style is really cool. How do you see a connection between your sense of fashion and music?
ELKE: Great question. It took me a long time to figure out what style meant to me. I think fashion and style are quite different. There's trends and things that come and go, but style is more about a thing that you know willmake you feel good when you put it on your body. It took me a while to figure that out. I can go to a store now and I finally stopped making purchases where I ask myself “Why did I do that?” I’ll see something now and I'm like “Oh, this is Elke. This is me, this is just everything that I want.” I'm 6’1. I'm realizing because of that I've grown this masculine side, partly because of my personality too, but being able to merge that with avant-garde edgy shapes and things that don't cling to my body as much.
LUNA: Even with doing that, I feel like you still have elements of femininity in your clothes as well, which I love seeing that tie between the two. I also find I like to lean towards some masculine-ish shapes or silhouettes, but then tying in things that could be considered more feminine with that creates such a cool look. I think that you have that down so well!
ELKE: It's peace. It's harmony!
LUNA: I think everything you wear just looks so at home on you. As a fashion girl, I’m really drawn to visuals and your personal style is just so amazing. It was one of the first things I also noticed about you as an artist too.
ELKE: Damn, you have no idea how much I appreciate that, because sometimes I'm just like, “what am I doing?”
LUNA: I also wanted to touch on how you mentioned you've been like traveling around a lot and now you're finally able to have some downtime. What do you like to do during your free time? What helps you unwind?
ELKE: Honestly, taking classes. I really like learning. I like spending my days alone and then hanging out with people at night. I've been trying to hang out with people during the day sometimes because I think it's healthy to put yourself in new positions. But it's just not as comfortable for me for some reason. It feels so forced hanging out during the day. I don't know.
LUNA: Almost like an errand or a stop?
ELKE: Yes!
LUNA: I'm the same. I'm a big hang out with people at night type of person. I usually work in the evenings as well so hanging out during the day feels so limited, but when it’s night the possibilities are endless, the night is young!
ELKE: Dude, this is so real. You know what makes you thrive and what you feel good doing–it's so important. Sometimes, I don't know why but I love making myself feel guilty for no reason. And I'm like, why am I doing that? During the daytime I’ll be telling myself “You SHOULD hang out with people in the daytime because that’s what normal people do,” so I’ll be like “Okay I guess I should do that!”
LUNA: But it can be so much harder–like a chore!
ELKE: It really does!
LUNA: I think the best conversations happen at night too, dare I say.
ELKE: I'm actually just thinking about this right now, but the lighting. I'm very sensitive to light and I'm starting to wonder if it’s a lighting thing. Like if you’re hanging out with people in the day it feels like doing dry cleaning or something—like things that I associate with daylight. But at night, it's soothing to just dim the lights and have the best conversations.
LUNA: I love whenever I go to my friend's place later in the day, and we’ll just go for a nice little evening stroll, or sit at a park and just relax. It's so good. Do you ever just go to a park at night with friends and just sit?
ELKE: Yes! I actually did this recently after a movie! We got ice cream and sat at a park and just kind of acted like teenagers, like climbing on something and going “Look what I can do.” That to me, is just the peak hangout. It's something about when you reach that era where you'd go to the movies and then afterwards, you'd be like, “look at me jump off of a curb.”
LUNA: Me after I saw Hunger Games for the first time and I was running down the movie theater hallway acting like I was about to get killed.
ELKE: That is my dream night.
LUNA: Sometimes all you need is a night with the girls and the moon!
ELKE: I'm going to take notes of this, because I'm doing this thing called long lunch with my friends. I was in Italy in the summer and one of my closest friends lives out there. She introduced me to a long lunch. It's where you start eating at 1 and then you get so much food, but it's spaced out over three hours. Everyone just sits still. You don't really have your phone. You're just chatting, but this happens every day in Italy.
LUNA: Their lifestyle out there is so much more laid back. I love that they also have a nap time.
ELKE: Yes, right after long lunch!
LUNA: I love that everything is literally closed at 5pm for nap time and then they open back up later. Love that they have a nap time after their long lunch and then everyone just goes out to the local bar and drinks wine and eats pizza. That's the life I need to live.
ELKE: Dude, it changed my life experiencing that and now I'm trying to bring it to Nashville.
LUNA: You have to pilot the long lunch in Nashville and I'll do it over here!
ELKE: Okay, deal.
LUNA: We're gonna make waves, everyone's gonna be on long lunch in North America just because of us.
ELKE: I think this is the one way that maybe the lighting thing I mentioned doesn't count for some reason because we're all hanging out, you're eating food so slowly, and I think part of it too is just the pace. I’m getting food from taco shops and bringing it to the hangout, still calling it “long lunch” because we just spend a lot of time together. When you don’t go to a busy restaurant and instead you just go to a place where the world feels slow.
LUNA: I'm not a big restaurant person but I love food. I think because I love to cook so much I'd rather just make something and bring it to my friends and all of us enjoy our long lunch together. I’ll usually just tell them to bring their beautiful selves and a blanket if we’re going to the park.
ELKE: You are a dream friend. I hope that you do that and I hope that your friends are so thankful for you.
