Matt Connarton Unleashed: Eli Lev

0:00 Speaker 1: That is catchy as hell. That is bigger bus. We need a bigger bus, Eli Lev, who are going to be speaking with me in just a moment. What's up?

0:07 Speaker 2: I need a giant canvas.

0:09 Speaker 1: That's a well, seriously, I want to go paint to that. That's so much fun. I love that great, great song. This is Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live from the studios of w m MH ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester, New Hampshire. Of course, you can stream the show at Matt connorton dot com slash Live. Today is Saturday, September fourteen, twenty twenty four. And let me get that mic up there. We have Eli Lev with us live in studio.

0:35 Speaker 3: Hello here, yo yo yo.

0:38 Speaker 1: Sounds good? Sounds good? Yeah, I love that song. This just came out relatively recently, right president Journey of the EP.

0:44 Speaker 3: Yeah, just a couple months ago. We are on the present journey right now, it's happening.

0:47 Speaker 2: Yeah.

0:47 Speaker 1: You're on a big tour, right yep? How many? How many dates?

0:51 Speaker 3: Well, really, this whole year has been a big long tour. This particular one is a fall tour, going up to Canada and back it's about us six weeks.

1:00 Speaker 1: Okay, excellent, excellent. Now where do you? Where do you go from here? Yeah?

1:06 Speaker 3: From here, I'm going to Lawrence, Massachusetts, then up to Maine and then up to Quebec, then back down be in New Hampshire again, coming back down Vermont. And I got to play in Rhode Island. I've never been. I've never been Roeland. That was the last state that I had never played in. So that was pretty cool.

1:24 Speaker 1: Well, it's so tiny, it's easy to miss.

1:25 Speaker 3: It's so tiny.

1:26 Speaker 1: Yeah, the last state you hadn't played in.

1:29 Speaker 3: Yeah, I've played in all US states except Rhode Island.

1:32 Speaker 4: Stop it.

1:33 Speaker 3: Yeah, that was the That was the last one.

1:36 Speaker 1: Usually you think the last one is gonna be like Hawaii or like Alaska. Yeah, no, really, Rhode Island.

1:42 Speaker 3: Crazy good on you to be able to do that.

1:46 Speaker 1: Yeah.

1:46 Speaker 3: We live in a beautiful country. It's absolutely incredible being able to really get the sense of like the consciousness of folks you know, north south east West, and I've been able to play tunes and and share share moments with them. It's been cool.

1:59 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome. You've been at this a while, I assume.

2:02 Speaker 3: Right, No, Actually I'm a former middle school teacher.

2:05 Speaker 1: No kidding.

2:06 Speaker 3: Yeah, so I just I started picking up the guitar and doing this full time about six years ago.

2:12 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, yeah, I was watching I was watching another interview that you had been on a podcast. You had been on an My impression is that you're really a business minded guy and that it's important to you. And I bring this up because it's a subject that we talk about a lot on the show. You know, we interview obviously a lot of musicians and other people in the industry, and something that we talk about a lot is the importance of really being kind of business minded about your career. You know, obviously, the creative part of it is the most important thing, and without that there is nothing else to do really with it.

2:44 Speaker 1: But but if you're not business minded about it, you're gonna have a short career or you know, you could play music all your life. But you know, if your goal is to get out on tour like you're doing, you've got to really kind of pay attention to the business side of it. And it seems like you've really got to handle on that.

3:00 Speaker 3: You brought up spreadsheets when I came in. You're like, bro, I love your attention to spreadsheets. I'm like, yes, we're going to get along just fine.

3:06 Speaker 1: Yeah.

3:07 Speaker 3: So, yeah, my spreadsheet database is insane, Like if you looked in there on my Google Drive, you'd be like, what is this guy like an astronomer? Is it taking all the information from? But yeah, I really enjoyed it. I enjoy that part.

3:20 Speaker 1: Was that your approach right from the beginning, when you decided to take the plunge and do this and leave be in a middle school teacher behind and everything.

3:26 Speaker 3: No, but I realized very quickly that I needed it. Y. You know, I would even argue that in today's musical landscape, probably that side of it is more important than the creativity aspect of it, strangely enough, because there are so many talented folks out there, But how many of those talented folks are really going to like put in the time to like make a business out of it, make it organized, you know, follow up, be professional with folks? Not very many. So if any creative can do that, you've already got this gigantic leg up.

3:58 Speaker 3: Yeah what I mean. And that really helped kind of like jump start, yeah, jump start my career in the Maryland area.

4:05 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because if you don't approach it that way, it's like, you know, if the tree falls in the forest, you know, if if you don't if you don't do that part of it, then if nobody hears your music.

