Eli Waltz, Staying True to Your Artistic Vision
Eli Waltz stays true to his artistic vision...
...and this drives a captivating conversation with this standout figure in the contemporary Americana scene.
Eli's had an extraordinary journey as a folk musician, shaped by a myriad of cultural influences.
He shares his transformative experiences as a working musician in China—where he didn’t just perform in bars and busk on the streets, but also absorbed a rich tapestry of musical traditions that would shape his distinctive sound.
Discover how he defines the essence of Americana music, championing raw, unfiltered performances that resonate deeply with both artists and audiences.
Eli's philosophy on music production is refreshing: he champions authenticity, preferring the spontaneity of live takes to the polish of studio recordings. With nods to legends like Bob Dylan, he passionately discusses the beauty of imperfections in folk music.
Expect to hear engaging anecdotes that highlight the challenges and triumphs he’s encountered along his musical path, all while exploring the emotional depth woven into his songwriting.
We also touche on Eli's musical inspirations, from the profound impact of Townes Van Zandt to the philosophical echoes of the Beat poets.
One particularly intriguing moment revolves around his song “Tibetan Bones,” which draws from a transformative travel experience in Tibet, revealing how personal journeys fuel powerful artistic expression.
Plus, don’t miss the surprise twist: an unexpected endorsement from Paul McCartney that highlights the serendipitous nature of artistic recognition and connection.
This is a heartfelt exploration of staying true to your artistic vision and the inspiration that surrounds us all. This is a must-listen for fans of Americana and folk music—trust us, you won’t want to miss it!
You’ll Also Discover
Busking in China
A Melting Point of Music
Eli’s Favorite Cover to Play
How Managing a Cocktail Bar Influences his Music
What Sir Paul McCartney said about Eli’s Music
Why He Prefers Live Performances for Albums
The Eli Waltz Legacy
An Incredible HARMONICA JAM
Learn more about Eli here: https://www.eliwaltz.com/
AND follow Americana Curious on Instagram for the latest interviews and the behind-the-scenes with your favorite artists! https://www.instagram.com/americanacurious
Transcript
When I was young, I shook my fist and I earned myself my first.
Speaker B:Dishonest doing it live, where it's just a single take, where you're doing the guitar and singing at the same time.
Speaker B:And sometimes the harmonica, I think it leans into why people like folk.
Speaker B:It's like this very raw, imperfect thing.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker B:I don't want to hear a really crisp, clean recording of Bob Dylan.
Speaker B:I want him to hear him laughing on the side.
Speaker B:I'm just trying to follow in these footsteps of the people that make me feel the most.
Speaker B:The deeper the feeling, the more profound the feeling, the better.
Ben Fanning:Americana music transforms the world, and unfortunately, too many are unaware of its profound impact.
Ben Fanning:Americana musicians are the unsung heroes, and here you'll join us in exploring these passionate artists and how they offer inspiration and hope for the future.
Ben Fanning:This show makes it happen in a fun and entertaining way.
Ben Fanning:You'll discover new music that you'll love, hard earned lessons from the road, the story behind favorite songs, a big dose of inspiration for you and your friends, and a good laugh along the way.
Ben Fanning:I'm Ben Fanning and my co host Zach Schultz.
Ben Fanning:It's time to get Americana curious.
Zach Schultz:Hey there, kind of curious nation.
Zach Schultz:Welcome back to another great episode.
Zach Schultz:We've got a treat for you today with Eli Waltz.
Zach Schultz:Eli Waltz is a world traveler and american folk musician who focuses some of his experiences on the road into a single sound reminiscent of a different time.
Zach Schultz:His music draws from the musical traditions of american blues, folk and rock and roll.
Zach Schultz:His lyrics are inspired by the poets of the beat generation he's heralded for his philosophical lyricism, unconventional chord progressions, and hard hitting harmonica solos.
Zach Schultz:He weaves in traditional chinese music inspired by his years living in Beijing, and I believe it's pronounced as Yunnan Yunin.
Zach Schultz:I'm close.
Zach Schultz:I'm in the neighborhood there where he was a working musician, and even classical music's woven in to create a signature folk sound that you're gonna hear a bit of today.
Zach Schultz:He has earned comparisons to musicians ranging from Ray Lamontaine to Coulter Wall to Gregory Allen Isakov, and he aims to build upon and honor the legacies of his all time favorites, and many of ours, too.
Zach Schultz:Towns Van Zant, John Lee Hooker and Bob Dylan.
Zach Schultz:He has shared the stage with nationally recognized artists, including one of our favorites, Willie Carlisle, Andrew Combs and Rhett Madison.
