by isabel dowell
photo by isabel dowell
Elephant Heart is the brainchild of married couple, Jason and Victoria Evigan. Finding a shared passion for traveling, global culture, and spirituality, these two started this genre-bending duo on a fluke. Already having experience in the creative world, Jason is an award-winning singer/songwriter and producer, while Victoria has recently joined his side to become Elephant Heart’s lead vocalist, as well as a songwriter, lyricist, producer, and art director, giving this team a fresh, new aura.
Between two sets at Electric Forest’s Grand Artique stage, I was able to sit down with Jason and Victoria to discuss the origin of Elephant Heart, spreading their message of positivity and love, and what we can expect to see from them in the future.
How would you introduce yourself to someone who might not be familiar with you or your music?
Jason: “I’m Jason, this is Victoria, and we’re Elephant Heart. We started making music together on our five year anniversary of being married. It was a total fluke! I had a studio and was just like, ‘Yeah, let’s go and see what happens, maybe we can make music together.’ She had never really done it.”
Victoria: “We had been together like eleven, maybe ten years at that point. I was a hair and makeup artist my whole life. Music has always been a big foundation for our relationship, but I wasn’t at all wanting to create or be a singer. I didn’t think I’d have the confidence, it was never even a thought.”
Jason: “And I’ve been doing it since I was a little kid. It was funny because we started playing together and playing for our friends. They were all freaking out about it saying we had to do something with this. Literally for a year, we went back and forth. I had been an artist before and I didn’t want to be an artist anymore. I liked being behind the scenes. I liked writing for other people, but we had friends pray with us to kind of get a vision. You know, what would it look like, what would it feel like. And at one point I was like you know what, I felt like the music was just not about us, it was about connecting with our creator, connecting with ourselves, connecting with real love. That’s when we realized we needed to put this out into the world.”
Victoria: “That gave me the confidence I needed. I don’t even like to call it performing, that makes me uncomfortable. I don’t want to force myself, but I’m up there and being really free and a lot of these songs were healing for myself. I struggled with depression and anxiety and all these things. I felt like I had all these strongholds on me and these songs have been warrior music for myself. Before this it was just a love song for ourselves, but then other people started to resonate with it, because again it’s all so universal. I thought that if I could go up there and shine and gather that hope from people, to feel free and not feel like I was putting on an act, then that’s what I needed to do.”
Jason: “I come from a band where the performances were all so in sync and we all had to jump at the same time. Victoria really grounds us and helps to spread love for the show. It just shows it’s all bigger than the music, it’s about spirituality, God, connections, love, and friendship. It’s a really cool change for me.”
Victoria: “For people that haven’t heard our music, you’re invited to exchange in the healing and uplifting nature.”
You had mentioned that you [Victoria] had never thought of performing and you [Jason] wanted to transition to being behind the scenes, what changed?
Victoria: “I think it was so many of his peers. He was already successful with producing, being an artist, and so many people that we really respected thought we had something really special and told us to go with it!”
Jason: “Then we played our Halloween parties! Our first show was at our own Halloween party. We only played three songs. After that, it just became a thing.”
Victoria: “Yeah, there wasn’t really one particular instance. A good friend of ours gave us a connection for Lighting in a Bottle, which is our favorite music festival. We’ve been attending for ten years so far.”
It seems like your message is all about spreading positivity and love, how was that message affected once COVID hit?
Jason: “We made one song during COVID, it was called ‘Behke.’ It was a song to calm people down, it was filled with all these metaphors.”
Victoria: “And really about trusting God.”
Jason: “Yeah, letting it cleanse your soul. Almost like God was talking at one point, nature was talking at another. All of the stuff we wrote during quarantine was very relationship based.”
Victoria: “And I had gotten pregnant during quarantine.”
Jason: “We were going through some turmoil so we wrote some songs, sorry they haven’t come out yet, but it was about forgiveness and the songs changed a little bit on our new album.”
Victoria: “We always like to be transparent.”
Jason: “In our first album we were in such a spiritually high place, even before we got on stage yesterday we were kind of fighting and had a weird energy. The music brought us back together, and it kind of keeps bringing us back together.”
What is it like performing while pregnant and this isn't your first time performing while pregnant, correct?
Victoria: “No! It’s not. I performed with my first baby and I was pregnant at the time. It’s been okay actually. I was nervous because I’m in the nausea stage while performing, but I think I’ve done the right prep to avoid it.”
