In the 1941 Disney film Dumbo, Dumbo and Timothy Mouse experience a hallucination of pink elephants that alter their appearance as they perform. When Finch Flores was watching it as an adult for the first time, it really spoke to him.

“To me, it’s a great scene that really shows you that just because you’re a pink elephant doesn’t mean you can’t be a purple hippo,” he said. “In that scene it takes any form, any life, very easily and I think humans are a lot like the pink elephants in that scene.”

Flores and his longtime bandmate, Josh Grosscup, stumbled across this scene from Dumbo at just the right time. Their band, Megosh, was working on a new album and noticed that their sound was changing drastically. Gone were the heavy guitars and were instead replaced with the pop sounds they’ve always admired. They didn’t want a specific genre to hold them back anymore, and with that they said goodbye to Megosh.

Playing as Pink Elefants, they now feel limitless. They went from barely breaking even during tours to building their own home studio. They’re able to release a pop song one month and a hip hip song the next. The days of working dead end jobs are over.

“Now it’s what we live and breathe,” Grosscup said. “We make money with our music and our art and we’re able to survive and continue to do it. Our fans, whom we call ‘Elefans’ or the ‘Elefamily’ believe in us, they support us. We couldn’t be here without them. Could have never done this in Megosh. Not even close to it, it would have been laughable.”

‘Elefans’ show up for them in more ways than one. They tune in nightly for live streams. They support one another through the good and bad times. They find ways to meet in person. They even get their own nicknames - ‘Elemama’ and ‘Elevibes’, to name a few.

Starting Pink Elefants has really changed their outlook on life. Although their writing style has always been evolving, they have really learned through this project that they needed to focus on the meaning of the song versus the song just sounding good.

By learning that, they have simplified their songwriting. There was a different expectation in Megosh with their sound that isn’t present in Pink Elefants. This time around, they explained that these songs are more digestible to the listener.

“People underestimate the art of simplifying a song and it still being good,” Grosscup said.

“The main difference between Megosh and Pink Elefants is we are here to play ball,” Flores added. “I want a song [that] if I tell people about the song I wrote they know it and I want to feel accomplished because I’ve been doing this shit a long time and it’s time for me to try to go get the trophy to go with it.”

A full-length album is their goal for the near future, but they aren’t going to force it with a deadline. Maybe they’ll drop a mixtape that’s only available on their website. Maybe they’ll keep releasing singles that stay singles. The possibilities are endless with Pink Elefants, and they have no plans of stopping.