Conversations with Elijah Jones

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elijah Jones.

Hi Elijah, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Growing up I never really found a huge interest in music. That was until I was about ten years old when the hit game “Rock Band” was more popular, I became infatuated with the franchise’s spin-off game “The Beatles: Rock Band”. Something about the music took over my emotions when I listened and I knew that I wanted to actually make people feel the same way that I did. So I asked my mom to put me in lessons for piano, guitar, vocals, and drums. Drums happened to be the ones I gravitated towards and being the only ones I actually practiced. Going into high school, I got entranced by the world of drumline and decided to play tenor drums. It was during these times that I started to expand my musical palette and started listening to more neo-soul, electronic music, and alternative music, which have shown to be some of my biggest influences. Throughout high school and college, I continued my life of drumline through Drum Corps International where I performed with a touring competitive marching band named “The Blue Devils”. It was then that I took a more serious interest in producing and started to make songs on my phone and eventually my laptop where I’d play everything on every song. So now I find myself, “band nerd turned progressive artist”, where I continue to take my past and intertwine it with my music.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I always try to pave a path for me to living smoothly and lively, yet in the past few years, there have been a lot of struggles I see more going on with my communities. Being a half-African American, half-Korean person has brought a lot or conflict seeing the amount of African American lives being lost throughout the past year through police brutality and the defamation of Asian culture through the rise of Covid. And recently, my social media accounts were hacked and they took over the following I’ve been building for years. So now I find myself in a place where I’m restarting but I’d like to think when one door closes, another one opens.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am an artist at heart and I love the process of watering my ideas to grow into great pieces of work. People like to tell me that I am a colorful person, as a person of color and as one who wears all sorts of colors, and I like to think that a vast array of colors show up all through my music. As a music producer, I’ve found myself able to collect inspiration from all genres of music and I’ve never been one to confine myself to any sort of musical boundaries. That’s something I’ve also taken pride in, knowing that whenever you hear a song of mine for the first time, you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get. If people vibe with it, I welcome them with open arms, and if not, maybe there will be a different sound in a future song that will vibe with them. And the project I’m most proud of at the moment is definitely all of my upcoming music so if you find interest, retain that interest and I’ll be delivering soon.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Whether or not I consider myself a risk-taker truly depends on the risk itself. I mean I’ve gambled at Vegas but some things in life aren’t worth gambling away. To me, I’d say trying to pursue a career as an artist is a huge risk on its own. Still with a Bachelor’s degree and the support of friends/family, I can never confidently say whether I’ll be secure for life with this life of music. But to me, knowing that I put my entire being into my work and my that I am working more towards leaving a legacy on those I can impact, makes all of the risks worth taking.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/eligy
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/el1gy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Eligyjones/
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/eligyjones/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtyhLx-2Rg5zF4FNiKYWOOA
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/track/4VdiSm7IAKZ1dSXB7SBhMd?si=Pb4USseNSyacj3uaarqVOw

Image Credits
Dominic Villaverde, Sergio Bravo, Masora Fukuda, Devon Asmus