Zach Schultz:And his music has received praise from, yes sir, Paul McCartney, among other musical heroes.
Zach Schultz:He's part of a new wave of up and coming american blues and folk artist Eli.
Zach Schultz:Welcome to Americana.
Zach Schultz:Curious that was.
Speaker B:That was exceptional.
Speaker B:That was.
Speaker B:You've got a voice for radio.
Zach Schultz:We should try the podcasting thing sometime.
Zach Schultz:Then.
Zach Schultz:Let's do this.
Zach Schultz:So I want to hear Zach's.
Speaker B:Zach's rendition of the opening.
Eli Waltz:I write it, Ben reads it.
Zach Schultz:Yeah, well, I do modify it a little bit because southern vernacular.
Zach Schultz:So after Alabama, fire a little bit.
Zach Schultz:I did oofta.
Eli Waltz:He has to take the oofta out of it.
Zach Schultz:All right, so I get to ask the first question, and there are 300 coming to mind here.
Zach Schultz:But one of the things is the diversity of music that influences your sound, including being a working musician in China.
Zach Schultz:What in the world?
Zach Schultz:It sounds like a melting pot of music.
Speaker B:Well, the melting pot.
Speaker B:It's interesting.
Speaker B:I was talking with my wife about it, and it's, in many ways, it feels just folk music with something that is a little bit different.
Speaker B:And in my mind, I'm hearing, oh, that's that ancient chinese instrument thing that I was doing on the slide guitar or the blues.
Speaker B:But it just influences the music in a small way.
Speaker B:It's still, at its core, this kind of old school Americana, maybe folk.
Speaker B:So these influences creep their way in, but very subtly.
Speaker B:And I don't know if most people could hear them, they're not that conspicuous, but, yeah.
Speaker B:How did they get there in the first place?
Speaker B:It was through travel and.
Speaker B:And through music nerd.
Speaker B:Probably more so than.
Zach Schultz:So when I read the intro, this working musician in China, what was that?
Zach Schultz:When Mister.
Zach Schultz:Mister Americana guy cruises into a chinese bar, it sounded like a go.
Zach Schultz:Become a joke or a horror story or, hey, american guy works in what, you know, walks into a bar in China.
Eli Waltz:Yeah.
Zach Schultz:What.
Zach Schultz:What brought you, Dylan, what are you doing?
Eli Waltz:What brought you over to China?
Speaker B:I'm not going to tell you.
Speaker B:I'm just.
Speaker B:Yeah, so I studied the language.
Speaker B:It's not the.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's pretty straightforward.
Speaker B:I speak some Chinese.
Speaker B:There's a couple songs that I've written with chinese lyrics.
Speaker B:But I was studying the language at first.
Speaker B:That's what brought me there.
Speaker B:And I've been there a few times.
Speaker B:First time was in high school for a few months, and I was staying with a family there, host family, and I was learning from scratch.
Speaker B:And then I went there for a year, started in college, and then I stayed to work and to travel and to do both because I had paid for bar drinks and meals along the road with music kind of exposed me to busking and just kind of walking in.
Speaker B: that much these days, but in: Speaker B:It was a lot easier to.
Speaker B:It was very weird to see a non chinese person in the.
Speaker B:Especially in the countryside, and so people would.
Speaker B:It was easier just to be like, can I play for some beer and start a conversation that way?
Zach Schultz:Which the Chinese were for.
Zach Schultz:Beer is Peugeot.
Zach Schultz:Am I right?
Speaker B:Yeah, more or less.
Zach Schultz:PJ, don't.
Zach Schultz:What is it?
Speaker B:It's the same.
Speaker B:Just a chinese accent.
Zach Schultz:I have been to Beijing and I have been to Tiananmen Square.
Zach Schultz:I've been around that town, and I'm trying to imagine american busking in Beijing.
Speaker B:Yeah, well, it's.
Speaker B:It's interesting.
Speaker B:You don't know how much is from your.
Speaker B:The raw songwriting talent and the fact that you're a white dude sitting in front of whatever conspicuous landmark.
Speaker B:But the first.
Speaker B:The first writing gig, whereas me, alone with a guitar, was in do you know ho high.
Speaker B:Do you remember the geography and the areas?
Zach Schultz:Not.
Zach Schultz:Not so much.
Zach Schultz:No, I know.
Zach Schultz:Okay, which.
Speaker B:Which palace?
Zach Schultz:The.
Zach Schultz:Isn't that called the forbidden palace or.
