ELARMA makes “Leave This Behind” a song about the slow, uneven process of accepting that a relationship is over. The calendar turns the breakup into something gradual: December holds the intimacy of lips and hands, January brings the first signs of emotional distance, and February ends with the narrator watching their Valentine walk away.
The chorus captures that contradiction. “Time is never known to be kind” acknowledges that moving on is rarely painless, but the narrator refuses to let time decide when the process is finished. “I will take my time, to leave this behind” turns healing into an active choice. There is no claim that the past can simply be erased; the repetition of the title suggests something that has to be worked through rather than forgotten.
By the final verse, the relationship has been reduced to three months and the realization that the love was never true. Yet the song does not sound triumphant about that conclusion. Its lingering sadness comes from knowing what happened and still needing time to accept it. “Leave This Behind” is ultimately about the distance between understanding that something is over and actually being ready to let it go.
For those who might not know you yet, how would you introduce yourself?
“ELARMA” band’s name is derived from our names, Elsa, Arif & Mark. We’re based in Singapore. We’ve been playing in a cover band together since 2023 but only started ELARMA recently (June 2026). We are passionate about performing, creating music, and experimenting our musical style. Collectively, we have been performing live for over 20 years. We’re also dedicated in our DIY craftsmanship, and prefer to do things more with a human touch.
If you had to bottle up your sound into just three words, which ones would you choose?
Storyteller, Human, Relatable
Which artists (not only music-related) or moments have left the biggest mark on your music?
The three of us have very different influences from one another. For Elsa, it would be Dolores O’Riordan (The Cranberries). As for Arif, his major playing influence would be Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen). Lastly, for Mark, he is inspired by David Paich (Toto). The common thing these artists have is their dedication and unique approach to their art. We truly admire that in them.
When you hit play on your songs, what kind of feeling takes over?
Our debut single, Leave This Behind, will instantly give you that bittersweet 90s era vibes. Like you would expect this song to be a part of a cassette mix tape that your crush would hand to you in high school. On contrary, our follow up single, Trouble, which will be released on September 3rd, is full on unhinged. If these two releases were movie characters, we would say they’re like Sherlock Holmes & Dr Watson. We will also bring a closure to the roller coaster of emotions, with a third single, Let’s Try Again (releasing on October 6th).
If you could team up with anyone in the world, no limits, who would be that dream collaborator?
This is a tough question but we love the challenge. Johnny Depp’s acting is not one dimensional, and he always presented the characters so well. If money was never the limit, it would be so cool to see Johnny Depp be a part of our future music video or even share the stage with us!
What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future? Anything exciting you can tell us about?
As mentioned, we will be releasing our follow up single, Trouble on the 3rd of September. It’s going to be a 2 tracks release, back to back with Leave This behind. Pre-save link: distrokid.com/hy…rouble
Also, on October 6th, we will be releasing the final single, Let’s Try Again, to round up the 3 tracks EP.
We’re also looking forward to play our debut public showcase on November 1st at the Hard Rock Cafe Singapore. Announcement will be made soon on our social media, so please give us a follow! IG: @elarma_band_sg
Can you walk us through the story or emotion behind “Leave This Behind ”? If you can, tell us about the storytelling of the video and the musical approach to it.
“Leave This Behind” in particular was an accidental song that we created. We were doing a live session playing covers in Mark’s home. At about 1 am when Arif & I were already packed up and getting ready to head home, Mark suddenly presented us his lyrics which was written in 2020. That moment of deciding to stay back and then recording the demo, was the best decision ever. From just playing covers, to suddenly writing our first original song together, that’s so surreal. Just like in the song, we really cannot control what fate we would face in our timeline, but we can definitely embrace the moments. And we hope that is what listeners can take from it.
The video on the other hand, we do not want to literally act out the lyrics. Instead, we chose the nostalgic route. Our MV location was in Circuit Road, Singapore. It’s one of Singapore’s oldest estates. The spots that we chose are something that most Singaporean kids growing up in the 80s and 90s would know. For example, the “dragon playground” and also hanging out on the rooftop of the “multi-storey carpark”. It’s the retro feel that we really want to capture.