4:13 Speaker 3: Nobody hears it. Yeah, exactly. It.

4:15 Speaker 1: It's funny too, because there's always people who will tell you, well, I don't really care that much. I'm doing this for me. I'm not doing cool for other people. That's great, but I'm all, yeah, it is. But I'm also always a little skeptical when I hear someone say that. It's like, really, you kind of do want people to hear what you're doing, don't you.

4:30 Speaker 3: Yeah, no, absolutely. I think music can be you know, a variety of things. Like for some folks they just like writing songs, you know what I mean. It's like a form of therapy.

4:37 Speaker 1: Yeah, you know.

4:38 Speaker 3: Some folks just want to share shilly songs with friends and family. That's great. Yeah, And some folks like want to do the thing, you know what I mean. And if you want to do the thing, then it's just it's all in. Yeah, I mean, go for it.

4:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, what what was the Was there a particular moment where you made that decision? To uh, to do this full time instead of continuing with your career as an educator, or was it something that you were thinking about over time or was there was there something that kind of pushed you to say, no, I'm going to do this.

5:07 Speaker 3: Yeah, we're gonna get a little spiritual.

5:09 Speaker 1: Okay, cool, that's fine, We're getting there.

5:12 Speaker 3: Everything there all right. So come with me, Matt to a beach on the west coast of Mexico, north of a town called Salulita, Okay. And it was my last semester of grad school from a master's in English, and I had a two week winter vacation and I went on Google Maps and I picked a beach in Mexic. I'm like, I'm gonna go there for two weeks and just camp out. Bring my guitar. So that's what I did. And I started playing songs, and you know, the waves started listening. You know, the trees were kind of like vibing with me.

5:42 Speaker 3: The sand was like kind of happy, and I kind of like just took a moment and I was like, hey, thanks for a great life. This has been amazing. You know, creator or whatever you want to call it. The rest is in your hands. I'm good. Yeah, so you let me know what's next, and I will let go and go all in on whenever that is. And you know, as things were kind of listening and getting viby, they were like, you should try this music thing, you know, try to try to sing some songs, record them and see what people think.

6:13 Speaker 3: And I recorded my first demo in Indiana six months after that, and I've been following the bread crumbs ever since.

6:20 Speaker 1: No kidding, no kidding. That's awesome. Yeah, good for you.

6:23 Speaker 5: Yeah.

6:24 Speaker 3: So it was like a moment, you know what I mean. I was like, okay, like is this gonna happen? Yeah, let's let's be up for it. And then you know, music kind of just has shown the rest of the way excellent.

6:33 Speaker 1: You ever have any doubts along the way, like when when you when you kind of took the plunge, did you ever have moments.

6:38 Speaker 3: Where you really like, you know, when you get into it, it's like, you gotta be ready to play shows to nobody. You gotta be ready to think your hit song is going to be a hit but nobody likes it. But the song that you didn't think that no one would like would be your hit song. You gotta be ready to you know, just you know, bust, bust your bottom and getting tickets sold to a show, and you know maybe the band that you wanted didn't come or like, you know, maybe maybe like it just didn't you know, every song didn't work out exactly as you want.

7:10 Speaker 3: So yeah, one hundred percent along the way. And there's imposter syndrome as as you're entering into a new identity. But that's that's with everything. So yeah, yeah, but the music's been carrying me, which has been.

7:19 Speaker 1: Great, outstanding, and you've recorded quite a bit, right in that relatively short time.

7:24 Speaker 3: Court On was forty songs. Yeah, that's that's a lot released. That's a lot.

7:28 Speaker 1: Yeah, so excellent, and that the one that we played. We need a bigger bust from Present Journey. That's when did that come out? In June? That's relatively new.

7:35 Speaker 3: Right, very new? Yeah, yea yeah, yeah. So my first project was Four Directions based on my time as a teacher on the Navajo Nation and Arizona.

7:43 Speaker 1: Yeah.

7:44 Speaker 3: And then this project is three worlds, so Present Journey will be one, then Past Lives and then Future Myths. Oh cool, I think in the thematic units, Yeah, a teacher of course.

7:55 Speaker 1: Oh that's cool. Yeah, that's very cool. Well, I'm going to hear you if you want to do it, play something for us, and uh, I'll kind of off to ride the faders a little bit as we actually go ahead and strumble a little. Let's make sure we gotta well, there we go, there we go.

8:15 Speaker 4: Nice.

8:17 Speaker 3: So, Matt, do you remember cassette tapes vividly? Do you remember very much?

8:24 Speaker 1: So?