Speaker B:Yeah, forbidden City or Forbidden City.
Zach Schultz:Forbidden City.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Hohai is pretty central.
Speaker B:It's all close together in that first ring, but it's these waterways and all these bars.
Speaker B:And I had this gig where was me for a couple hours every five nights a week just in front of.
Speaker B:In this kind of touristic thing.
Speaker B:It was a very, very serious grind, and it was amazing because it came out of the sky just when I was running out of money, and I was not sure what I was going to do.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:Yeah, you don't.
Speaker B:You always.
Speaker B:I was always questioning whether or not people were there for the tunes or for just hearing somebody make non chinese noises on stage.
Speaker B:And I sang a spanish song.
Speaker B:I didn't speak any Spanish other than five guys ingredients and curses, because I worked at a five guys at Massachusetts, and I just made up this spanish sounding song with this vocabulary.
Speaker B:And the lyrics were literally burgers, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles in Spanish, which sounds way sexier.
Speaker B:And the Chinese, the people that were in the audience or people walking by were dumbfounded.
Speaker B:They thought it was this amazing spaniard thing.
Zach Schultz:It sounds like a Jimmy Buffett song.
Zach Schultz:Cheeseburger in paradise, but it's cheeseburger in Beijing.
Speaker B:Yes, kind of like that.
Speaker B:And I was also using these curse words, at least at the time.
Speaker B:The people in Beijing didn't have a good year for Spanish, so you could say anything, presumably.
Speaker B:I'm sure some people understood, and we're like, we could.
Zach Schultz:I'm sure what they would sing here would be interesting.
Zach Schultz:They would probably mess with us.
Zach Schultz:Pretty, pretty good.
Zach Schultz:Last question on this.
Zach Schultz:When you're.
Zach Schultz:When you're making your playlist or your performance list of what you were going to bust or what you're going to play, what were some of your go to songs in China other than the spanish hamburger song?
Speaker B:Well, there's always the spanish hamburger song.
Speaker B:You could just vamp on that forever.
Speaker B:But I would say the songs that I would cover don't think twice.
Speaker B:It's all right to Bob Dylan's song that, to this day, is still something that I play when I'm just trying to remind myself what good songwriting sounds like.
Speaker B:And then Aurela Montaigne's I'm trying to think.
Speaker B:I played a cover of hit the Road Jack by Ray Charles and Stormy Monday by T Bone Walker, but I also was writing songs at that time, very first songs, and not many of them have made it, is still in rotation.
Eli Waltz:Did Tibetan Bones come out of that experience?
Speaker B:Tibetan Bones was written out of that experience.
Speaker B:It only came together years.
Speaker B:Well, I don't know.
Speaker B:Yeah, I did not finish writing it until only a few years ago, but, yeah, the story came from an experience in Tibet.
Speaker B:And it's kind of.
Speaker B:It's kind of a.
Speaker B:The influences of the story are all over the place, because I was in this town called Shangri la, which is in the.
Speaker B:It's not the himalayan range, but it's the same part of that mountainous ridge farther to the east.
Speaker B:And there were these two things that happened while I was there.
Speaker B:One was I went to a buddhist temple in the mountains with my travel companions, and it was really going up to the temple.
Speaker B:The whole temple was this ridiculous story where dogs chased us.
Speaker B:And then we were invited for yak cheese dinner with these monks.
Speaker B:But before that, we were going up the hillside and there was all these graves.
Speaker B:And I just remember, it was just struck me, it was very weird that we were so out of breath because it was really high altitude and there was no.
Speaker B:It was a very, very quiet town, and this was on the very, very outskirts of the town.
Speaker B:It was just dead silent.
Speaker B:And it was us in these graves, and it was.
Speaker B:All we could hear was the panting, our breath.
Speaker B:And so I just remember thinking that juxtaposition, the symbol for life and the symbol for death, it was just very conspicuous to me.
Speaker B:And I wrote the song.
Speaker A:Watch you settle watch you sit watch your glimmer watch your die watch her move watch you watch your step change mentors shrink back into life walk towards heaven roll back time lose weight in burden text minds talk, walk through the holy land to find hollow stock.
Eli Waltz:When you were in DC, was that when you were owning the bar or working for the.
Eli Waltz:Working.
Eli Waltz:A cocktail bar, was it?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:In DC, it was also weird.
Speaker B:It's a chinese restaurant, and I got into that place because I spoke some chinese, and I.
Speaker B:The business.
Speaker B:The owner, who later became my business partner, is chinese american.
Speaker B:So, yeah, I kind of learned the ropes of this very serious cocktail bar.
