Rising Stars: Meet Eli Arnold of Koreatown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eli Arnold

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve been able to sing for as long as I’ve been able to talk. I would sing songs on the radio, in the car, I’d sing in bed, I’d sing when there wasn’t any music, and soon enough I had taught myself. My mother originally was unimpressed and forced me to learn piano instead, but I wasn’t interested in that. I wanted to sing because I loved it. It was (and still very much is) fun for me in the best of times and both soothing and healing in the worst.

I got into metal music when I was 12. As the trans-racial adoptee of a white conservative family I, as the only black child, was subjected to a lot of abuse. Physical, mental, emotional, psychological, and especially racial abuse was rampant. I was justifiably angry, but I wasn’t allowed to show it. Anger was seen as aggression which got me into even more trouble because I was being perceived as a threat. So the first time I heard Down With The Sickness by Disturbed, a song encouraging rage that also has a breakdown where the singer is being abused by his mother, I immediately related. I listened to it over and over again. That whole album, really. The anger in it spoke to me. It told me that even though he didn’t know who I was, he knew at the very least what that storm inside me felt like, and from then on I was hooked.

Fast forward through 20+ years and several failed music projects to today and I’m happy to say that not only do I have my own band (Alien Lord, which is an anagram of my name, fyi), but I have a brand new track out called Disintegrate, written almost entirely by me with the help of producer Tyler Hauser. And I’m halfway through another new song that will ideally be out this September. Making my own music has always been my goal, and it’s happening right now. I’ve always known that if I wanted something done right I had to do it myself, and finally being in control of the entire creative direction of my music makes it so much less stressful to create. There are no barriers anymore, no bickering or infighting, no casual racism at my expense, and it’s been wonderful, honestly. I’m so stoked that I survived my past, because I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now if I hadn’t.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Being in a band is like being in a relationship: Every single one of them has problems. From guitarists who wouldnt play shows we had already booked and promoted because the headliner “wasn’t famous enough”, to working with guitarists to write an entire album in Guitar Pro only for him to lose his musical motivation entirely because music is a “money sink”. I’d have people invite me to join their bands only to realize they only needed me for one show. I’ve had multiple talented musicians and producers promise to write me songs because I have “the perfect voice” for whatever project they’re working on only to get ghosted. I’ve been overlooked, under-appreciated, ignored, betrayed, devalued and dehumanized by many, many, MANY people in this industry. And none of that even includes my last band.

My previous project was a hard rock band sans guitar, out of Glendale. Instead of a guitarist, a man playing keyboard would replace the guitar sound. It was… Not very good tbh. Largely because I was written into a corner. I wasn’t allowed to be truly artistic. My creativity was constantly stifled and few of my ideas were used or even considered. In fact I independently wrote multiple songs for the band. I was always met with what was essentially a pat on the head. The “awww, look at you trying, that’s so cute” of music. They always said they were great and that we’d work on them soon, but years when by and we never did. Mostly because we spent those years working on 3 songs, and releasing those over the course of 3 years. By this point I had already released two albums with previous bands (one of which was signed to an indie label at the time), and that was on top of the nearly 5 years I spent doing college choir, musicals, and acting because it was fun. I had experience in the industry. I had performed more metal shows than all but one of those guys combined, and that doesn’t include my other performances. Yet somehow they still treated me like some stupid amateur gifted with killer pipes who didn’t know anything.

Then the pandemic happened and that’s when I started a TikTok, where I very quickly grew popular. I started making videos about the metal industry, the big news stories happening in the space, the bands I love and especially the ones I hate (Turns out saying you genuinely don’t like Pantera or Slayer is a very easy way to make a metal fan angry). But after George Floyd my content started to change. I started actively speaking out against bigotry, racism, and police brutality. I started advocating for Black Lives Matter and talking about the issues in the black community. Those videos made me even more popular, which in turn helped the band. I was the only one doing it, of course, as the youngest member. But somehow that gave them the right to force me to delete popular videos that featured content that could “hurt the band”. I would talk about Marilyn Mason’s court cases or Ian Watkins from LostProphets’ grossness (don’t Google it) or Otep kicking a band off her tour for smelling bad, things that actually happened in the scene. Things that are public record. Things that actually I realized later only upset them because they were all conservatives and were getting some uncomfortable questions from family members that they couldn’t explain. So rather than support their so-called “brother” in a time when it was particularly scary to be a black person in America, they chose to silence me. They made me delete at least a dozen videos, probably more, because they hurt these grown men’s feelings. Grown adults, older than me, some of which would say they had a self-proclaimed “A-Type Personality”, were upset about videos that didn’t even involve them. Actually saying things like “talking crap about other musicians isn’t good for the band. We might need to work with these people someday”. Y’all wanna work with Ian Watkins? Yeah, you can have him. And if it wasn’t that it was the micromanagement during recording sessions, or changing entire sections while we wasted booked and paid for recording session time, or the casual racism they threw out like it was no big deal and when wondered why I got mad. But the most egregious thing was when they wasted MY time.

