Home > Music > Interviews
Walk a Mile in His Shoes
Eli shares where his road has
led him, and where it hopefully will lead
by Michael Herman
 He's not Samson, but his well-known lengthy locks
fell to the ground as I spoke with Eli recently during a haircut.
He talked about the whirlwind that has become his day and night, his breakfast,
lunch and dinner, his life. His strength clearly comes from another source that
cannot be trimmed away in a matter of minutes; namely his God, his wife, and
his devotion to simply telling others about God's love for them.
"Honestly, I prefer the nights when I'm playing
for a group of 20 people. It's more intimate," explains Eli. "It's
on those nights when I feel this is exactly the reason why I'm doing this. It's
a blessing to be a part of the Focus on the Family, 'Life On the Edge' tour,
but I'll always love the smaller groups and that intimate atmosphere."
The amount of energy that has gone into sculpting
his debut album has left Eli with a sense of amazement, and a sense of relief.
"It was a wonderfully painful lesson to look at myself objectively, and
to choose what's best for the album, not what's best for me personally."
The process of completing the final version of
Things I Prayed For took numerous detours, including a trip back to the
studio to chisel off a few songs and replace some new ones after the album was
supposedly "complete." These events not only created some frustrations
in Eli's mind, but also caused a strain in his marriage during that time.
"That was the first real strain in our marriage.
I was working 15 hours a day for 7 months straight, and when I came home after
a long day of recording, my wife got what was left of me. Most of the time there
just wasn't much left. My wife's commitment was amazing during that time."
If you were to ask him today what a perfect evening
would be for him, it would be a quiet one with his wife. You'd find them on
the couch relaxing after a dinner on the town and perhaps a trip to a bookstore
or a small, out-of-the-way coffee shop. Some of the background music you might
hear at his house these days would include Keith Green and Jim Croce, along
with the occasional Spanish Flamenco music, Christafari, and Deliriou5?.
"My music listening habits are like my eating
style. I'll eat the same thing for 6 months straight, then I'll be done with
it and won't eat it anymore and I'll move onto something new. I really like
Margaret Becker's new album and I've been listening to that one a lot lately."
While I was talking with Eli, Romans 5:3-5 continued
to come to my mind, which says,
"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character,
and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's
love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been
given to us."
"Writing music for me is a private process.
It's a lot of emotional vomiting that you'd never want to do in front of anyone
else," says Eli. "I write late at night or early in the morning by
myself; that's when I can concentrate and focus on what's inside of me."
The "emotional vomiting" has produced
a very well-received album with his first 2 singles "Things I Prayed For"
and "King of the Hill" reaching #4 on CCM's Christian Hit Radio chart
and #1 on the Christian Research Report respectively.
After a quick start in the Christian music industry,
Eli isn't about to hang it all up and call it a career. But if he wasn't writing
and performing, he knows exactly what he'd be doing.
"I'd have my own guitar shop. Definitely.
I'm at the local shops all the time and they think I'm crazy. I'm always buying
this and that and thinking up ways to rig up something new with a guitar."
Apart from spending hours in guitar shops, he also
likes to shop with his wife, write poetry, and sit around thinking of "ridiculous
and ludicrous things to say."
"I also like to draw," he says."I'm
terrible at it, but that doesn't stop me." And that's the attitude that
kept coming out as we spoke. He's humble and thankful for what he has been given,
another chance and multiplied blessings on top of it all. After a period of
rebellion, drinking and drugs in his early teenage years, he came clean by age
15 and accepted Christ into his life shortly after dropping the things that
were holding him back from the life that Christ had planned for him.
" … if tomorrow was my last day in the
industry, I would feel fortunate for what I've been able to do. God's grace
is real, and it freaks me out to see people touched each night. Who am I to
be a part of God's grace changing people right in front of me? It's amazing,"
explained Eli. "I know what a moron I am, and I have to learn humbleness
everyday in one form or another. Seeing what God wants to do for people is worth
it all. It's not about me, it's about them."
The radio in your car is currently playing Eli's
self-written and performed single, "Life On the Edge," from the Focus
on the Family tour, but there's more to come very soon. His next single from
the album will come in December. He wouldn't tell me the exact name of the song,
but it has to do with lumber, and you can probably guess which song he's talking
about. Shortly after that release, you'll be hearing, "Captain." But
you didn't hear that from me.
Eli will be back in the studio next May to begin
recording again, doing his best to cut those 15-hour days down a bit. You can
expect his second album to be released about a year from now in October/November
of 1999.
Now that you've walked a mile in Eli's shoes, I
suggest you drive the extra mile down the road to go pick up Things I Prayed
For at the closest bookstore near you and find out what the buzz is all
about. Listen to the words, and read along with the jacket of the CD to fully
understand the love of God that's openly proclaimed in this journal of life
that he calls an album.
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Try an Issue of Today's Christian Woman Free!
|
 |
|
No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders.
If you decide you want to keep Today's Christian Woman coming, honor your invoice for just $17.95 and receive five more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless.
Give Today's Christian Woman as a gift
Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
| 