Speaker B:And then we opened up another spot in northwest DC, and that was a few years.
Eli Waltz:So then you decided to transition to full time music.
Eli Waltz:That's a big step.
Eli Waltz:Not only transitioning to music full time, but moving halfway across the world.
Eli Waltz:I mean, that's a lot going on there.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think it seems.
Speaker B:On paper, it seems like it's this nonstop whirlwind, but I think there's a slow deceleration of the travels.
Speaker B:I did a lot when I was in my early twenties, and then when I started working in this cocktail bar, it all kind of grinded to a halt, only now it's revving up again.
Speaker B:But I.
Speaker B:I've always been a firm believer in just radical change and non complacency.
Speaker B:As soon as you start to feel you don't want to travel or you don't want to get into.
Speaker B:Out of your comfort zone, that's the signal that you should listen to.
Speaker B:That's telling you it's time to get out of your comfort zone.
Speaker B:For me, I try to keep moving.
Zach Schultz:Being in that cocktail bar world.
Zach Schultz:Inform your music.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's kind of two parts.
Speaker B:On the one hand, there's a business side.
Speaker B:I learned how to do business, and that, to me, people say business skills, whatever that is.
Speaker B:To me, that's just adulting skills.
Speaker B:It taught me how to brush my teeth and be on time, be communicative.
Speaker B:If you think there's a problem with someone you're working with, be proactive.
Speaker B:Bite your tongue, try to problem solve.
Speaker B:So I don't know if that's a business skill or just how to grow up, but it taught me that stuff.
Speaker B:And then on the artistic side, it was a very kind of unorthodox work environment where a bunch of these very art driven bartenders, because this was a fancy cocktail bar, were there.
Speaker B:And it was headed by a very unorthodox kind of artist himself, the owner, my ex business partner.
Speaker B:And so we would just listen to album after album for five years.
Speaker B:Just throughout prep, throughout breakdown, throughout the service itself, we would just listen to full albums.
Speaker B:And it was no, like, oh, we always had this playlist.
Speaker B:We were trying different music.
Speaker B:I discovered a love for whole genres over that time, and I.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:Yeah, I kind of paused music to focus on this bar work, but really it was like music we would just nerd out all the time and.
Speaker B:And play music really loud and.
Speaker B:Yeah, it was.
Speaker B:That something was incubating during that time.
Eli Waltz: ve released quite a few since: Eli Waltz:I mean, on Spotify, there are a lot of singles coming out.
Speaker B:Howl.
Eli Waltz:I love that song.
Eli Waltz:Your recent one, mowing lawns and acoustic version.
Eli Waltz:Tell me about that song.
Eli Waltz:Curious.
Speaker A:Sat by the ice lady turns round to look sinks the knife into the duck board path but she knows him too well and he grabs his gun and over his head.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Mowing lawns.
Speaker B:We were talking about earlier experiences.
Speaker B:How much of it is explicit, how much of it is, like, subconscious or where does the song come from?
Speaker B:Mowing lawns, musically and acoustically, was very heavily influenced by towns van Zandt.
Speaker B:The finger picking is this kind of inversed pattern that comes from Poncho and Lefty.
Speaker B:Townsville.
Speaker B:Poncho and Lefty.
Speaker B:But yeah, that one was something about the chord progression and the fact that the whole thing is just solo, just acoustic.
Speaker B:This whole record that I'm releasing, it's kind of.
Speaker B:I've always loved these albums where it's like songwriter is up there alone.
Speaker B:There's some Dave Van rock albums that many, almost, probably majority of his albums were that.
Eli Waltz:And then you're going to be coming over here, back to the US for a tour.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm trying to hit the big regions on the east and west coasts and then some places central Denver and Chicago, and going to the Atlanta area for the first time.
Eli Waltz:Also, Minneapolis is nice.
Eli Waltz:Just saying, I'm going to come sooner.
Speaker B:Or later, if not this tour, the next.
Zach Schultz:What's the scoop on the enemy?
Zach Schultz:And who is the enemy?
Speaker B:Well, that's.
Speaker B:See, Ben, that's the million dollar question.
Speaker B:Well, the enemy is the question of the song that I'm kind of asking is.
Speaker B:It seems sometimes there's this enemy outside in almost any context.
Speaker B:It can be a social context.
Speaker B:It can obviously be political or in warfare.
Speaker B:There's this enemy, and it's very simple.
Speaker B:You read about them in this news or in books, and there's good and the bad, but I don't know.
Speaker B:Sometimes the enemy might not be real, and it's just this story.
