Hip-hop artist and songwriter Eli joins us in our first episode of Sound Fiesta Season 3 with his new song “Euphoria”. Eli is one of the up and coming hip-hop artists in the country, coming fresh from his last album I Have No Equipment Cause I’m Poor: A Compilation of Eclectic Chatter. He shared that his approach to his music and its focus is much more of a reflection of thoughts, whether at the moment or through phases that his psyche spits out.
Euphoria comes in with heavy beats gilded by Eli’s smooth flow that surely eases the ears into a head bopping experience. We chatted with Eli to know more about how he started out in the scene, his works, and what we should watch out for.
Tell us about yourself and your craft.
I am a barber by trade. It’s my bread and butter, but I do music on the side. At first it was challenging to juggle them both at the same time but eventually, everything started falling into place. I’ve always been intrigued by sound and music in general because my dad’s a musician. I think he’s one of my main inspirations when it comes to music.
How did you start as an artist?
I started getting serious with music around 2016, but I’ve been doing music since I was a kid. However when it comes to hip-hop, I think it began around 2013 to 2014 when Wordplay was still active. It helped me hone my craft since the people around me would always have new pieces each month. It challenged me to pace myself the same way. I met other hip-hop artists there, and the music that inspired me to get into rap actually came from the playlists that they played.
How did Euphoria come about?
Initially Euphoria is nothing too deep. It’s actually a writing exercise for me to keep me sharp, but it came out surprisingly well so we went along with it. This song is the first track that Six the Northstar sent me. At first it was challenging because I didn’t feel like it was a fit for the mood I was in when I first heard it. Then, after a couple of weeks, my friends started egging on me because I haven’t written anything! So I sat down, put together a bunch of rhymes and a verse for it. Then I think it took me another day to write another verse. Eventually, we were able to come up with something good so we decided to set some studio time for it.
Who are the other artists that you worked with?
I had collaborations in my album previous album I Have No Equipment Cause I’m Poor: A Collection of Eclectic Chatter, and some of them are by accident. Rjay heard Then play at our friend’s place after I recorded it, and he wanted to jump in on it. Notabtlove is actually a practice project I had with Sid but it sounded so good that we just had to put it in as well. I’m currently working with Six the Northstar now.
What were the challenges posed by the new normal when it comes to writing music?
We are all faced with this extraordinary situation, but I just look at it as a chance to focus on important things that I wouldn’t have time to do normally, namely my music. We are just trying to maximize the tools we have now, like the Internet, so we can still send stuff back and forth. We still do meet when we consolidate our plans and for recordings, but basically, we’re just trying to do our best to create despite all the new realities that we’re facing.
Anything we should look forward to?
Six the Northstar and I are in the middle of making something right now so most of the music that’s going to come out for now will be coming from the project we’re doing. We can’t really tell you when the new LP is coming out but it’s coming together pretty well, so I hope you watch out for that as well.
You can check out Eli’s first album here and his other works in his Spotify and YouTube channels.
Sound Fiesta is in collaboration with Playhouse Studio for video production and Kindred Productions for audio management. This video is shot in Tetsuo, Makati City.
