Tim Heng Wu (born November 10, 1989), better known by his stage name Elephante, is an American musician, DJ and music producer based in Los Angeles.

Early life

Wu was born in

Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

, Michigan. His parents were born in

Taipei, Taiwan , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

and moved to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in their 20s. He is based in Los Angeles. He started to play music at an early age and taught himself to play guitar and was trained to play

classical piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

. He majored in economics at Harvard University. In 2011, he graduated and wanted to involve himself in the music industry as an acoustic singer-songwriter before he moved on to

electronic dance music Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...

. Wu began using "Elephante" as a stage name because it was a reference to the phrase "

elephant in the room The expression "the elephant in the room" (or "the elephant in the living room") is a metaphorical idiom in English for an important or enormous topic, question, or controversial issue that is obvious or that everyone knows about but no one ment ...

" which he described as his unhappiness of working at a corporate job since he wanted to be a musician.

Musical style

Wu describes his music as melodic electronic music that fuses with various other genres. His preferred genres are big room,

progressive house Progressive house is a subgenre of house music that emerged in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. It is characterized by its evolving, melodic Musical form, structures, subtle Transition (music), transitions, and layered sound design.Gerard, ...

and regularly incorporates pop and trap into his music. His songs have been played on streaming services such as SoundCloud for over a million times. Trap high-hats, deep house elements and house synths are incorporated into his melodic sounds. Wu has quoted

Skrillex Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ, record producer, musician, singer. Raised in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he began his career in 2004 as the lead vocalist of the ...

to be his inspiration in music, citing "

Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites ''Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites'' is the second extended play (EP) by American electronic music producer Skrillex. It was released exclusively through Beatport on October 22, 2010, through mau5trap and Big Beat Records, while being released o ...

" astonished him. Wu uses

Ableton Live Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation for macOS and Windows developed by the German company Ableton. In contrast to many other software sequencers, Live is designed to be an instrument for live performances as well as a tool for compos ...

as his

digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation (DAW ) is an electronic device or application software used for Sound recording and reproduction, recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software pr ...

and previously used

GarageBand GarageBand is a software application by Apple Inc., Apple for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS devices that allows users to create music or Podcast, podcasts. It is a lighter, amateur-oriented offshoot of Logic Pro. GarageBand was originally released for ...

FruityLoops FL Studio (known as FruityLoops before 2003) is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by the Belgian company Image-Line. It features a graphical user interface with a pattern-based music sequencer. It is available in four different edi ...

and

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

. He remixed songs for artists such as

Calvin Harris Adam Richard Wiles (born 17 January 1984), known professionally as Calvin Harris (and sometimes under the stage name Love Regenerator), is a Scottish DJ, record producer, singer, and songwriter. His debut studio album, ''I Created Disco'' (2007 ...

Galantis Galantis is a Swedish electronic music act consisting of producer Christian "Bloodshy" Karlsson. Formerly, they were a duo, alongside rising musician Style of Eye, until he decided to part ways with the project shortly after their second albu ...

The Chainsmokers The Chainsmokers are an American electronic DJ and production duo consisting of Alex Pall and Drew Taggart. They started out by releasing remixes of songs by indie artists. The electronic dance music, EDM-Pop music, pop duo achieved a breakth ...

Jack Ü Jack Ü was an American electronic dance music duo consisting of electronic music producers Skrillex and Diplo, formed in 2013. They released their first official single, "Take Ü There", featuring vocals from Kiesza, on October 4, 2014. They re ...

and

Zedd Anton Zaslavski (; born 2 September 1989), known professionally as Zedd (), is a German record producer and DJ. His stage name, Zedd, was derived from ''zed'', the Z#Name and pronunciation, English pronunciation, barring American English, for ...

Career

2014: SERC Fall Concert

In October 2014, Wu performed at SERC Fall Concert alongside Sage the Gemini.

2015: Beginnings

Wu started his career by

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

ing music for artists before began releasing original songs. His first single was self-released, titled "Temporary Love" which features the vocals of Brooke Forman. He released his first single through Armada Records titled "I Want You" featuring Rumors. He opened for headliners

Deorro Erick Orrosquieta (born August 30, 1991), commonly known by his stage name Deorro, is a Mexican-American DJ signed to Ultra Records. He formerly used the name TON!C. Career 2005–2012: Early beginnings Deorro was born in Los Angeles to Mexic ...

and MAKJ at the 2015 Echostage in June.