8:24 Speaker 3: One, what do you how to use the pencil and how to rotate the Oh? Yeah, so we're going back to the days of cassette tapes and pencil sharpeners for this song. And do you remember like the first like mixtapes where you recorded the radio and recorded other tapes onto tape, you wrote the song names on the back and you gave to someone you know, a friend, and you know your relationship would last at least another week or two.

8:51 Speaker 1: At least.

8:53 Speaker 3: And you know, I remember my first mixtapes, and I bet if you go back, if you could find your first mixtape and listen to them, it would probably take you back exactly to that emotional mindset that you were at at that age.

9:06 Speaker 1: Right.

9:06 Speaker 3: Music has that power kind of thing, absolutely, So I'm going to tell you my first mixtape, and just a list of some of these bands. You remember them. So my first mixtape was it was Johnny Cash and Fleetwood Mac, but also Bruce Springsteen YouTube and mc hammer YEP, New Kids on the Block, Chris Cross and Duran. Duran was also yeah, yeah, yeah, and it was I think Flock of Seagulls there as well. So just a wild range of songs. And I'll remember that tape forever because I put it in my tape recorder and I just listened to it over and over and over and over again, listening and catching the words to all the songs.

9:50 Speaker 1: Yeah.

9:51 Speaker 3: So this song is called singing Along for the First Time, Okay, and it's about that first mixtape.

9:56 Speaker 1: All right, wonderful, here we go.

10:17 Speaker 3: It was the age of eight when I played in the tape and I heard a voice going through you was singing loud and singing.

10:24 Speaker 4: Strong to the words.

10:25 Speaker 6: I barely knew.

10:27 Speaker 3: I was hanging on to the edge of the song, waking up all my senses.

10:33 Speaker 4: Hunt time, I'm singing along for the first time.

10:37 Speaker 7: Oh who, for the first time, I'm singing alone.

10:56 Speaker 4: For the first time.

11:02 Speaker 3: Yeah, will I've been hearing songs since I came along on radio and TV, but this one song when it.

11:23 Speaker 4: Came off, felt like it just for me.

11:29 Speaker 3: Now I'm singing along for the first time, for the first time.

11:45 Speaker 8: Oh yeah, and it was Springsteen in the Street, Cash in summer Heat.

11:57 Speaker 6: Willie on the Road, the cob in the co Stevie in my room, learning in every line of that tune.

12:06 Speaker 4: And when the chorus came, it was my chance to get up and start to danswer.

12:12 Speaker 8: W where.

12:27 Speaker 4: Here we go?

12:29 Speaker 2: I'll sing alone for the first time now for the first time.

12:36 Speaker 4: Yet, it were Springsteen in the Street, Cash and summary, will Leave on the Road, the Coban in the cour Steviie in my room, learning every line of that tune.

12:56 Speaker 1: And when the.

12:57 Speaker 4: Chorus came, it was my chance. I'm singing for the.

13:00 Speaker 3: First time, for the first time, I'm singing along for the first time.

13:26 Speaker 1: A fantastic, fantastic That is Eli Love is here with us live in studio if you are just joining us and playing some playing some live tunes for us. And do you remember the first song you ever wrote?

13:41 Speaker 3: I do?

13:43 Speaker 1: How old were you?

13:44 Speaker 3: I was thirteen? Yeah, it's from middle school talent show and it was called my white underwear go get it, and I performed it in front of an entire auditorium that had my grandparents in it. Yeah, and it mostly consisted of me just screaming into my wad underwear over and over again. Yeah, huge hit.

14:07 Speaker 1: Yeah.

14:07 Speaker 3: I've been trying to get back to that moment ever since, right, right, So, yeah, that's what started my career in music.

14:13 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome, that's awesome. How many songs have you written? Do you think? I know you said you've recorded about forty right, Wow.

14:20 Speaker 3: That's interesting. Yeah, let's go back. How many songs do you think I've written? I think probably finished songs probably about two hundred. Okay, I think maybe like half finished, probably like three hundred. Yeah, and I think like ideas probably about a thousand.

14:32 Speaker 1: No kidding, Yeah, just out there. Yeah, you seem like someone who would be pretty prolific. Yeah, were you when you were still teaching? Were you already writing a lot?

14:41 Speaker 3: Or I was? You know, songwriting has always been like that friend, that's just right there. You know. The guitar has just been like kind of like a something to have a conversation with. Yeah, I mean, times are great, times not so great, and all in between, so you know, it's just you know, I think back, it's like, yeah, probably about like more than a thousand times. There's been like some voice memo that I've taken of, you know, some idea or a title or like an emotion or anything. So quite the uh yeah, quite the body of work, but not like you know, half finished work right right?

15:14 Speaker 1: And what and when you play is it? Is it always just you and the guitar? Do you ever have other musicians with you or yeah?

