In the 2022 documentary The Elephant 6 Recording Co., they waste no time in addressing a very valid question: What exactly is Elephant 6? Is it a record label? (Yes, but not always.) Is it a collective of likeminded visionaries? (Yes.) Is the epicenter of E6 Athens, GA? Denver? Ruston, LA? (Yes. Yes. Yes.) It started with four high school friends in Ruston, Louisiana - Robert Schneider, Jeff Mangum, Will Cullen Hart, and Bill Doss - who shared a love of home recording and '60s psych pop and needed an imaginary label for their self-circulated tapes. Soon, the foursome of friends would form the three seminal bands of the collective - Schneider would relocate to Denver and put together the Apples in Stereo, with the other three heading to Athens. Hart and Doss would become the driving force behind Olivia Tremor Control and Mangum would establish his primary focus Neutral Milk Hotel. From there, it's a long and winding family tree with a lineage of interconnected bands sharing members in common and/or an aesthetic. For more than 30 years, E6 has represented a trademark of quality for lovers of intelligent, imaginative, blissful, beautifully strange pop music.

According to the E6 website, there are a mere 51 bands who can lay claim to being an "official" part of the collective, and we are fortunate to have one of them joining us for this discussion of some of our favorite E6 songs. The Rishis are centered around the married duo of songwriters/vocalists Ranjan Avasthi and Sofie Lute, with keyboardist Marcel Sletten also joining us. Their transcendent self-titled second album (out now on Cloud Recordings) features the band's stunning combination of rootsy folk-pop, cosmic washes of hazy psychedelia, and the mystical power of Indian music. They bring the same energy and positivity that their music possesses to O3L. Word up!

Dedicated to the memory of Bill Doss (1968-2012) and Will Cullen Hart (1971-2024).

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