Jason: “From my point of view, it’s great. Before we get on stage or get to the show, she’s like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do this,’ or, ‘I’m dead,’ but the second she hits the stage it’s like a whole new spirit.”
Victoria: “I definitely get fueled, you know, getting to exchange all that love and energy I feel at this festival.”
And leading into my next question, what are the pros and cons of being a married, musical duo?
Victoria: “I mean, when we write music together we have a great time. We’ve been together for so long that we’re very telepathic.”
Jason: “The entire creation process is the best I’ve ever had with anyone. Also, she doesn’t really have an ego. I worked with a lot of big singers who had big egos because they just wanted to be superstars. She just hears music differently than I do, since she hasn’t done it professionally for very long she hears it from a perspective of no rules, no boundaries. It’s very fun for me and I’m always willing to try it.”
Victoria: “I definitely always want to bring out the physical. I like handwritten letters and if I try to take us off the computer for a little bit, then I’m pushing us to make actual sounds and stuff.”
Jason: “The pros definitely outweigh the cons, but the con is that she just takes a long time to get ready. I mean at Coachella she had this crazy hair, but yeah, I end up just sitting around and doing a lot of waiting.”
So you just mentioned Coachella, I had actually seen you last year at Lollapalooza, and your outfits there were so creative. You are always so coordinated and eccentric. Who puts together your outfits?
Victoria: “I made this one. I just found a vintage jumpsuit. I love saving vintage things and collecting clothes. This was made from a t-shirt that had smiley faces so I just cut that up and sewed them on.”
Jason: “She’s crazy, super creative and crafty.”
Victoria: “I would love to do set production or design. But that outfit at Lollapalooza, Rebecca Bunker is a friend and a crazy designer. I had dreamed it up and we collaborated on it, but she designed it.”
Jason: “Vic is the mind child of these ideas and finds people who can help bring them to life.”
Victoria: “At Lighting In a Bottle, another friend, Steph Alverez, is a stupid good painter. They painted things on my arms, on my pants. They used to be pants that didn’t fit that well. I thought I wasted them, but another friend dreamed up an idea to turn them into arms.”
Jason: “We are surrounded by a big community of creative friends and while Elephant Heart is the two of us, it’s also a collective of all our homies.”
When you book shows and festivals, do you already have an idea of how you want to dress or what you want your set to look like?
Victoria: “Not too far in advance. I wore this already at Okeechobee. There’s a lot of DIY. I’m really big on sustainability and repurposing things.”
Jason: “And she just makes me look cool. This piece of hers is like a hundred years old from Cambodia. We travel the world with our nonprofit and she always collects these things from different tribes.”
You’ve created a career under the title of “genre-bending,” does that give you the freedom to pursue music in whatever ways you want?
Victoria: “Ah, that makes me very happy. If you looked at my playlist it would be everything from country to Arabic music, Indian music, African music, to rock ‘n’ roll. The Beatles are my favorite. I feel like we can’t really be put in a box because we are influenced by a lot of the people we love.”
Jason: “Being a producer is fun too because coming from a rock band, whenever we change our sound people get upset and we can never evolve as an artist. With this, we can constantly evolve with every song. The essence that ties everything together is her voice, plus my sound choices, but for the most part it’s her voice. We don’t have to find a certain genre to stick to.”
What was a goal you had before COVID that you hope to achieve in the future?
Victoria: “Growing my garden! I actually got into it during COVID but then I got pregnant and I just did not have the energy for it.”
Jason: “We dropped our album right when COVID started so we never got to tour on it or really get it out there. That was a little bit of a bummer and unfortunately, the way it works with music, people think it’s old now and are asking for a new album. We never got to achieve what we wanted to with that album and hope that the new album will push people to revisit the older stuff.”
photo by isabel dowell
Do you have any plans to push people in the direction of revisiting that album?
Jason: “Totally. My plan is that with the new label we are signed to buy the old masters and re-release it.”
You are coming out with an album, anything else for the future?
Jason: “We’re working on a collab right now with LSDream. We have a collab with MEMBA, and I was talking to CloZee last night. We're going to do a collaboration with her. It’s just talk, but I sent her the track and she’s into it.”
Victoria: “And making a baby!”
Jason: “Yes, making a baby! We’re playing Bass Camp in a couple of weeks in Lake Tahoe. We’re definitely gonna tour. We might be coming to a city near you!”