Be it by a conventional critic or your father who yearns for the good ol’ days, many assume that to have a good time listening to current popular music is to enjoy without thinking critically.
However, fun music and intellectual enlightenment are not always mutually exclusive. Through a distinctive fusion of hip-hop, rock, R&B and funk, Elevaters, a band composed of mainly UCLA theater alumni, demonstrates that producing a sound simultaneously inspiring and enjoyable is possible. The group will play at the Key Club on Saturday, opening for hip-hop legends De La Soul and KRS-One.
The band has proven through its very lineup that a variety of people can come together. The six members of Elevaters belong to a wide range of nationalities and religions. In addition to race and religion, the members of the band do not share a uniform taste in music.
“We never tried to be different or have a unique sound, but we are an eclectic group coming together making music,” said Sam Golzari, who handles keyboards and vocals for the group. “But when we come together, we like the music we make.”
Their accessible yet commercially underrepresented sound has the potential to appeal to people with differing preferences and, therefore, the ability to bring all types of people together.
“Contemporary music has (its) demographic and it drives people apart. The music that we make is unclassifiable,” said David Noily, a guitarist and vocalist for Elevaters. “We don’t have a target market. Our music is for people of all social strata. Music is meant to bring people together, not bring them apart.”
Though Elevaters draws from a range of genres, hip-hop is an important form of expression for the band because of its universal applicability.
“We are hip-hop. You are hip-hop. I have heard hip-hop in Thai, in Russian, and so many other languages,” Noily said. “It is absolutely international and communicates to everyone. Hip-hop has the potential to make you move and think.”
While hip-hop is an appropriate means for the band to communicate, the members of Elevaters are aware that their education at UCLA has much to do with their ability to appropriately convey messages.
The class in which many of the members met ““ Peter Sellars’ world arts and cultures course “Art as Social Action” ““ has had a lasting effect on the songwriters’ goals.
“(In the class, I learned that) when you create something, imagine that you’re creating it for your great-great- great-grandchildren,” Golzari said. “You’re hoping that your children’s children can be inspired.”
In addition, simply living in Los Angeles has been a great catalyst for the public’s embrace of the band’s diverse sound.
“Los Angeles is great because the people have a very eclectic taste in music and our musical influences are very diverse and all over the place,” said Elevaters’ bassist Itai Shapira. “Los Angeles is a hotbed for a lot of creativity and great music.”
In Elevaters’ quest to bring different types of people together, the band’s lyricists maintain a specific approach to writing verses.
“My philosophy has always been to find the simplest way to tell the story” Golzari said.
“One thing I always try to do with my writing is to get people to connect with what I am saying. We all have our life experiences but I hope the connections people make (with our music) are of positivity and joy.”
The subjects of their songs range from battling inner demons and addictions to living a better life. In addition, the band sings about relationships, though their love songs are not akin to, say, Akon’s “I Wanna Love You.”
“Our love songs are about egalitarian equality about the sexes,” Noily said. “It is about understanding where the inequalities lie and trying to reconcile things.”
Despite the presence of serious issues in their songs, the band’s other main desire is to entertain and make sure everyone is comfortably having a good time.
“I’m an actor, but when I’m on stage with my boys there is nowhere else I’m more confident,” Golzari said. “We come together and have a blast making the music and performing it.”
With their diverse sound, lyrics leaning toward issues of substance, desire to have a good time, and respect for the roots of hip-hop, it is wholly appropriate that Elevaters will be opening for KRS-One and De La Soul.
“De La Soul brought hip-hop back to its original roots about community. We want to represent the same vision of social commentary with a lot of fun,” Noily said. “KRS-One and De La Soul are the founding fathers of progressive hip-hop and we are the new kids trying to carry on the torch.”
True to its moniker, the band hopes to help its audience aim for a higher standard, appreciation and quality of life.
“With our music, we elevate people’s minds and hearts,” Shapira said. “That is what the live show is about. Our name is synonymous with what we try to do.”
Check out the Elevaters at www.myspace.com/elevaters.