Check Out Elijah Badua’s Story

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

Hi Elijah, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Lake Tahoe, of Hawaiian-Philippino/European/Anishinaabek descent and lived most of my life in rural northern California, Oakland, and Oahu. Growing up, I was surrounded by musicians and thus exposed to all different typed of music, including a lot of world music, such as Classical Indian, African, Middle Eastern & Central Asian folk music. I took an interest in these early on, initially learning guitar and cello in high school, and once I was old enough began traveling abroad to India, Turkey and elsewhere, studying with musicians and learning new instruments. I eventually found yaylı tanbur, a kind of bowed long-neck lute played in classical Turkish music, which continues to be my main instrument today.

I spent a lot of time with Roma (the derogatory name is gypsy) in Rajasthan, India, with a clan called Bhopa who are priest-musicians who perform a ceremonial sort of storytelling that has been tradition for more than two thousand years and is dying out in the modern age. This is also where Sufism spread to India from Persia, and is still very much alive in traditions such as Qawwali, an ecstatic display of musical poetry performed at the entrances of Dergah, the shrine built at the burial place of a saint. Later, I started studying in Istanbul where some of the most highly refined classical music is played in sufi ceremonies, such as the Mevlevi, who are known as “Whirling Dervishes”, founded by a Sufi poet most everyone has heard of; Mevlana Rumi. These traditions have had a significant influence on my attitude and approach with music, as an almost spiritual form of connection, and means of communicating our past, and providing context for our lives when so much else can be utterly disorienting.

In 2019 I came back to the United States with the intention of settling down a bit and establishing a more grounded home base. I certainly got that handed to me when the 2020 pandemic hit, and a few months later my father suffered a massive and unexpected stroke at the age of 48, which he luckily survived but not without severe brain damage and loss of control over his left side. I stepped up to take him under my care and cleaned up his estate. My mother, whom had separated from him 20 years prior, moved in with us during the uncertainty of the pandemic, as well as to help me with my fathers’ care. In June of 2022 after consolidating my family’s assets, after several years of living in the remote Sierra Nevada, I moved us here to Los Angeles, so that my father could get better care, my mother could pursue her artistic and community outreach ambitions, and I would be closer to the music and entertainment center of California.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
These last few years have been anything but smooth, but given the circumstances, it has all actually panned out in the most reciprocal and growth-encouraging way I think possible. Having to take care of my father on a daily basis is probably the most difficult thing I’ve had to take on, but it has been a very fulfilling and grounding experience, and bringing him and my mother under the same roof, consolidating all of our belongings and moving to LA with a clean slate has felt like a major multi-generational healing, not to mention we just found out our long lost grandmother happened to live in Reseda, just down the street where we ended up by chance, and our cousins live right around here. So it’s all kind of full circle.

The most challenging part is having to live with both my parents, who have a hard enough time getting along as it is. This whole experience has sparked my interest in psychoanalysis, and the ways in which our fundamental personality traits are shaped by our experiences with our parents very early in life, at an almost subconscious level. At the moment, I don’t have the leisure of visiting my family once or twice a year, then living the rest not having to worry about them or how they are holding up. I am constantly facing family challenges every day and looking out for their well-being. Somehow I am managing to find time to create and perform music. I suppose this keeps me focused though, the level of responsibility is definitely humbling and keeps me from becoming too shortsighted of my goals.

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 a classical instrumentalist, producer, songwriter & DJ. I mainly specialize in playing classical turkish/ottoman music on yaylı tanbur, which is a particularly beautiful and rare instrument, similar in tone and range to a cello, but designed for playing microtonal music, called “Makam”.

I produce a wide range of music, from Techno to Hip Hop and R&B. The music I have been performing as of late is more avant-garde, somewhat ambient, electronic mixed with traditional musical modes, future-reaching but grounded in folkloric aesthetic.

I am most proud of being a kind of world-bridger between different people and communities I’ve come in touch with and introducing people to new sounds and ideas. I have a distaste for a lot of “fusion” music out there, that kind of takes traditional music and dilutes it. Although what I’m doing can be called fusion, I’m hoping to uplift the art and encourage people to listen to things they’ve never heard, and try new things. My latest work has been integrating analog and modular synth, and moving away from digital DAW workflow, to a more tactile, intuitive approach.

What are your plans for the future?
This is the first year I feel I am able to start integrating all of the skills I’ve acquired, as well as feeling like I belong to a musical community that inspires me to be experimental and pursue new things. I had my first show in LA with the Leaving Records label at one of their shows in Elysian park. That scene has been really inspiring and makes me feel hopeful that I might fit in somewhere, being such an oddball. I also released my first single. This year, I am going to release an EP or full-length album, and continue performing and honing in on my sound, which is highly individual and finding refinement. I feel that I’m executing something that no one has ever really attempted before, which keeps me excited, but also has its own challenges. This year is the first that I started off with a truly clean slate, so I’m going to make the most of it, take my performances to the next level, and begin releasing the music I’ve been working on for the past few years.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.elijahbadua.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elijah.badua/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elijahsbadua
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE_I-H_cgww9MbMYistMHAw
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/elijahbadua

Image Credits
Ibrahim Shehu, Josiah Falco, Wilder Rush