15:21 Speaker 3: I started, Uh, I did a full band Maryland. It was Elilev and the Fortunes found the first iteration, and then it was the Elilev Collective and it was Eli Lev Band, and then it'll be something else, I'm sure. But I love performing with other musicians. There's nothing like it. Yeah, just being on stage and kind of like creating that musical space with folks. But on tour, I just kind of do. The solo thing keeps a little easy.

15:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot easier really, right, because you know, it kind of opens up places you can play when you don't have a full band. And of course, you know, I've been in bands, and I know that the pain of dealing with everyone's schedules and all of that.

15:55 Speaker 3: I mean, tell me if I'm wrong. But like, being a band is like kind of being in like five relationship and those fire relationships also being in five different relationships at the same time. So you know, there's this wonderful family atmosphere, but there's everything that goes along with being in a family.

16:09 Speaker 1: You know, that's that's a great way. But that's absolutely absolutely.

16:15 Speaker 3: So yeah, I get I love it though, I love I love performing with other musicians.

16:18 Speaker 1: The songs that that you had in these bands, I assume those those have survived and you still play those today or some of them.

16:26 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, all the songs are pretty much the ones that I recorded, just maybe I'll play them with a band or solo or duo. Yeah. When instrument did you play in the band?

16:34 Speaker 1: Bass?

16:34 Speaker 3: Bass? Okay, see, bass is the smartest instrument ever. Everybody goes and learns guitar wants to be the lead singer. But if you can play a bass, you'll get work the rest of your life. Oh yeah, and you want it.

16:47 Speaker 1: Like, yeah, when I was, when I was really active playing, I don't play currently, but okay, you know I was. I was kind of sod after in the scene. But it wasn't because I was a great base. I mean, you know, I'm very objective about, you know, my own sessing my musical ability. It was average. I was an average bass player, but I was a bass player.

17:06 Speaker 3: That is a hot commandity, exactly, exactly, that's awesome.

17:10 Speaker 1: I think I think drummers are the most in demand because you know, we we interview a lot of bands on the show, and okay, the drummer is always in ten different bands because there's no drummers.

17:19 Speaker 3: Right right, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, no basic drums. Yeah, remember that, kiddos, you want to make a currd music?

17:29 Speaker 1: Do you play on on what you've recorded? Do you play anything other than guitar? Do you stick to guitar and have other musicians.

17:36 Speaker 3: Or I do, yeah, play guitar, play piano. I play a native flute from Arizona. I do harmonica, mandolin, make percussion, noises, strange sounds of my mouth like whistling and who knows what, but yeah, I love making sounds.

17:51 Speaker 1: Okay, yeah do you so? Do you do everything on on the albums?

17:55 Speaker 3: Or I work with different producers on the albums, so I like collaborate with in the studio, they'll do some instruments, I'll do some instruments. We'll bring in some other you know, kind of hired guns to rock the rest, and so it's a nice kind of a mix.

18:08 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, but it's nice when you have the ability to play multiple things, and I mean that gives you a level of control that you wouldn't otherwise necessarily have.

18:15 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's you're almost like a conductor, like of an orchestra. Yeah, I mean, like you get to really kind of imagine melody lines and different sounds and different instruments. So it's really it's really awesome. I love the process of kind of putting sounds together for a song.

18:29 Speaker 1: You enjoy being in the studio, I do because I know a lot of musicians. A lot of musicians just want to play live and they hate the studio or they're ambivalent about it. But yeah, if you actually enjoy the process, that's good.

18:39 Speaker 3: Fast Now I love it. Yeah, And like the different takes, you know what I mean, Like, oh, which take a we're going to go with? Yeah, it's it's a really wonderful process. I don't I'm not personally a producer, but I love working with and callabrity.

18:51 Speaker 1: Are you ever surprised because you're working with producers, are you ever surprised at what comes out?

18:56 Speaker 8: Like?

18:56 Speaker 1: Do you ever have an idea for a song and you've written it and you you know what you want, you know what it's supposed to sound like, and then it ends up coming out very different and hopefully you're pleasantly surprised when that happens. But do you ever have that happen?

19:07 Speaker 3: Yeah, That's why I like to work with different producers, because they bring different sounds and different ideas. And you know, when I come up with a song, it's usually vocals and guitar or just vocals and piano. So watching it develop and bloom and blossom, like for example, like two days ago, you know, you record a song and then you get back a mix, you know, so it's like the first time you really hear what you recorded with all the instrumentation. And bro, I was listening to this first track of my upcoming album, Past Lives is called Echo, and it's about like hearing the echoes of our ancestors, like kind of coming in and you know, living with that knowledge.