2016: Debut extended play

In 2016, he released his debut extended play titled "I Am the Elephante". The EP consists of nine songs of progressive house, synthpop and trap. He released a single titled "Age of Innocence" featuring

Trouze Trouze is a Singaporean-American electronic music trio consisting of Declan Ee, Jovany Javier and Tat Tong. The group had a Billboard charts, Billboard Dance Top 20 hit in 2016 with the song "Age of Innocence" with Elephante and Damon Sharpe. ...

and Damon Sharp. The song peaked on Billboard's Dance/Club chart at 18th and received over a million plays on Spotify. His single "Closer" featuring Bishop had peaked on the Spotify 'Viral 50' chart at 27th. Spotify 'Velocity' has "Closer" and another single titled "Plans" featuring Brandyn Burnette charted at 22nd and 28th respectively. The third single "Hold" from the EP was released, it features American singer Jessica Jarrell.

2018–present: ''Glass Mansion''

On 15 June 2018, Wu released his second EP, titled ''Glass Mansion''. The nine-track extended play includes the previously released singles "Troubled", "Come Back for You", "The In Between" and "Have It All". The EP reached number one on iTunes in the US Dance album category. Compared to his previous release, Wu takes a stripped-back approach on this extended play, with songs featuring more light guitar melodies than electronic instrumentals. Describing the EP on Twitter, Elephante said it is about "realizing that no matter how beautiful and strong what we build is, it's ultimately fragile and one stone could bring it all down. It's about coming to peace with the fact that it all might never be finished, and that's okay. It's about realizing that our Glass Mansion isn't the answer to all our problems, and it's about the journey of finding grace and happiness in a half-built home." In October 2019, he announced a live tour titled the "Diamond Days Tour", which is based on his single of the same name and dubbed the "natural evolution" of his evolving live shows.

Discography

Albums

Extended plays

Singles

Remixes

2013

Kaskade Ryan Gary Raddon (born February 25, 1971), better known by his stage name Kaskade, is an American DJ, music producer and remixer. ''DJ Times'' voted Kaskade as "America's Best DJ" in 2011 and 2013. ''DJ Magazine, DJ Mag'' named Kaskade fifty-fi ...

and Project 46 – "Last Chance" (Elephante Remix) * The Unlikely Candidates – "Follow My Feet" (Elephante Remix)

2014

* AYER – "Young" (Elephante Remix) *

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists in hist ...

featuring

Juicy J Jordan Michael Houston III (born April 5, 1975), known professionally as Juicy J, is an American rapper and record producer. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, he is a founding member of the Southern hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia, established ...

– "

Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person, team or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, that is unlikely to succeed but has a fighting chance, unlike the underdog who is exp ...

" (Elephante Remix) *

– " #Selfie" (Elephante Remix) *

Lorde Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (born 7 November 1996), known professionally as Lorde ( ), is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. She is known for her unconventional style of pop music and introspective songwriting, and has been referred to ...

– "

Team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to in ...

" (Elephante Remix) *

Afrojack Nick Leonardus van de Wall (; born 9 September 1987), known professionally as Afrojack (stylized in all caps), is a Dutch DJ, record producer and remixer. In 2007, he founded the record label Wall Recordings; his debut album ''Forget the World ( ...

featuring

Wrabel Stephen Samuel Wrabel (born January 7, 1989), known mononymously as Wrabel ( ), is an American singer, songwriter and musician based in Los Angeles. Life and career Wrabel attended private high school at The Kinkaid School in Houston, Texa ...

– "

Ten Feet Tall "Ten Feet Tall" is a song performed by Netherlands, Dutch Record producer, music producer and Disc jockey, DJ Afrojack featuring vocals from American singer Wrabel, with "Ten Feet Tall" becoming Wrabel's first international chart hit. It was rel ...

" (Elephante Remix) *

– "

Summer Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...

" (Elephante Remix) *

– "Help" (Elephante Remix) *

Clean Bandit Clean Bandit is an English electronic music group formed in Cambridge in 2008. They have achieved four number-one singles and six additional top-ten songs on the UK Official Singles Chart. Since 2016, the group has been a trio comprising foundi ...

– "

Rather Be "Rather Be" is a song by English electronic music group Clean Bandit, featuring vocals by Jess Glynne. It was released on 17 January 2014 as the fourth single from the group's debut studio album, ''New Eyes'' (2014). It also appears on the delu ...