Speaker B:And again, there's no specific, like, oh, this is a protest song, per se, or in many ways, I think it could be construed as about paranoia.
Speaker B:I know some people who've suffered from schizophrenia, and that certainly comes to mind.
Speaker B:But it's.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's this question of, like, how do you know?
Speaker B:Is this enemy all around, surrounding us and closing in, or am I in my head and everyone's.
Speaker B:It's just.
Speaker B:There's crickets outside.
Speaker B:Nothing's happening to me.
Speaker B:And that's the question.
Speaker B:It's very inspired by the spoke artist Anais Mitchell.
Speaker B:Very, very big.
Speaker B:Never know if I'm pronouncing her name correctly, but I think you got it.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Her song in that.
Speaker B:In her.
Speaker B:The play.
Speaker B:That's huge.
Speaker B:Hadestown.
Speaker B:The wall kind of has a similar motif, and if you're familiar with that song, you'll know that the way it's written is very interesting.
Speaker B:It starts with a single line.
Speaker B:Why do we build the wall?
Speaker B:We build a wall to keep us free.
Speaker B:And then she kind of builds every line.
Speaker B:It ends with that, and it's like this building.
Speaker B:Every verse is continual like that.
Speaker B:And so the enemy follows that pretty strictly.
Speaker B:It starts with the enemy, we're all around, and then it's kind of elaborating on that with each pat, with each verse, and it comes back to the enemy is all around.
Zach Schultz:It's very haunting, anywho, and very cool.
Zach Schultz:Yeah, that's cool.
Eli Waltz:The way that you took the inspiration from that, that play and kind of turned it into your own version of a the song.
Eli Waltz:That's awesome.
Speaker B:Yeah, I kind of swamp ified it.
Speaker B:It's a much swampier version.
Eli Waltz:Yeah.
Speaker A:I told them, I'm not afraid.
Speaker A:I'm not afraid.
Speaker A:I said out loud the enemy were all around.
Eli Waltz:How did Paul McCartney get on radar and tell.
Eli Waltz:Tell us that story that Ben read about it in the intro there.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's pretty weird.
Speaker B:It's one of these things that I could tell any of these stories for so long.
Speaker B:I'll try to keep it short.
Speaker B:My dad is a doctor.
Speaker B:He's a neuroscientist.
Speaker B:And so he has, there's this conference every three years called the World Parkinson's conference, Congress, something like that.
Speaker B:And they do this competition where people submit videos.
Speaker B:It can be songs or whatever.
Speaker B:And it's all for Parkinson's disease awareness and the heart world Parkinson's congress mascot is a raccoon because the guy's last name was Kuhn.
Speaker B:Kuhn.
Speaker B:And so there's these little stuffed animals at every congress, and they.
Speaker B:They've turned it into the mascot.
Speaker B:They call it Parky raccoon.
Speaker B:And for my dad, who's this mad scientist jokester person, was like, oh, my God.
Speaker B:Harky raccoon, rocky raccoon from the Beatles.
Speaker B:And so for years, he's had this crazy idea that we're all gonna.
Speaker B:We're gonna make a.
Speaker B:He's gonna write.
Speaker B:Rewrite rocky raccoon to be about a Parkinson's disease.
Speaker B:It's a whole.
Speaker B:It's a whole thing.
Speaker B:We never believed him.
Speaker B:And he was like, we're gonna get Paul McCartney involved.
Speaker B:It's gonna be amazing.
Speaker B:And we are all, yeah, dad.
Speaker B:Okay, sure.
Speaker B:And then last two thanksgiving.
Speaker B:Two thanksgivings ago.
Speaker B:No, one thanksgiving last year, he insisted that we do it.
Speaker B:He took way too much time to recreate the whole song, but tell the tale of a parky raccoon who's helping cure Parkinson's disease.
Speaker B:And literally, syllable to syllable, it's like, whole song sounds exactly the same.
Speaker B:And so he forced us to do it.
Speaker B:I was like, don't even put my name on this, Dad.
Speaker B:I don't want to be associated.
Speaker B:I just want to submit.
Speaker B:And then, through five degrees of separation, my dad, with a colleague who knew the judge who worked on Paul McCartney's divorce proceedings and that, like, I don't know how he knows his secretary and knows his lawyer.
Speaker B:However this happened, Paul McCartney saw this performance of.
Speaker B:Of me playing my dad's song, and he liked it, decided to endorse the conference.
Speaker B:And he wrote this video, and he said some nice things.
Speaker B:He called my dad his friend, which is my dad's claim to fame.