19:45 Speaker 3: And I was like laughing and crying at the same time. Hearing a song come to life like that. Yeah, I mean I'm just like, oh my god, this is amazing. So like having those visceral emotional reactions is like, is really cool. And you know, only the only people who heard that was my producer in me. Yeah, So having that special moment of like really being there like on this like creation is just awesome. So I love the studio. I love the process of creating songs too.

20:16 Speaker 1: It's really fun. Yeah. And you've made some videos, right, I saw I watched the Universal song, yeah, which is really cool. I love the song and the video is great, and that's you know, we were kind of talking earlier about you know, the music side of I mean the business side of it. That's important, right, making videos.

20:32 Speaker 3: Yeah. So what I did in the pandemic when everything shut down and all my tours were canceled is I went online and started live streaming. Yeah, and that's where the Levitator's community came and people were just looking for things to do. So we did participatory music videos. Okay, so people would uh video themselves. For example, I had a song called Dancing on the Lawn, so they would go outside and take a video of themselves. Dancing on the lawn essentially. Yeah, and the music video is levitators from around the world.

20:59 Speaker 3: We're talking Europe, Australia, Africa, Canada, South America sending in videos of them dancing on the lawn, all spiced together.

21:06 Speaker 1: Okay.

21:07 Speaker 3: So I did a participatory video with Chasing Daylight, with another one anywhere we Can Go, and I think I should do one with we need a bigger bus. You should like get like get like rent a school bus, yeah, I mean, and go around and pick folks up and just kind of like, you know, like film this party happening on a bus.

21:25 Speaker 1: That's a great idea.

21:26 Speaker 3: So it's really important because especially today and like we live in a visual kind of content world, so anytime that people can see your music, yes, you know what I mean, is important.

21:37 Speaker 1: Yeah. So yeah, it's funny because there was a time when well, you know, some people still think today. Even I'll hear people say, oh, you know, I miss the days of music videos, you know, because they're thinking of it in the context of MTV. Yeah, it's like and some people just don't realize, you know, because they're maybe not paying attention that there's actually more music videos than ever.

21:55 Speaker 3: Yeah, there are, we just don't see them.

21:57 Speaker 1: They're they're on YouTube, they're not on they're not on a table. But something we also talk about a lot on the show is, you know, with the pandemic, terrible experience for us all, but we have to find the silver linings where we can. And you know, you're a great example of what you did, you know, trying to you know, innovate and come up with ideas, you know, to keep people involved and keep people engaged. Yep. Yeah, so that's really cool. Yeah, I'm dying to hear you play another one. You want to play another song.

22:26 Speaker 3: Let's do it. Let's do that universal song, the one you're talking about with the music.

22:30 Speaker 1: Video wonderful and if you are just joining us, Eli Love is here with us live in studio and I do love this song. So yeah, whenever you're.

22:37 Speaker 3: Ready, let's do it. All right, all right, So imagine like Eurovision, it was not just for Europe, but it was like for the whole galaxy. Like there's like a Milky Way Eurovision, and then imagine there's like a Universal song contest where the Key Way would sending their entry and the Andromeda Galaxy, who's sending theirs? And what that song would sound like. So this, this song kind of explores that possibility. I was on a train in the middle of the city. Saw a girls sitting on the floor with their headphones on.

23:25 Speaker 4: She was homing a tube, looking as happy.

23:27 Speaker 3: As as she could be, nodding ahead and closing her eyes and singing. And the song she was singing.

23:35 Speaker 4: Na, and the sun broke through the window.

23:42 Speaker 3: Now everyone's songing alone.

23:49 Speaker 4: She got everybody.

23:52 Speaker 5: Singing that you and n versu songo, yeah.

23:58 Speaker 4: Singing it all day long. I was on a cruise in the middle of the ocean.

24:10 Speaker 3: I was sitting alone out a table for two. The band was on a break because the singer.

24:18 Speaker 4: He was late.

24:19 Speaker 3: But the second he got on stage started singing that same o too. He was singing nine No, No, and everyone got on the dance floor.

24:33 Speaker 4: They were shaking their hips.

24:35 Speaker 9: Nine.

24:38 Speaker 4: He got everybody singing that Uni Verso song.

24:47 Speaker 3: All let's bring the aliens or the fifth dimensional beings, whatever you prefer. Well. I heard on the news today that they made contact with outer space. The transmission was coming in loud and clear, and all the scientists and linguists and astrophysicists try to decipher the sound that was coming into their ears, but all the air it was not, and they started shaking their shoulders to.

25:22 Speaker 4: They all agree that that's.

25:23 Speaker 2: What we should do. Everybody in the world singing. We got the hands up in the air.