LUNA: We do things for each other! Sometimes we'll do craft nights and I'll bring the food, my friend’s in design so she’ll sew and we’ll just craft side by side. It's really cute.
ELKE: I love that. That's insane. I'm actually going to a darning class tomorrow. I have a pair of socks I’m bringing and they're hosting one at this bookstore here.
LUNA: That sounds SO sick. Okay, I have one more question. It's kind of a bigger one because I know you're a Leo.
ELKE: Yes.
LUNA: I'm an Aquarius. I love Leos. I read the 2024 horoscope for Leos and it mentioned that this year is a lucky one for Leos because it's a lot fulfilling long-pending dreams, receiving opportunities to progress in your career, and just overall significant achievements. I definitely believe from an outside perspective, you've 100% achieved all of that for yourself. On a personal level, do you believe that rings true for you for 2024 so far?
ELKE: Yes in every single way.
LUNA: Amazing.
ELKE: You read that and I thought to myself, horoscopes are horoscopes for that reason.
LUNA: I love astrology and it could potentially all be bullshit but it’s fun!
ELKE: Let us have fun! That's so true. The truth-police are like “that's not real.”
LUNA: I think those guys just hate fun! I think yours is 100% true.
ELKE: Yes! I mean I am a Leo though and I have very big achievement goals. So even though that's happening I still feel like I have to keep going.
LUNA: Well it's only up from here!
ELKE: Oh I hope so.
LUNA: In terms of the remainder of this year,what's something you're looking forward to? Maybe something you want to achieve by the end of the year or going into 2025? Does it piggyback off your horoscope?
ELKE: I mean, I have like 60 tiny things. The lessons I was telling you about–getting good at all those things. But I also think I have walls that I put up–it doesn't seem like it with how we're chatting right now. This is so fun, but I can't always access this part of me. I think that you're just a great vibe.
LUNA: You're a great vibe! You make it so easy. An Aquarius and a Leo will always see each other–sister signs for a reason!
ELKE: I'm putting a little Craigslist ad out for all Aquariuses.
LUNA: Well you've got one right here!
ELKE: Yeah you know why go any further? But working on the walls I put up has been on my mind a lot. I think there's nothing more unsettling than feeling like you can't fully be yourself. I have such a good group of friends and I have a great community, so it doesn't feel as heavy as maybe it did in my mid-20s. I was really really struggling with how I didn't even know that I wasn't always being myself all the time, and I've grown a lot from it. But I would love to just not feel like I'm tensing up 60% of the time.
LUNA: Yeah it's honestly hard. That's one thing that I've also honestly been working on too. I turn 25 in January.
ELKE: Your brain is almost fully grown! Your frontal lobe.
LUNA: I feel like I could feel my frontal lobe developing right now and it's so scary. I feel like around this age is when you start realizing the people in your life who are truly in it for you and will actually show up for you. Learning that has been kind of difficult because you think everyone around you is your friend just because there's almost this false sense of closeness with social media.
ELKE: Yes absolutely.
LUNA: It can feel sad to realize who those people are and that can result in how those walls get put up. Just figuring out who's actually in my life and supports me in the way I need to be supported and who do I feel I can support back?
ELKE: I remember a hot topic around 25 was I didn't really connect with some people at all, but I’d feel bad so I’d still hang out with them sometimes.
LUNA: It's very ‘Girl, so confusing’.
ELKE: Yes it's so true! I feel like getting over that has been so helpful. But it’s important to go through that so you can get to this place where you know what and who makes you happy. It’s too exhausting to put on something for someone.
LUNA: Yes exactly–or when you feel you NEED to hang out with someone rather than want to. It’s almost a sad feeling, especially when you look at friendships that fizzle out. Sometimes you might look back and ask “Maybe I could’ve done more to be in this person’s life?”, but then you realize it is likely a mutual drift you both accepted.
ELKE: I think we also just need to chill–we aren’t bad people! Why is that such a common thing in the way we talk to ourselves? Even with my friends, we’re not bad people!
LUNA: No exactly! We’re all just human, and you come to a realization of how limited your time is. Why would you want to spend it with people you don’t feel fully connected to when you could spend it with someone you do have that connection with?
ELKE: And it’s a disservice to both parties too. I think that was helpful for me, when I realized it’s kind of mean to the other person if I’m just showing up to show up. I would hate it if someone was hanging out with me just because they feel bad.
LUNA: Yeah 100%. I’m sure there’s people out there who’ve felt that way about me so I shouldn’t beat myself up over not putting in effort with as many people as I feel like I have to and instead focus on the people who I want to show that effort to. So far it’s been great after having that realization–definitely on the same page as you in the sense of taking down those walls.
ELKE: Yes! It’s kind of active–one goes up and one goes down. But I want to get to the point where it’s like “What walls?” I want to see that to the end of the world and back.
LUNA: And I think you will! You’re truly so lovely–as I expected.
ELKE: Thank you, I appreciate that so much.
LUNA: I’m very excited to see you continue to grow, I’ll always be in your corner supporting you!
ELKE: Izzy my Aquarius right here!
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