" (Elephante Remix) *

Oliver Heldens Olivier "Oliver" J. L. Heldens (; born 1 February 1995) is a Dutch DJ and electronic music producer from Rotterdam. He is regarded as a pioneer of the future house genre, propelling it to international attention and scoring numerous chart succes ...

– "

Gecko Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates. They range from . Geckos are unique among lizards ...

" (Elephante Remix) *

Sander van Doorn Sander Ketelaars (; born 28 February 1979), better known by his stage name Sander van Doorn () or the initials SvD, is a Dutch electro house DJ and record producer from Eindhoven. Background Sander van Doorn began his recording career in 20 ...

Martin Garrix Martijn Gerard Garritsen (; born 14 May 1996), known professionally as Martin Garrix (or Ytram and GRX), is a Dutch Republic, Dutch DJ and record producer who was ranked number one on ''DJ Mag''s Top 100 DJs list for three consecutive years—20 ...

and DVBBS – " Gold Skies" (Elephante Remix) * Lemaitre – "Wait" (Elephante Remix) * Dirty South – "Unbreakable" (Elephante Remix) * Penguin Prison – "Calling Out" (Elephante Remix)

2015

* The Magician featuring

Years & Years Years & Years were an English electropop band formed in London in 2010. The band rose to fame after their single "King" (2015) topped the UK Singles Chart and entered the top ten hit in thirteen other regions. It was preceded by the release o ...

– "Sunlight" (Elephante Remix) *

featuring

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Regarded as a pop icon, he is recognized for his multi-genre musical performances. He was discovered by record executive Scooter Braun in 2008 and subsequently brought to the U ...

– "

Where Are Ü Now "Where Are Ü Now" is a song produced by American EDM duo Jack Ü, composed of DJs and producers Skrillex and Diplo, with Canadian singer Justin Bieber. The song was released as the second single from the duo's debut studio album, '' Skrillex a ...

" (Elephante Remix) * Oh, Be Clever – "Next To You" (Elephante Remix) *

featuring

Selena Gomez Selena Marie Gomez ( ; born July 22, 1992) is an American actress, singer, songwriter, producer, and businesswoman. Gomez began her career as a child actress, appearing on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004), a ...

– " I Want You To Know" (Elephante Remix) *

Phoebe Ryan Phoebe Holiday Ryan (born September 21, 1990) is an American singer and songwriter. In 2015, she released a mashup of R. Kelly's "Ignition" and Miguel's "Do You", followed by her first single "Mine" from her debut EP of the same name. She signe ...

– "Mine" (Elephante Remix) * Deluka – "Home" (Elephante Remix) *

Jason Derulo Jason Joel Desrouleaux (born September 21, 1989), known professionally as Jason Derulo (; formerly stylized as Derülo), is an American singer, songwriter and dancer. Since the start of his solo recording career in 2009, he has sold over 250 m ...

– "

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...

" (Elephante Remix) *

Mako , better known by the mononym name Mako (sometimes stylised MAKO), is a Japanese Voice acting in Japan, voice actress, singing, singer and a member of the band Bon-Bon Blanco, in which her prominent role is as the maraca player. She has also perf ...

– " Smoke Filled Room" (Elephante Remix) *

Nathan Sykes Nathan James Sykes (born 18 April 1993) is an English singer, best known as a member of the boy band The Wanted. In 2013, Sykes appeared with his bandmates in the E! channel reality television series '' The Wanted Life''. After the band's hia ...

– "Over And Over Again" (Elephante Remix) * Miia – "Dynasty" (Elephante Remix)

2016

* Stephen – "Crossfire" (Elephante Remix) *

Bebe Rexha Bleta "Bebe" Rexha ( , ; born August 30, 1989) is an American singer and songwriter. She signed with Warner Records in 2013, and was credited with co-writing releases of other artists—such as Eminem's Grammy Award-winning single " The Monster" ...

– " No Broken Hearts" (Elephante Remix) *

– "

Famous Famous may refer to: Companies * Famous Brands, a South African restaurant franchisor * Famous Footwear, an American retail store chain * Famous Music, the music publishing division of Paramount Pictures * Famous Studios, the animation division ...

" (Elephante Remix)

2018

* Elephante featuring Anjulie – "The In Between" (Elephante "Zoo" Remix)

References

External links

Official website

Elephante on Discogs
{{Authority control Living people 1989 births American progressive house musicians American electronic dance music DJs Harvard College alumni Musicians from Ann Arbor, Michigan