Speaker B:He'll ask my mom sometimes, hey, do you know how Paul's doing?
Speaker B:She's like, what are you talking about?
Speaker B:He's like, my friend.
Speaker B:You know?
Speaker B:Paul McCartney.
Speaker B:What are you talking about?
Speaker B:So I think I started that saying.
Speaker B:I was going to keep it short, but here we are.
Zach Schultz:So now you have to play that every time you perform.
Speaker B:What's that?
Zach Schultz:Now?
Zach Schultz:You perform that song every time that you're up on stage, right?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:No, absolutely not.
Speaker B:I've enjoyed the connection.
Speaker B:I'm glad that I can die now in.
Speaker B:Paul McCartney enjoyed something that I was involved with, but, no, I'm sticking to the songs I write.
Speaker B:My dad, he can keep his.
Zach Schultz:Yeah.
Eli Waltz:He'll take all the royalties.
Zach Schultz:Yeah.
Zach Schultz:Really?
Speaker B:Every time.
Speaker B:Because I insisted.
Speaker B:I didn't want anything to do with it.
Speaker B:And then he got somehow.
Speaker B:Who could have anticipated, who could have predicted that he was actually seriously able to make the poll?
Speaker B:So now he brings it up.
Speaker B:He's like, you doubted me.
Speaker B:You doubted me.
Speaker B:Then I said Paul McCartney was gonna, was gonna get involved.
Eli Waltz:Wow.
Zach Schultz:Well, a question I have just kind of stick to the theme of your music, the song, how.
Zach Schultz:And on Spotify, Howl is way up there in terms of the popularity.
Zach Schultz:And I love to hear the story behind Hal, but also, what's it like to put a song out and you don't necessarily know which song is always going to rise to the top on Spotify, it'd be the one that people listen to, that people get exposed to first.
Zach Schultz:I'm not saying, I mean, I don't know if that was the one for you or not, but what if that's not the song you want everybody asking you about?
Zach Schultz:What if you want to be talking about the enemy, but everyone's.
Zach Schultz:Well, the how, that's the top one.
Speaker B:That's, that part of it is always nice.
Eli Waltz:It's just.
Speaker B:It's just amazing that people connect with the music and, and it gets pushed out there, but it is.
Speaker B:It is kind of exhausting when you're putting out music and just feels like you're gambling almost, because this can be the one.
Speaker B:And so you can set yourself up for disappointment.
Speaker B:And then you put out a song and it doesn't do what howl did or what other songs in the future, presumably they will do.
Speaker B:And so, yeah, it's, it can be.
Speaker B:You just.
Speaker B:You just gotta set expectations and just make it not about any song that you put out.
Speaker B:Make sure it's your best, and then don't think about it.
Speaker B:I think Jerry Seinfeld, I heard Jerry Seinfeld talk about that with his material in the past.
Speaker B:He was asked if he listens to old comedy specials.
Speaker B:And he's like, I don't.
Speaker B:I don't think I do it.
Speaker B:And I never visited again.
Speaker B:Once the special is over, I just, I work on the next joke.
Speaker B:And I think that's a good aspiration.
Speaker B:I don't know if I always live up to it, but.
Speaker B:Absurd.
Speaker A:But when faced with the music, couldn't breathe a word.
Speaker B:Oh, crazy.
Eli Waltz:Yeah, you talk about.
Eli Waltz:You talk about connecting through the music, but you've got quite the online Instagram presence.
Eli Waltz:A kind of a group of, what you call them, not followers, but other than not followers, but kind of a.
Eli Waltz:It's like a group of people that are no members, basically.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:The broadcast channel feature.
Speaker B:Yeah, there's, there's a few little pockets of these die hard fans on different channels.
Speaker B:There's a newsletter that I would do every couple weeks, and there's several hundred.
Speaker B:And then there's the broadcast channel on Instagram, and then there's also.
Speaker B:There's some people who've gotten involved where we exchange kind of letters because I've sent them merch and that kind of thing.
Speaker B:And so sometimes we'll write postcards to fans.
Speaker B:So there's people that are into it, that are invested and that they're into the journey and this music.
Speaker B:And I try to reciprocate however I can with small gestures and merch giveaways and discounts, that kind of thing, but also just being there and communicating and listening and sharing.
Zach Schultz:Why do you like to leverage live performances so much for your.
Zach Schultz:For your albums and the ultimate songwriting experience and how it's going to be presented versus getting in the studio and hammering it out for hours and perfecting every single little nick and cranny.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think I tried.
