Interview with musician Elan Atias

Elan Atias is a rising new artist with a wealth of experience in the industry. Having played with The Wailers, Gwen Stefani, Carlos Santana and countless others, he had already established himself within the business. Now he is making a name for himself as a solo artist, aiming to leave his own unique stamp on the music world. Blending reggae and various other styles and influences, his debut solo album We Are was released last October. Elan was also recently chosen as one of the emerging artists to be featured in Sports Illustrated's 2012 swimsuit issue. He took the time to talk to TheCelebrityCafe.com's John-Paul Helk about this most recent honor.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Your single “Step into the Sunshine” inspired Sports Illustrated to include you in their Swimsuit Issue Showcase. How do you feel your music contributes to the issue?

Elan Atias: Well, it's really positive, happy, you know -- that kind of spring, summer kind of sound. The song itself and the album, they're very positive, very uplifting.

In a way, I think that's what they saw. Having music on photo shoots, you know, with the girl in the bikini, the model...I think of stepping into the sunshine, like step out of their rooms and onto the beautiful beaches, out into this very exotic, remote locations. So, I think that's something that I maybe feel they did in going with the song. But yeah, I'm pretty excited about this event, and I think it's a pretty cool idea bringing things together, cross-marketing.

In this world so small I mean everyone's doing things together, everyone's been doing it and it's great. It's great for the music, and it's great for SI, with the swimsuit issue, bringing athletes, musician and models together.

TheCelebrityCafe: I did really enjoy the album “We Are.” It is very relaxing and uplifting, and almost has a therapeutic effect. Does it have the same effect on you when you play it? Is music a stress reliever for you in general?

Elan: Yes, I mean you'd be surprised...I love music so much and I love so many different styles, and my music. After playing it and mixing it and recording it, you know, I don't listen to it as much because I'm also playing it at night live. I don't go in my car and turn it on, or listen to my stuff all day.

Actually, I listen to a lot of talk radio. Music is my life and my business, and as such it's almost like the relief for me is not hearing music. Is that weird? I mean, you're a journalist, you're a writer, you do that all the time, so your thing is you go and listen to music, or you go play tennis, or whatever. You know what I mean? It's your out. So for me, I'm listening or I'm making the music all the time, sometimes the therapy for me is to not listen.

Sometimes I listen to other people's music to help me relax, just some really mellow vibe-y stuff, and it gets me away.

I mean, then I'm not in a band anymore, I'm just a lover of music. But it's the other stuff that takes me away, like basketball, and my other hobbies that really help me relax and unwind.

I love listening to Howard Stern. It's fun, it's great interviews but then also it's so easygoing, you just laugh and you go, 'Oh God, is that really happening. Are they really talking about this?' It's funny.

TheCelebrityCafe: So, when you do listen to music, do you listen mostly to reggae? Or is there another genre you love to listen to?

Elan: I listen to everything, I mean, I don't know anybody who just listens to one style of music. I've been getting into dubstep for the last couple of years, and the mashing of different genres. I listen to salsa, I listen to a lot. I love reggae, don't get me wrong -- it's the cornerstone, it's the backbone of what I love and what I grew up listening to all my life, loving all the different artists. I love the dance hall, the rock steady and my reggae roots. I love new wave, I love alternative rock. Yeah, I really love all the different styles of music. Even some country. There are some country artists I really enjoy.

TheCelebrityCafe: Yeah, and you do have such a rich background of experiences in music, everything from singing for the Wailers to working with the likes of Gwen Stefani and Carlos Santana. That being said, do you still consider yourself an emerging artist?

Elan: It's weird. I mean it's funny that you say that because I was just talking about that the other day in like a marketing meeting, and like I do because...I was with the Wailers for a long period of time, and you know being in those shoes, being in Bob Marley's shoes, it's tough to get the recognition, because you're doing to majority of Bob Marley's songs and then like two or three of my own.

I toured on my own a bunch, then I went back with the Wailers because I saw the opportunity with them to make a new album, and to get in front of all those fans, and be able to sing my stuff, my material as well, get my music out there and be able to sell my merchandise, get my name out there. But, you know, it wasn't the same. I feel like if I had kept on doing it myself, with all the experience that I've had, I would have been further, if you understand what I'm saying.