During the pandemic I had taken an Ancestry.com DNA test,just for funsies. A few months after I got the results, I was contacted by my biological aunt, who then led me to her sister, my mother. I had met my real family for the first time. After a few months of talking, I was invited to a family gathering, with a huge amount of my extended family from all over the country in attendance. I was both excited and terrified. But the band had booked a recording session on that date and it was too late to change it, plus I needed to be there cuz we were finally gonna record the vocals. So I pick up my mom in the morning and we drive out to Palmdale, where the event was happening. I could only stay for a few hours cuz I had to drive back to Santa Monica for the session, but I did get to meet a bunch of my family and I had a great time. So after about 3 hours I head back to LA and get to the studio. Bass is finishing up and about 30 minutes later I get in the booth and start to record the first verse. Then we stop, and the band and engineer are having a conversation that I can’t hear. They tell me to come out of the booth because they need to work on the keys for the rest of the session and we could record me some other time. I had left my FAMILY, many of whom I had met for the first time THAT DAY, the family they knew I was with cuz we talked about it beforehand, and drove an hour and a half in traffic to go to a recording studio, just so I could be told I didn’t even need to be there. We booked a 12 hour session, they had ample time to tell me not to come. In fact I texted them several times and asked for updates but never received a reply. They simply chose themselves over me. And me literally sobbing on the couch in the studio because I could’ve spent more time with my family wasn’t enough for them to realize how badly they messed up. And none of THAT even includes the literal THOUSANDS of mean and racist remarks and responses that have plagued my comment sections over the years. So to get back on topic when you ask if the road has been smooth I can tell you with certainty that it has been anything BUT smooth. It’s more like a dirt road in Barstow than a paved street, but I’m still moving forward on it anyway. I have to. I’ll never get where I’m going if I don’t.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
While I have definitely made an impact with nearly 50k followers on TikTok through videos and my various musical endeavors, I’d have to argue that at the moment I’m currently the most famous for a video that isn’t even mine.

It’s called “Screaming Doesn’t Take Talent”, by metal musician and YouTube star Jared Dines. In that video Jared asks fans at a venue to give him their best metal scream. Some people were great at it, some not so much. Luckily I was one of the former. My scream is definitely recognizably different from many of the others around at the time, and even Jared himself said it was “awesome”. That video was over 5 years ago now but in that time it’s racked up hundreds of millions of views across YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, and to this day I still get recognized as “that guy from that one Jared Dines video” not just online but in real life! It’s pretty wild.

I feel like that’s what sets me apart from others. I’m just…. Different. There are several black folks making it big in the metal scene right now, but not all of them can sing, and even fewer sing like I do. I went 35 whole years without taking a single vocal lesson, and even then I only had like 11 total. But I have a 3.5 octave vocal range and I can do all the screams and growls. I am the textbook definition of perseverance, range, talent, and most importantly black excellence. My voice is my most prized possession. Even if I lose everything I own, my voice will not be taken or silenced. Never again.

I’m normally a pretty quiet and reserved guy, I’ve got a lot of self-doubt and “imposter syndrome” and an inability to accept accomishment on top of being shy and socially awkward in person and a plethora of other mental illnesses, but the one thing I’m VERY confident in is my vocal ability. I got great pipes, and they’re getting better every day.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
The whole reason I’m even doing this right now is because I saw someone else who looked like me being successful at it. That person was Lajon Witherspoon, vocalist of Sevendust. I had been wanting to sing metal since the day I first heard it, but because I had never seen anyone like me doing it (coupled with the self-hatred that comes from people telling me I was not as good as white folks because of my skin color), I assumed I never could. But Lajon gave me hope. Then along comes Howard Jones, who at the time was the vocalist of Killswitch Engage. I heard that man’s angelic voice with clear classical background and a range somewhat similar to mine, and he was also doing it successfully. That’s when I knew I had to do this.

So to all the black kids out there who get made fun of for liking metal music, who think you dress funny, who get called “weird” or “whitewashed” or “Oreo” or any innumerable amount of other slurs and microagressions: If this is your dream, you have to chase it. I’m here now because the last thing I want is to be laying on my death bed wondering what would’ve happened if I had at least made an attempt. And I would rather admit that I failed than admit I never even tried. So go for it. Metal wouldn’t exist without us. As the CinnamonBabe herself Stormi Maya once said, “Rock N Roll is Black”. Metal exists because rock exists, and rock was created by our black grandparents and great grandparents. You are welcome in this space despite what many in the scene might try to tell you. You’re not weird. You’re different. You’re not “whitewashed”, you’re unique. You’re not even an “Oreo”. You’re just YOU. Don’t let others steal your light because they chose to live in darkness.

This path won’t be easy, though. Your friends may leave you. Your relationships could fail. The people you love and trust the most may not believe in you. They may not support you or they could abandon you entirely. They might even tell you to your face that you’re not good enough. That you’ll never make it. That you need to go to college and get a “real job” so you can support a family. They’ll even tell you that your dreams are dumb and you’re even dumber for chasing them. And there are many other challenges, including money, that will try to get in your way. But if this is truly your dream, you have to pursue it. You have to. The costs will be high, but even if you don’t make any money the reward of creating a piece of art that will live on forever, the feeling of pride in your chest as you see people enjoying the fruits of your labor, the joy from hearing the audience sing your own words back to you… There’s nothing like it in the world. So do it. Learn an instrument, take those drum lessons, write that poetry, be that annoying guy who brings a guitar to a bonfire but only knows one song. I didn’t have anyone to tell me these things when I was a little lonely black kid, so to those of you who need it, this is your sign. Make music. Any music. And follow that dream until it takes you where you wanna go. I’m doing it. So can you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://eli-arnold-shop.fourthwall.com/
• Instagram: https://Www.instagram.com/eliarnoldvox
• Facebook: https://Www.facebook.com/elijahjarnold
• Twitter: https://Www.twitter.com/eliarnoldvox
• Youtube: https://Www.youtube.com/eliarnoldvox
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/10hYjUWLpiGDvcDOepueKT?si=wXwZiNlwQrO7keFbgGUIgA