Speaker B:I tried doing that the more multi track, the conventional way most people record, especially in other genres, but doing it this way, doing it live, where it's just a single take and where you're doing the guitar and the singing at the same time, and sometimes the harmonica, I think it leans into why people like folk.
Speaker B:It's this very raw, imperfect thing that I think I like.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker B:I don't want to hear a really crisp, clean recording of Bob Dylan.
Speaker B:I want.
Speaker B:I want him to just do.
Speaker B:I want him to hear him laughing on the side.
Eli Waltz:Yes.
Speaker B:So that's.
Speaker B:I'm kind of.
Speaker B:I'm just trying to follow in these footsteps of the people that make me feel the most.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And so, yeah, that's.
Speaker B:That's why.
Zach Schultz:Well, I'm with you 100%.
Zach Schultz:Sometimes it messes the sound up.
Zach Schultz:You get used to your favorite artist, the rawness, the emotion, the subtle imperfections.
Zach Schultz:And then they just glamorize their album, and it's like, what is this?
Eli Waltz:And then you go see them live and you don't know what you're listening to because they can't do it.
Speaker B:It's weird.
Speaker B:Yeah, I don't.
Speaker B:It.
Speaker B:There's.
Speaker B:Because there's so many nice, nice recordings that are up to the sonic standards of the day that I love that many of us love that it feels good, but.
Speaker B:And maybe that's.
Speaker B:That's got to be the move for certain genres, for sure.
Speaker B:But I don't know.
Speaker B:I mean, I even think of.
Speaker B:There's a good example of Coulter Wall's cow poke, and there's.
Speaker B:He did.
Speaker B:He released a version on his album and he released a version, or I don't think he actually released.
Speaker B:It was just with western AF.
Speaker B:He recorded it, and the one in the album is very pristine, and there's a nice little harmonica and other instrumentation.
Speaker B:And the one with western Af was just him and his guitar and doing his falsetto.
Speaker B:It was amazing.
Speaker B:There's not.
Speaker B:I had no shade on the album version, but that.
Speaker B:That live take something like this is why it's so tantalizing.
Speaker B:Lightning can strike, and there's no nothing.
Speaker B:There's no other version of it that could beat it.
Eli Waltz:Yeah, that western af, they do a great job with those videos.
Speaker B:They do.
Eli Waltz:I gotta get you on there.
Eli Waltz:You hear that western af?
Eli Waltz:Get this, Eli.
Eli Waltz:Waltz on there.
Speaker B:There's another artist, Kiki Kavazos, if I'm pronouncing correctly.
Speaker B:I discovered through them.
Speaker B:Unbelievable.
Speaker B:If you haven't listened to her, she's.
Speaker B:I think maybe she's on Spotify now, but it was just on Bancos Cavazos, I think.
Speaker B:K I.
Speaker B:K I.
Zach Schultz:That's the name I wrote down.
Zach Schultz:One of the themes emerging here for me is live take americana.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's a little bit sweeter.
Zach Schultz:Zach, you want to bring us all back home with the final question here for Elon?
Eli Waltz:Yeah, sure.
Eli Waltz:So after we asked this to every artist, and normally Ben asks it because.
Eli Waltz:But it's a.
Eli Waltz:It's a.
Eli Waltz:It's one of my favorite questions.
Eli Waltz:So when all said and done, I mean, you're fairly young.
Eli Waltz:I don't know how old you are, but you're kind of getting started here after you many, many years, hopefully many more travels for you, playing music live, recording.
Eli Waltz:What do you hope your legacy in music will be?
Speaker B:No, Dan, the legacy question.
Zach Schultz:The legacy question.
Zach Schultz:You're not getting out of here without an answer.
Zach Schultz:And you have all timeless sound, man.
Zach Schultz:I think it's going to be interesting.
Speaker B:But, yeah, Ben, you can.
Speaker B:You take it.
Speaker B:You take the question.
Zach Schultz:You're not.
Zach Schultz:You're not pawning this one off on me, sir.
Speaker B:No, I don't.
Speaker B:I think it's all pretty ephemeral or just.
Speaker B:It's coming and going and nobody's going to remember.
Speaker B:There was.
Speaker B:I listened to George Saunders interview the other day, the.
Speaker B:The author, and he.
Speaker B:He was saying, nobody's gonna remember me.
Speaker B:That's just the ego.
Speaker B:It's like, if there's anything, they'll remember, the books, the stories, that's always larger than that, than the artist.
Speaker B:And so I just want to leave pieces of art that do what art good art does.
Speaker B:If I'm lucky, which is make people think and make people feel.