I'm an emerging artist because I feel like my music hasn't got its justice of people hearing it, and the cool thing about today -- with today's business and the world -- any artist can get heard. And they have all these different platforms to get their music out there, and they don't need a major label -- they don't need trillions of dollars.

I mean, it's great to have a lot of capital backing you, but if you're smart and do the right things, and just experiment with different ways to get you music out there you'll see you can promote your music yourself.

And, you know, going on the road, it's a thing you can never take away. It's just an entity that a musician has. It's their ace in the hole.

TheCelebrityCafe: How did you end up working with the Wailers? What was your reaction when you learned you would be working with them?

Elan: I was really young at first. I started when I was 19 or 20 years old and I met with Al Anderson, the lead guitarist who played with Bob [Marley]. He liked a few songs on my demo and then when Junior Marvin, he was the other guitarist who took over for Bob, he had left the band to pursue his solo career, and they needed a lead singer.

Al heard my voice and played my stuff for Family Man. That's when they were like, 'Yo, you wanna come play for us?' And I was 19, never had played with a band ever, I was just getting into the business, straight out of high school, and I made this demo album, and he saw me on stage one night and I was just the singer, and he thought I was a professional singer, and I was like, I sing in the car, I sing in the shower, I sing other people's songs, never wrote a song or whatever, but I just ended up doing this tour, going on tour with the Wailers. No rehearsal, no sound check, I was in front of like 6,000 people my first show, ever, and just went off the memory of listening to the records as a kid. I don't even know how to describe it, I was in shock, I was in awe of everything, and I was just taking it all in.

I gotta give thanks. I'm very fortunate, I'm very lucky to be where I am. I had no idea I was going to get into it, but in the first four years, or first three and a half years I was with them, it was amazing, touring the world, the whole world three times over, flying to places.

I met Santana, met all these great artists. No Doubt, Gwen [Stefani]. I got to work with them as well, doing shows and obviously the songs we did, and getting to pursue my solo career. The first album we did, for a long time it was just working, working, working, and then we released Together As One.

Then in 2010 I left the band, kinda took my own thing, really build and emerge myself. As me, you know? Not just being in The Wailers. I needed to do my music. It's not about straight-ahead reggae anymore. It's about dance hall. It's more about me. It's all the different genres I think I mashed and that I'm influenced by, and that was We Are. That's what We Are is. It's who I am.

I was born and raised in LA, and I've been very fortunate, and got to grow up and experience and be exposed to so many great styles of music, before the Internet age.

TheCelebrityCafe: So, you mentioned filling Bob Marley's shoes, and obviously they're very big shoes to fill. How much did Bob Marley influence you when you first started, and how much does he continue to influence you?

Elan: Well, you know, I said filling his shoes because that's what people say, but I never really intended to fill his shoes. I am myself. I love his music, he was a huge influence. I loved his music and the way his music worked growing up. I thought, 'This is music. It has a message, it has a voice,” and as a musician you have a voice to fill the air with positive words and you can influence people. You can make people feel a certain way, so Bob's influence on me was that.

The way he wrote his lyrics really influenced me on the way I write. I try to be very simple, but still deep and easy to understand so that anyone can understand the music or the lyrics and so that they can take it and put it to their own experiences and what they're going through in their lives right now. And that to me is important, I take music seriously, and I feel like the message is very important.

Filling his shoes? That's not me, I am myself, I mean all great artists were influenced by other artists. You listen to Bob, that was Otis Reading, it was the Temptations. It was a lot of artists that Bob loved that influenced him, that he used as his influences.

TheCelebrityCafe: Bob Marley is famously associated with the idea of “one love.” Years from now, if people look back on your career as being as influential as Marley's, what one concept would you want associated with your music?

Elan: You said Bob's is one love, that's a great concept. And I really think that's it...maybe one family, maybe that's the concept, that we need to stop discriminating against people for any reason whatsoever, you just have to get to know people, and treat everybody like family. I think it's pretty simple and, you know, straightforward. I mean it seems easy but it's for real, it's real.

I can give details about religion and different habits or people's feelings or opinions, but you just have to really simplify life and treat everybody like family. And realize that they could be your family, they are your family, I mean it's what like just a marriage or whatever it takes to make someone family?