25:37 Speaker 5: Nowmic Badies getting along. Abody as seeing that universal so.

25:52 Speaker 4: Goes like this.

25:54 Speaker 9: Nine no no, no, no no no.

26:08 Speaker 1: I love it. That's awesome, the universal song that is Eli love. He is here with us alive in studio on this Saturday morning, and that is great. And I do encourage people to check out the video. Video is really cool, really cool. So how is how's the tour been going? Any any interesting uh stories, any big surprises or or has it been has everything been been smooth? Or I love roads stories? If you have if you have any, and if you don't have any, that's actually a good thing. That means that means everything's going well generally.

26:44 Speaker 3: But plenty of stories.

26:47 Speaker 1: Yeah.

26:47 Speaker 3: Yeah. So I play every night pretty much, Yeah, and every night it's different, Like sometimes it'll be like last night I was at the basement of a church playing the opening set of an open mic. Yeah, and then before that I was at this like amazing fancy fancy listening room winery thing, whereas like professional sound, you know, table service and all that jazz. And you know, the night before that, I was playing at this vegan restaurant in Vermont in Burlington, and it was like a Thursday, and it was a nice night out.

27:18 Speaker 3: So you never know what's going to happen you show up. It could be ten twenty fifty, who knows. But that night there was just a couple, oh no, kidd and they were out on a date. They came in and they're like, table for two please, I could tell you what I mean. They were in for the experience and it was just me and this couple and this waitress. And I was like, well, y'all, it's just us, so let's have some fun with this, you know. So we were chatting, we were making up songs together, you know, having a great old time.

27:52 Speaker 3: And then you know, they were a younger couple and they're like, can you play a slow dance song? And I was like, yes, I can play a slow dance song for so I played Van Morrison's Crazy Crazy Love She gave Me Love Love Love Love, Crazy Love, and they got up and danced and they were not good dancers, and they knew it and they were just having the time of their lives. It was just them in this empty restaurant with me and the waitress, and they danced the entire song. Wow, you know, just you know, missing steps and kind of fumbling and trying to do twisty things and like kind of knocking over little flower things whatever.

28:37 Speaker 3: But they just had a blast, and it was just a wonderful reminder that you know, it doesn't necessarily really matter what we look like or sound like or seem like on the outside. It's like how we feel the space, you know what I mean that moment and it was beautiful, Like I was like really emotional adverts. I was like, yeah, that is so sweet. Y'all the biggest sweeties and me and the wagers gave him a big, you know, round of applause, and they had an absolute blast. Yeah, you know, got some merch, I had a great tip.

29:07 Speaker 3: I made more in merch and tip that night with two people than sometimes I will with like thirty or forty, you know what I mean. So it just depends on getting into the experience, really holding it, being aware. So that happened just a few nights ago. I will always remember that and they made my night a VIP night too.

29:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's awesome. Well that's a positive roads story. That's absolutely I don't hear many of those, Okay. Usually it's like usually it's like broke down. Yeah, the van broke down, or we got to the place and toilet didn't work, and.

29:38 Speaker 3: You know, you know what I mean, we lost our band member. We drove away from the gas station and we realized two hours later, you're missing her drummer.

29:47 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're all kinds of terrible things. So it's good to hear a positive story like that. Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. You want to play another one? Yeah?

29:55 Speaker 3: Happy too? Do you want one more tune? This is from Present Journey as well. Okay, I also played this song for the couple. This one's called Love in the Middle Ages.

30:05 Speaker 1: Oh yes, this is I listened.

30:07 Speaker 3: I like this one.

30:07 Speaker 1: You like a lot.

30:09 Speaker 3: I like this one too.

30:10 Speaker 1: This is really good.

30:11 Speaker 3: Awesome, here we go.

30:24 Speaker 9: When I was in my early age, I heard him talk about Tula, so I started looking for where it could be. I ran from kisses in the third grade. DI did a girl in middle school.

30:39 Speaker 4: For ten days. I thought it would never come out.

30:45 Speaker 4: But I found love Middle Ages.

30:50 Speaker 3: It ain't always fireworks, and it comes in stages, and it takes courage and trust in it other. I know I found.

31:04 Speaker 4: What you love is. It's love in the Middle Ages.

31:12 Speaker 4: Love in the Middle Age.

31:19 Speaker 3: I chased love across the ocean, but I never knew what it was like to stay, what it took to really listen, how to compromise, and how to sing the sing.

31:40 Speaker 4: Now I'm oldly enough to see.

31:45 Speaker 3: I found love.

31:48 Speaker 4: Middle Ages. It ain't always.

31:51 Speaker 3: Firings, and it comes instages.

31:56 Speaker 4: It takes courage, trusting each other. I know I found what you love is. It's love in the middle Age.

