Spotted Elk is a St. Louis based Native American recording artist enrolled with The Northern Cheyenne Tribe. His mission is to heal and ignite the spirit through music, education and the arts. He wants to raise awareness about issues facing Natives today and to inspire hope and happiness for all.
Spotted Elk’s music is a unique electro-rock style reminiscent of Blind Melon and Pink Floyd with guitar expression like Stevie Ray Vaughan. He specialized in producing/engineering at ex’Tream Institute by Nelly and was trained to blend modern electronic production techniques into music for an always creatively rich and sometimes futuristic soundscape. These works span all the way from introspective psychedelic to rocking the free world without ever missing a beat.
His mother’s name was Nella Mae Spotted Elk and his grandfather’s name was Alex Spotted Elk. He is also part Oglala Lakota and his family are direct descendants of Crazy Horse. While spending time with his mother on Pine Ridge his uncle Charles Chips would speak of the family lineage and how his Grandfather Horn Chips was a spiritual advisor and brother to Crazy Horse.
He pays tribute to Chief Spotted Elk and wants to carry on his message of universal peace and harmony. Chief Spotted Elk was killed at The Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 trying to lead the people to safety peacefully.
Spotted Elk was trained to sing by Steve Ewing (The Urge), has a certification in ProTools and has specialized training in mixing/music production from Carl Nappa (Michael Jackson, NSYNC, Nelly). During his internship at St. Louis Recording Club he earned multiple commercial credits including assistant engineer on Ms. Robbie’s What They Call Me and Jay E Presents in The City Vol. 1.
He has recently played shows in conjunction with Sauce Records Global including “The Taste of Downtown”, “Sofar Sounds” and “Lucas Schoolhouse Rebirth Weekend”
He is currently in production on a full-length album of original works co-written/produced and engineered by Carl Nappa.
