Today we’d like to introduce you to Eli Pafumi.
Hi Eli, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Currently, I’m an east-coaster who’s been living in Southern California for the past six years, working full-time as a songwriter, musician, and teacher alongside my trusty pet sidekick, Miles the Tortoise. I started this journey over a decade ago in the suburbs of Northern Virginia. My last year has been quite a scramble – a solo record on the cusp of release as well as new music en route from my other projects with RitaRita, Arcadia Bay, Zach Day, and lots of other LA musician pals. I’m also developing a children’s theatrical piece and still working with students of all ages several days a week. I spend a few months of the year traveling to teach workshops across the US, play shows, and work on regional creative endeavors, and I’m grateful to be making music every day. I am recording and producing for companies and artists that resonate with me and instilling a love of music with any student whose curiosity I’m humbled to point in the right direction.
I grew up to two artist parents, both working in theater, and my dad a public school teacher of 25+ years. I’m grateful to call my mom one of my earliest (and current) collaborators. She’s an incredible playwright, director, actor, and producer; and my earliest songs were vetted by her elastic literary touch. To date, we’ve co-written a full-length musical worked as sound designer/director on productions across the country, all while I continue to send her early drafts of songs I’m developing so she can ask the poignant questions that often steer me to a final draft. So yes, I’m a total mama’s boy.
I got a drum set on my fourth Christmas, and with a house full of guitars, microphones, amps, and my childhood piano – the music itch was inevitable. I was recording love songs on the house computer to show my crushes on the elementary school bus and began gigging at local restaurants and venues under parental supervision by the 6th grade. Around the same time, I started riding my bike around the neighborhood, teaching music lessons. No surprises; I’m up to the same shenanigans now. Different bike, same hustle. But I love it, and it’s been keeping me alive all this time, so c’est la vie.
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?
The road has most certainly been paved by difficult times but I am undoubtedly privileged to come from a household that championed creativity and acceptance. Growing up, there was often a financial weight felt from the struggles of a developing artist / public school teacher income but my siblings and I never felt poor in our opportunities for imagination. There were moments that stung; I once had to reject my acceptance to Berklee College of Music because we couldn’t find a way to make the first tuition payment. But without that decision, I wouldn’t have pivoted to the life I found waiting for me in the Los Angeles music scene.
I’ve always had struggles with OCD, anxiety, depression, and insomnia my whole life, but music has always been a consistent medicine in processing and moving through these challenges. Songwriting and improvisation have always offered therapy from these fixations and I’m lucky to be able to heal through the sharing of these tools with other people in the community around me.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
While I love playing a smattering of instruments, producing, and performing live, I think my specialty is in song craft. I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember; filling notebooks with lyrics, poems, drawings; questioning my place in everything. The scavenger hunt for striking language has always been my favorite game.
My ear has been drawn to timeless songwriters for as long as I can remember – Harry Nilsson, Carol King, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Lennon, and McCartney to name the obvious. There’s an undeniable longevity to their songs. I spent so much of my childhood isolating Beatles riffs and reading lyric books from the 60s and 70s, and perhaps this allowed my earliest musical mantras to separate identities as a lyricist, composer, and singer. When I’m lucky, they all string together, but I always aim for lyrics that read like a poem, with chords or a melody that could stand alone and still feel like their own separate world.
I’m probably most proud of the work my brother Jere, and I accomplished in the writing for our project RitaRita’s last studio album ‘Savta’s Garden’, and also of the music I composed for the theatrical piece ‘The Magi’ by Helen Murray. I am really excited to share my upcoming full-length album ‘Infancy in Everything’ releasing at the top of 2024. I put an upright piano in the kitchen of my studio apartment this past year and can’t wait to share the onslaught of Randy Newman meets Regina Spektor energy I’ve been harnessing sitting next to my spice drawer and produce basket. It’s gonna be scrumptious.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
I gotta finish the family shoutouts first – major props to my Pops for teaching me Johnny B. Goode in the 1st grade. You’re a real one for that. And to my step-mom Meghan who tolerates us playing the same five songs over and over every time we’re together. My sister, Rita, the namesake of the RitaRita family band with brother Jere is an ever-present spiritual guide in my life. My best friend Kyle for lugging my gear to my earliest shows and always keeping me in check. My teachers, Carla, My-Van, Natasha, Karrie, and Doc Worth who shaped my young musical and literary thinking.
Special shout out to some of my earliest East Coast and LA collaborators and music mentors, Andrew Tufano, Rett Madison, Lucy Clearwater, Matthew Pittman, Matthew Nielson, and Buck & Sue Down. Each one of them helped me take the next step forward in my career when I didn’t know where to go.
I also want to thank some of the angel humans in my life – Sravan Pasikanti, my dear friend and co-founding partner of our youth music program SaReGaMe; Joel Eckles, the LA music and sound guru who granted me hosting responsibilities for the esteemed Hotel Cafe’s Monday Monday songwriter showcase; and Mario Ibarra, my oldest friend and the big brother I never had.
I could go on but if it wasn’t already obvious, when it comes to people I love, I’m dealing in an embarrassment of riches.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.elipafumi.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elipafumi/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elipafumimusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EliPafumi
- Other: www.ritaritamusic.com
Image Credits
Agnes Owusu Deryne Keretic Nico Herrera Nayiri Hovsepian Justin Higuchi Melissa Fox Nikhil Suresh