Speaker B:And the deeper the feeling, the more profound the feeling, the better.
Speaker B:I don't, I don't.
Speaker B:And it's different for everybody.
Speaker B:So I just want to keep, I want to do.
Speaker B:I hope my legacy is that it's, I stayed true to the songs and it, it didn't change away from that, that it was always about these little things that we call art first and foremost.
Eli Waltz:Awesome.
Zach Schultz:Yeah.
Zach Schultz:Live take americana.
Zach Schultz:Live take podcasting.
Speaker B:There's something behind it.
Zach Schultz:There's something behind it.
Zach Schultz:You're, you and your music are have.
Zach Schultz:And to me, I was just going to play back because he kind of threw it in our court a little bit.
Zach Schultz:What we think about his, his legacy.
Zach Schultz:I think there is a mystery behind you and your music that will really intrigue me.
Zach Schultz:To keep listening and other people to discover you and you play that minor key is your best friend.
Zach Schultz:I mean, the way you work, it's haunting.
Zach Schultz:It's beautiful.
Speaker B:The harmonic.
Speaker B:We didn't really talk about it that much, but the harmonica was a huge, huge aspect of it was actually, when I lived in China, it was all I did.
Speaker B:It was most of the time it was just harmonica.
Speaker B:I was playing with different bands.
Speaker B:I was a psychedelic blues harp player.
Speaker B:And in harmonica, I discovered, as I discovered that instrument, in order to discover that instrument, I also discovered just the whole entire genre of blues.
Speaker B:And so I got, I just fell deep, deep head over heels in love with the instrument and the genre, and it just binded to me.
Speaker B:I love the blues.
Speaker B:I would never call myself a blues musician, but it is definitely deeply influencing the music.
Speaker B:It's amazing.
Speaker B:The blues, especially for me, like John Lee Hooker style darken blues, Mississippi blues is incredible.
Speaker B:Is incredible.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Eli Waltz:And if you follow Eli on instagram, he kind of gives some lessons or teachings on the harmonica, which I find really interesting because it's about the only instrument I can play a little bit.
Speaker B:So it's a forgiving.
Zach Schultz:We should have dialed that in right now.
Zach Schultz:Quick lesson.
Zach Schultz:I watched.
Zach Schultz:I've watched some of that of you.
Zach Schultz:And, yeah, you've got a knack for teaching it.
Zach Schultz:You said you've got to be able to play a single note, right?
Zach Schultz:Blow through the single hole, which is.
Speaker B:Yeah, there's.
Speaker B:For anybody who's wanting to learn the instrument, the way for it was for me and for many people who learn the instrument, there's these two initial humps to learning the harmonica that once you get over them, everything gets easier.
Speaker B:But they're both really annoying and difficult to learn.
Speaker B:At first, it's super frustrating, and most people put the instrument down.
Speaker B:The first is going from playing in multiple holes on the harmonica to a single hole, which can be more difficult than it sounds.
Speaker B:And then the mother of frustrations is learning how to bend.
Speaker B:Bend and bending.
Speaker B:People get really, really.
Speaker B:It's just so hard for a lot of people because you can't explain it.
Speaker B:Nobody can just explain it because it's happening inside the mouth.
Speaker B:So you have to just use analogies to describe.
Speaker B:It's sort of like when it feels to be whistling in this way or sucking on a milkshake through a straw.
Speaker B:It's weird and some people can't deal with it.
Speaker B:But once you get over those, it's like you can seek some greener pastures.
Zach Schultz:Will you send us a recording of you just jamming out on the harmonica?
Zach Schultz:Or we can put up in this episode so people can hear you.
Zach Schultz:Just break it down.
Speaker B:Yeah, sure.
Speaker B:I'm sure I could wrestle, wrestle up something.
Zach Schultz:All right, y'all enjoy.
Zach Schultz:Enjoy.
Zach Schultz:Eli, thanks for coming on today, my friend.
Speaker B:Thank you, Ben.
Speaker B:Thank you, Zach.
Speaker B:This was really nice.
Speaker A:For the second clock tower beckoned and the window flowers kept on looking out.
Speaker A:The sun dial sought permission from the unlikely woman who is twirling out the door to be wound just like the clock, every item in its spot order well earned and hard fought.
Ben Fanning:Thanks for joining Zach and I for this episode of Americana Curious.
Ben Fanning:Subscribe where you listen to your podcast so you are notified when a new episode is released.
Ben Fanning:I'm Ben Fanning and it's been great sharing these artists and music with you.
Ben Fanning:Until next time, stay Americana curious.
