THE ELEM
The Elem Photo Credit Shay Ifergan
THE ELEM opens a bold new chapter with "Could It Be Me?," a genre-blurring rock anthem that pulls faith, paranoia, and self-importance into the same orbit and asks what separates them. Formed in Portugal in 2025 by songwriter and producer M.L. Leichter, THE ELEM works without borders, collaborating remotely with a rotating cast of musicians to build music that feels intimate and expansive at once, and "Could It Be Me?" stands as the clearest statement yet of that vision.
The song unfolds against the surreal backdrop of a rave in the countryside, following a narrator suspended between reality and delusion. "I realize it's my turn to jump, to sacrifice for the Gods who are watching me," M.L. Leichter wonders, before the song's central question takes hold: "So could it be me, oh me, the one who's selected from us all? Yes, it's me. It's all me, The One, the one who must matter in this world." It's a lyric that captures the strange comfort of believing yourself chosen, and the song never fully resolves whether that belief is faith, delusion, or something in between.
Listen on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/6ZMySPIyn4FSY0aEBkw1Y4
The idea took root during M.L. Leichter's travels through India, where trips to rave parties in Goa left a lasting impression. Years spent searching for a clear definition of belief eventually led him to an unexpected connection: paranoia, at its core, is a conviction that some unseen group controls and connects everything, and religious faith offers a strikingly similar answer, framing that same sense of control as divine order rather than threat. Self-importance, M.L. Leichter found, completes the triangle, the quiet certainty that everything ultimately revolves around oneself. "Could It Be Me?" moves through all three, ending on a note of logic that undercuts each of them, a wink M.L. Leichter admits none of the three mindsets would actually welcome.
Musically, the track is built for repeat listening, with new melodic details and instrumental textures introduced every few seconds rather than settling into straightforward repetition. It opens with a drum intro that gives way to a mysterious, chant-like "O-O-O" section designed for eventual crowd participation, before an explosive break with scratched guitars leads into the verses and chorus proper. A second break shifts into an African-inspired drum groove as a choir enters and the arrangement builds toward an outro that gathers melodic threads from throughout the song into one final, cathartic peak. The record's organic sonic character comes courtesy of Mike Fraser, whose work unifies the track's layered blend of rock, alternative, techno, and vintage guitar tones.
M.L. Leichter approaches songwriting as something closer to discovery than construction, describing the initial spark of melody and lyric as arriving fully formed before the more deliberate work of production and arrangement begins. That instinct extends to his choice of collaborators. For every song under THE ELEM, multiple vocalists are recorded before M.L. Leichter selects whichever performance best serves the material, prioritizing emotional range over technical polish.
"Could It Be Me?" arrives as the leadoff single from THE ELEM's upcoming EP, 'Perhaps, It's Me,' due November 16 and led by the track "Crying Now." Additional material already in the pipeline includes "Who's There," a tribute to a late grandfather built around a tribal drum feel, and "Times That... (Radio Edit)," a heartbreak song closing on the lines "maybe I'm like the rose, so beautiful, immersed in blood, maybe I'm like Narcissus, loving me, with no one else, to love."
With "Could It Be Me?" THE ELEM introduces a project unafraid to sit inside life's biggest, least answerable questions, and to make them feel enormous, immediate, and strangely danceable all at once.