32:11 Speaker 3: It love in the middle Age, and it's a trip to Duncan in the morning. It's knowing exactly what she's gonna say. It's getting cozy on the couch after.

32:33 Speaker 4: A long hard day.

32:36 Speaker 3: It's growing old together, figuring it out along the way.

32:42 Speaker 4: Because I found love the Middle Ages, It's not just fate.

32:50 Speaker 3: Or even the promise. It's something deeper, something stronger. I put down my sword and took off.

33:01 Speaker 4: My arm because I found love the Middle Ages.

33:08 Speaker 3: It ain't always fireworks, and it comes in stages.

33:14 Speaker 4: It takes courage, trust in each other.

33:19 Speaker 9: I know I found it.

33:22 Speaker 4: What you love, it's love.

33:25 Speaker 9: In the middle, love in the Middle Age.

33:35 Speaker 4: It's love in the middle Age.

33:41 Speaker 9: Love in the middle lady.

33:46 Speaker 4: M hm mm hmm.

33:53 Speaker 1: That is beautiful. That is beautiful.

33:56 Speaker 3: Some sauce on it.

33:58 Speaker 2: You.

33:59 Speaker 1: I love is with a here live in studio on this Saturday morning on Matt Connorton unleashed and planned some tunes live for us And yeah, that's that's great. By the way, you in terms of your vocals, have you did you get formal vocal training or are you self taught?

34:17 Speaker 3: I did not. Yeah, I uh vocal I found out. I found out at the beginning of my career that your vocal chords are like muscles. Yeah, and you can train them. Yeah, you can get better. I did not have like a American idol. I still don't have an American ile voice. But it wasn't like people who heard me sing and were like, whoah, you should be famous. Never you know what I mean? Never in the thing. But after singing for almost every day for the last six or seven years, really developing into it, getting into the character and kind of like feeling in you know, what I really also found is just like just being unique, you know, not necessarily sounding like someone else, but just like whatever, the true voice is kind of letting that out, yeah, really kind of leaning into that.

35:02 Speaker 1: Yeah, you do, you do things to take care of your voice, like you know, lemon and all that.

35:08 Speaker 8: Yeah.

35:08 Speaker 3: So so my tours, Matt, Like, I know, like there's this image of tours being like wild and crazy, I stand up and partying and stuff, but I'm an indie fault singer songwriter. Yeah, so that's not usually the case. So, you know, it's a lot of a lot of hydration. I'm drinking a lot of water, I'm drinking smoothies. I'm sleeping as much as I can. I'm going to plant fitness in the morning, you know what I mean. I'm doing vocal warm ups, I'm doing vocal cool downs. I'm like, you know, like doing the throat coat tea and kind of like you know, massoging all that kind of stuff because it makes me feel better, it makes me have better performances, and it keeps my voice.

35:44 Speaker 3: It's like what I'm doing is kind of like an ultra marathon. Yeah, two hundred twenty five days on the road. You can't mess around, right, you know, what I mean. So, and I've had times where I've lost my voice. Really it's been tough, so I don't want to do that again. So you're absolutely right on that. It's like it's a very conscious effort to keep things going.

36:05 Speaker 1: Yeah, when you're singing every day like that, yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Yeah, is it literally every Like do you ever have a day off on your tour?

36:13 Speaker 3: Sometimes maybe like once a week, once every two weeks, yeah, but usually it's pretty packed.

36:17 Speaker 1: Yeah. That's good.

36:19 Speaker 3: It is good.

36:20 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really good. Yeah. By the way, I'm also curious about your influences in terms of songwriting, because everything that you write, it's all it's so catchy. It really is exactly exactly like any who influences you as far as songwriting.

36:39 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I kind of like was formed by you know, Cat Stevens, Bob Doing, Joni Mitchell growing up like when I was really young. Yeah, you know, John Denver all that, all that kind of good stuff. But then you know, it's funny, Matt, because like I grew up in the grunge era. Yeah, like Stone Table, Pilots, Nirvana, Radiohead, you know what I mean. Read a chili Pepper is, like that was my music, and here I'm playing becausic guitar right, which is hilarious. But yeah, so that really influenced me too.

37:09 Speaker 3: In college, I got into underground hip hop. When I was living in Europe for a few years, I got into like dance beats, electronic music. When I came back, I got into modern day songwriters like you know, Noah Khan, you know boy Genius, you know, just kind of like these very straightforward kind of singing songwriters Jason Morez, you know, Jack Johnson, you know Ed Sheer and that that stuff as well. But also, you know, I got a little countryside yeah, you know, Jason Izbel, Tyler Childers, I like this singer song er named Hardy.

