Irrelephant is an indie music discovery blog covering a huge variety of genres, from folk and electro, to hip-hop, rock and many more.
Created in May 2011, this site brings together all those bands, albums, tracks and videos that, at a certain moment and for any reason, become hella special to me. Being expectamistic, it also serves as a platform to get to know all the news and updates about my latest finds.
This is a fake interview if you wanna know more about me and this blog:
What got you started blogging?
Lemme see, ermm, to tell you the truth, this is not the first blog I write. During my university days, I used to take part in an online newspaper where I expressed my opinion on current issues. And recently I created two other blogs about personal matters on tumblr. Nevertheless, I wanted to stumble onto something most of people are really passionate 'bout and that's music. I listen to music all the time. I truly enjoy keeping up to date discovering unsigned bands, whose links and videos are posted by me on every social platform (mainly facebook, twitter and blip) hoping someone could appreciate them as I do. Soon after, I realized I have an endless completely scattered music collection and still much kept waiting to be revealed. At that point, it occurred to me that I could gather together all these stuff and hence the idea of irrelephant.
And what's the reason for that name?
And what's the reason for that name?
Hmmm… At first I thought naming it "kurrukata". In fact, if you take a glimpse at the URL, it's called in this way. "Kurrukata" is how I am called in most of the sites I'm registered. It really means nothing. It's just the way my grandpa used to call me when I was a kid. When he passed away, I thought of keeping his memory alive preserving this nickname.
Wow, what a nice gesture!
Wow, what a nice gesture!
Yes, it is. But I realized that a blog name like that should focus on personal issues and not revolving around a general topic relating to music. Even though I could have zoomed in songs that are or have been significant in my life, I wanted to go further. And what blog project would I work on? Alrite… I'd put together ideas and post concert reviews and latest band news, providing a site where everyone could express their thoughts with regard to music. Some time ago, I found a funny Internet joke which got stuck in my head: "Anything unrelated to elephants is irrelephant " and only later did I realize it would be a good name for my blog after condensing it down into "irrelephant", in order to make it more dynamic and easy to memorize. Then, by chance, lurking around music forums, I came across a cute elephant in HRG which I immediately linked with the previous joke. Nowadays this nerd pachyderm is my own avatar.
Why a blog on blogspot?
Why a blog on blogspot?
Long story short, I could list many more features than other servers. As I said before, I've got a couple of blogs on tumblr, whose layouts are fairly easy to design, providing many avenues for publication such as videos, tracks and quotes. However, the blogspot features allow for further customization of backgrounds and fonts, including also hypertext links which are very useful to add interactivity to the website.
Where do you get the information you post?
Where do you get the information you post?
From everywhere! [laughs] Music is an essential part of my day and I like to while away my time lurking the interwebs catching up with the news, similar memes on other sites which are a great way to get an idea for a writing prompt, new releases, online and paper specialized magazines and, of course, my own judgment which, fo sho, is a completely subjective opinion and therefore not expected to be error free.
And what’s your cup of tea?
And what’s your cup of tea?
My listening tastes have always been eclectic and hectic! When it comes to musical tastes, everyone goes through many different stages. Soul, jazz and britpop, for example, have always remained close to me. For a long time, I was a bluesy girl. Nevertheless, there are other certain genres which vary through the years. To be honest, I never thought I'd like electronic music and QED, a wide range of my current tracks are included in this category. [laughs] But yeah, that's true, I've a particular affection for indie music, serving all genres, from the sweetest twee to extrem indietronic songs, as I mentioned earlier, including also Swedish bands greatly influenced by my exboyfriend. Folk and country scrobblings have also been significantly higher in recent months. I luv going to international folklore festivals where nobody seems to have a clue about what's really coming on stage. I have even become hopelessly enthralled by Bulgarian, Hindi, Slavic or Arabic music.
Finally, why a blog in English, being a Spaniard?
Finally, why a blog in English, being a Spaniard?
Alrite. It's simply an issue of audience. Language difference serves as a barrier within a virtual community especially in the blogosphere, wikis and social networking sites. So that English has become a universal way of communicating and reaching as many people possible. Besides, the more obvi benefit for me is keeping the language, paying more careful attention to informal words and expressions to match Internet users. Of course I'm not bilingual, so please I'd like to apologize for any goof-up on the language.