I always look around, you know, I sit on the plane sometimes and look around and everyone's so to themselves and it's like the lady behind you -- she could be your aunt, just through a marriage. You know what I mean? Anyone can be paired up so quickly, and you treat people so differently if you know them, and you should just treat them the same way anyway. So I would say one family.

Obviously, it's like one love. It's an adaptation of it. But it's one family, the hope that people stop discriminating and give unconditional love. And through that there's charity work and all this stuff I do with the UN, and Music Cares. And I wanna be remembered for that, for the positive. You know, I wanna be remembered for everything, the positive and the negative. People are going to remember you for any mistakes you make, and especially in today's world it seems like there's a lot of negative news, or the negative news stands out more than the positive news, so hopefully I can help change that, and hopefully people remember me for me.

TheCelebrityCafe: Now, I mentioned before that you've done so many collaborations in the past, with really some major names, was there one project or collaboration that was your favorite for some reason, whether it meant the most to you or was the most fun?

Elan: Well, working with the Wailers, being on the road, seeing the world. It was a great experience, but all of them were special and unique in their own ways. I mean with Carlos [Santana], being onstage with him and just feeling how he sings through his guitar, it's unbelievable, and Tony, working with Tony on that whole album, Together As One was amazing, and Gwen, just very easygoing, it just didn't feel like work. We're just doing stuff that we love. We're making music together.

Actually, how it originally came about, we were just in the studio because we had been on the road and it happened to be that Gwen was doing her new album, and Tony was like “dude let's go in the studio” so I was like alright, so we start doing stuff and he happened to play it for one of the guys and they were like “let's do it!” and we were like okay, we'll do it! So it never felt like work, it was just a really cool, easygoing, doing what we love experience. And all the artists I've worked with, it's seemed like that. Like I said, I'm very fortunate, I'm doing what I love, and if I didn't love it I wouldn't be doing it.

TheCelebrityCafe: Is there an artist that you haven't worked with yet that you would like to collaborate with?

Elan: A lot, dead and alive, there's a lot. I'd like to work with Skrillex, try some dubstep or more electronic stuff. I've been getting into that lately. I mean everyone has a genre they get into at certain times in there lives, just whatever they're feeling at that moment. I would like to work with Adele, that would be nice, I would love to do a duet with her, partly because I saw her a few years ago, before she blew up, nobody in America knew who she was, and I was like wow, this girl's got a voice, and it really touches you. So, she would be great. And there's a new artist coming up, you're probably going to hear about her in a little bit, and her name is LP, and I swear to you, you look at the girl, she's about 5'3”, 5'4” maybe, she's got an afro, she looks like Bob Dylan, and she sounds like a sweeter Janis Joplin. She just blows people away. Every time I bring friends to go see her I'm always like okay, I'm not going to say anything, I'm just going to let them get blown away and watch their faces. This girl is unbelievable, so I would like to work with her, and that's a possibility. Adele I don't know. Bruno Mars is cool, I might want to do something with him. There's just so many great artists out there. Right now I can't even think of one. David Bowie, would be great, Paul McCartney, those are the heavyweights. I got to jam with Paul once, in Jamaica, but that was it, it wasn't really a “let's write, and make songs” thing.

TheCelebrityCafe: So, what's next for you? Do you have any plans for 2012?

Elan: Yeah, I'm pushing and promoting this new record, touring, doing coffee bean, you know, in stores, acoustic stuff like that, and promoting that. I'm doing Sports Illustrated, doing a couple more videos for it, doing one for “I Need Love,” and then “We Are,” and then just keep pushing and trying to emerge more, you know?

It's funny you know you mentioned that with all my credits and all I've gone through it's not like I'm an emerging artist, you know for most emerging artists they don't have the history that I have, but I guess me, and my music, my solo music, and my name, is not out there enough to classify me as “I've made it” I guess? I don't know, I mean, in the music world I've made it, but in the general world I can't just be like oh Elan yeah, their gonna be like oh you mean the car company? You mean the car? The Lotus? Some people know, it's not like nobody knows but it's not what I want it to be, let's put it that way, so I'm an emerging artist. I hope I'm emerging all the time actually.