Elke Releasing Sophomore Album 'Divine Urge;' Drops Lead Single

Nashville artist Kayla Graninger, who records off-kilter art-pop as Elke, has announced her sophomore album Divine Urge, set for release on October 25 via Congrats Records. To celebrate the announcement, she has also released lead single “Enchanté” along with an ethereal and unforgettable music video for the song directed by Bérénice Bear Eveno with creative direction by AJ Gibboney and production by Quinlyn Ulysses.

Lead single “Enchanté” earns its title with an earworm dance-punk bassline that punctuates Elke’s spoken words, before the track bursts into a dazzling coda. Elke spoke on the track and the concept of the video saying, "Nature works together with what's fighting against it without the opponent knowing. It finds a way to keep growing by adapting. This is why no matter how much we develop as a society, we will always have to return to nature, it is wiser than us and cannot be controlled. Sometimes we as people wish to possess the earth to feel alive, but nature teaches us the opposite, to just be alive is to possess the nature inside us. I play different characters in the video that resemble the duality of humans, technology, and nature."

FLOOD Magazine premiered the track first, saying “The first single from the record, “Enchanté,” lands somewhere between the blog-era synth-led quirkiness of Chairlift and YACHT and the maximalist radio pop of that same period, with jarring switches in vibe and tempo helping to relay the song’s message regarding the divides between humankind, nature, and technology.”

Co-produced by Elke and her close friend Jake McMullen and featuring Zac Farro (Paramore) on drums, the album seamlessly folds in her myriad influences, which span old school doo wop to prog rock to 2000s pop divas. With the sanctity of nature as a guide, Divine Urge is the sound of an artist who knows herself intimately. The album is the follow-up to Elke’s 2022 EP My “Human Experience” which Office Magazine called “eccentric and emotional… Elke wants to evoke and share a story, a narrative.” 

Elke was born to be an artist, but first, she had to figure out how to be herself. As an admittedly “super unusual” and often misunderstood child, adapting to the world around her meant hiding her true self – not a sustainable or healthy tactic for a Leo who came out of the womb singing and dancing. Where Elke found she could be her true self, however, was in nature. “I was very depressed while writing this record,” she says. “I kept thinking how I wanted to eat dirt and become one with the trees. I didn’t need to possess nature or build a garden; I just wanted to roll around and feel it.” 

Having finally freed herself from the pressure to make her music “palatable,” she’d much rather you not compare her to any other artist. “This record is so huge for me because in making it, I defined myself as a whole person, when before I felt like a million scattered pieces,” she explains. “I used to get a sinking feeling in my stomach from not having a reference in the world to know that what I was doing was ‘safe.’ Now that I know myself more, that feeling ignites me.” In short, Divine Urge acts as Elke’s answer to the ubiquitous question: What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

DIVINE URGE TRACKLISTING

1. Divine Urge
2. Enchanté
3. Hide in Heaven
4. One Fake Sedative
5. Insect Song
6. Masters of Love
7. You Can’t Come With Me
8. Wild Lucy
9. Back To The Beginning
10. Butterfly Escort

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