37:44 Speaker 3: He's really cool. So all that kind of comes together.

37:46 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Do you try to do you approach it like trying? It sounds like you probably don't necessarily try to have a particular sound, But what comes out is what comes out. I assume.

37:57 Speaker 3: Yes, I know that's wrong. I know I'm not supposed to do that, but I think it's great.

38:02 Speaker 1: I think that's I think that's the best way to do it. Don't don't overthink it, just be that's the best way to be authentic, just to not overthink it, not to say I want to sound like this, but just sound like what you sound.

38:14 Speaker 3: Like, right. And I'm I'm not in the industry, I'm like industry adjacent, you know what I mean. It's like I'm like the DIY independent scene. So I don't have a manager that says you need to sound like this, right. So it's fun because I can just sound like whatever I feel like that day. I'm enjoying that. So I'm just gonna keep rolling with it.

38:32 Speaker 1: And is everything? Is everything self released or are you on any kind of a label or you just do it all yourself? Is that the best way to do it in your opinion, if you were to give advice to somebody who's aspiring to do what you do.

38:44 Speaker 3: Yeah. So, record contracts actually have never been like the thing that guarantees success, right. They can be you know, for the one percent of artists that you know, record contract is a really good thing for For the other however, many percent of it, you know what I mean, All sorts of things can happen. You can get shelved, the label can have another band that sounds just like you, and they signed you so that they could push the other band and not you. They could drop you after an album, they could keep you for ten albums and never release you.

39:16 Speaker 3: So it just didn't sound like something that would fit my vibe. So I kind of went on my own route. Now that's not saying that if the right record contract comes along, you know what I mean that I wouldn't I would like reject it necessarily. But you know, I've found that it's best to like do your own thing, make your own business, and then if that happens, great, but not to like bank on it.

39:35 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, you know, and we're fortunate to live in an era where you really can do it all. Yeah, you know, because of the Internet, you can. You know, I'm old enough to remember when your only shot really was if you you know, you record a demo and then you send it to record.

39:48 Speaker 3: That was it because they had the equipment. There was no other way to record your music besides getting a record contract. So that would make sense because at least you have your music recorded. Yeah, But now, yeah, it's very accessible, which has pauses and negatives because everybody can do it, so you have to kind of like be inventive. A little bit right, So yeah it now it's like kind of about being creative.

40:07 Speaker 1: I think, yeah, absolutely well, I think so as we as we approach the top of the hour singing, I'll play another studio track, the Honky Talk Truth.

40:16 Speaker 3: Yeah, I love that one.

40:19 Speaker 1: I think it would be a great way to a great way to end the segment. But yeah, but before we do that, I want to make sure that our listeners know where they should go online to keep up with everything that you're doing, and of course plug your next show too. You know, we're in Manchester, but we do have a lot of people who listen online, so we want to make sure everybody knows where to find you.

40:35 Speaker 3: Yeah, awesome. So my name is Eli Love. It's E L I Space and then L E V as in Victory. You can type that into the Google machine and my website will pop up. All my website is all my music that's just freely available to stream with lyrics, and also my tour schedule. So I'll be in New England and Canada and a bunch of shows all over the world. Actually in February March, I'll be in the You and.

41:00 Speaker 1: You're oh no kidding good?

41:02 Speaker 3: Yeah, folks, were listening over there. I'll see you. I see you next year. And also on my website is a little button at the bottom that says join the Levitators. Yes, so you are welcome to join. It's just like a you know, an email texting list, but I send out songs and good vibes and keep people going and we do live streams together. I do folk Fridays. This is a great way to stay connected to a worldwide community of music lovers.

41:26 Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent, that is outstanding. Have you played overseas? But you mentioned you lived in Europe? Did you have you played over there before?

41:33 Speaker 3: I've played shorter tours. I lived in a country called and Dora between Spain and France over there, so I've played shorter tours like a week in France or a week in Spain.

41:42 Speaker 1: Wow.

41:43 Speaker 3: But this is the first like full on, two month like show every day kind of cheat.

41:48 Speaker 7: Wow.

41:48 Speaker 1: Very cool. Yeah, good for you. Yeah, that's that's exciting. So we'll we'll close out the segment with the Honkey Talk Truth another great song. But I like all of these, They're all really good. But Eli lev thank you so much for joining us.

42:00 Speaker 3: He having super fun.

42:01 Speaker 1: This has been amazing. Now we'll have to do it again in the future. Next time you're next time you're on tour through the area, we'll definitely we'll have you back. But uh and if you are listening live on Saturday, sick Aground coming up in the third hour, we have the rightful heirs joining us in studio. But here it is. This is the Honky Talk Truth from Present Journey by Eli Lev