Whether it’s thinking of lyrics to a new song walking down the River Mersey or soaking up the Hawaiian sun whilst setting up a tent for a live gig, Eli Smart is always working on his music. From his time spent in between Liverpool and Kauai, Eli realised that his music had an undeniably Hawaiian sound which inspired him to create the genre ‘Aloha Soul’ as an ode to his surroundings back home. As far back as he can remember, music has permeated through his life in the form of instruments lying around the house growing up as well as a family tree full of musicians. With an array of influences from David Byrne’s compilation of Brazilian music to The Beatles record ‘Revolver’, Eli has certainly curated a rich library from which to draw inspiration. From his home in Hawaii, Eli connected with ASBO over zoom to discuss his rich music career so far and an honourable mention from Elton John.

BRANDON

You come from a family of musicians; how much do you find their music influencing yours?

ELI SMART

Yeah, their music influences me greatly. And just the fact that it was, it is everybody’s passion in my family. There is always an instrument laying around and always like some really good records on the house stereo. So, I think in a very simple way, it was just like, music was just abundant in my childhood. And that helped me just find my own passion for it and to observe my mom’s passion for music, my dad’s, my grandma’s, my grandpa’s. It’s just like, it was apparent that I mean, I obviously just looked up to that, you know, and I saw what a good time they all had making music and I’m sure I gravitated towards it because of that.

BRANDON

A lot of jazz too?

ELI SMART

Yeah, so on my mom’s side, my mom and my grandpa, and my dad. My grandpa especially is like a heavy jazz musician. My grandma’s the more the rock’n’roller. But yeah, a lot of jazz. 

BRANDON

How does performing live in Kauai differ to performing in another city like Liverpool?

ELI SMART

Yeah, I love it. I love performing live everywhere. And there’s like, I think such an appetite for it in all places. In Liverpool, there’s definitely more of an infrastructure for like, what a music scene needs. You know, as far as venues and promoters and other bands, that’s very present in Liverpool. Whereas here on Kauai, I think you got to be a little more DIY with it. There are a couple of venues, but you’ve got to organise stuff, throw it together, tell everybody and make it happen, you know, or we also just wind up playing in like a parking lot and putting up a tent. And that’s like our gig. And it’s awesome. You know, it’s got its own charm. But as far as the live music part is concerned, you have to be a little more creative with it and how you get the word out. But music is very, very present and deeply rooted within Hawaiian and Asian culture out here. So, music is here. And there’s an appetite for it. There are many talented people here, who’ve been here for a long time.

BRANDON

You have described walking down the river Mersey in Liverpool as your Mecca.

ELI SMART

Yeah, for sure. I mean, in Liverpool, because I’m like the biggest Beatles fan I love it. I watched this new, uh, well actually, I’ve yet to watch the third part of this new Beatles documentary that just came out, but they’ve just blown my mind. It’s kind of a way back into the whole Beatles phase. But yeah, being in Liverpool and walking down the River Mersey, which is this river that runs through the city and then lets out to like the Irish Sea. That like, I don’t know, I just remember always  putting on my favourite Beatles record ‘Revolver’ when I’m there. And I was studying and listening to The Beatles and walking around these docks where they used to walk. It’s just a crazy, evocative experience. So yeah, that gave me a lot of inspiration to be there. 

BRANDON

You list Brazilian music as a big influence on your music. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

ELI SMART

For sure. Well, that goes back to one of the records that my family had when I was growing up – it was David Byrne from the talking heads. He put together this compilation of his favourite kind of Brazilian music from the tropicalismo, like 70s, big music movement in Brazil. So I listened to it a lot growing up and in recent years, rediscovered my own interest for it and went back and listened to that record. I then kind of used that compilation as a jumping off point to go and explore all these other artists, catalogues and stuff. But yeah, I just love it, I think it’s like the most beautiful music in the world. And I don’t know how to speak Portuguese, but I can appreciate the emotion through the music and I’ll look up the words for my favourite songs and understand it that way. It’s just such a joyful and deep and melancholy sounding music all in one. The music that I gravitate towards, from Brazil, was all coming out during a very tumultuous time for them. There was a lot of political unrest, and meanwhile, like, there are just these absolute like rockers making these tunes. A lot of their protest songs had to have double meanings to not get censored. I’m just fascinated by that whole world and the whole history there and there’s just so much good music.

BRANDON

And you hope that translates through your music?

ELI SMART

Yeah, I wonder like, what bits of it translate through, you know? Because sometimes it’ll be like an intentional song paying homage to that style of Brazilian music and it would be cool if that comes through. I mean, that’s why I like to make playlists sometimes, like in Spotify, so people who dig my music can kind of go through and listen to maybe what inspired the tunes that I make ,even if it’s super far-fetched.

BRANDON

Would you say that the time you spent living in the UK has had a big impact on the music you produce?

ELI SMART

Yeah, absolutely. Um, again, The Beatles, I think that was one of the main draws for me to leave here and go study over there. So that alone was massive. I think it also helped in a way to realise sonically how Hawaii as my home influenced the music I make. So, as soon as I left, I remember wanting to just sound like English bands like The Beatles, or like the Kooks, or Arctic Monkeys. So, you know, admiring that, which I still do, but then to be able to have that experience and go to the UK and start making music, it helped me kind of isolate which things reminded me of home and of my music. Even in super subtle sonic ways, like the way I was playing the guitar or something or like, a certain reverb, it’s I don’t know, certain things reminded me of home. And being away from home, to be playing how I played, and having lived here helps me I think, hone in a bit of a sound, if that makes any sense.

BRANDON

It’s been said that your EP Boonie Town showcases your different music styles coming together. So, what can you tell us about those different styles?

ELI SMART

Yeah, that also ties back to that question about how the UK kind of shaped the music’s sound because with Boonie Town I ended up writing and recording, just the way it kind of happened, two of the songs in it in Liverpool, and then the other two songs back here, and it kind of just like, magically worked together in a cool, really flowing way. I think living in Liverpool, brought it out of me musically and then being back home brought it out of me musically, and then there was a cool synthesis of all that. So yeah, there’s a song on it called Come Down, and that’s definitely more inspired by like, you know, a gloomy Liverpool, winter kind of vibe. And then there’s other tunes like ‘Highschool Steady’, which is a little more upbeat. Still meant to be a bit more nostalgic, but kind of optimistic at the same time. And that was written right back home, like, right when I got back down at the beginning of locked down. I think it just represents the different moods that these different homes bring out of me.

BRANDON

Given that your surroundings had a big influence on your EP, how does that reflect in your music?

ELI SMART

I mean, I think I can’t help but write what I’m inspired by and one of the main things I’m moved by when writing music, is just my surroundings. I want to write the song that I want to like listen to like walking down the street of the place I’m in. So, if it’s Liverpool, and it’s like gloomy, beautiful cobblestone street with just the wind blasting down walking to the docks, it’ll bring out something, that setting will bring out something there. But if it’s here, and it’s incredibly sunny and warm and I’m on my way to the beach. It’ll probably tend to be something a little more along the lines of that. Or then it’s sometimes totally subverted, like the opposite in different places. And you get some cool, unexpected combinations that way. But um, yeah, I love just soaking up my environment. And I think that EP was a cool showcase of that.

BRANDON

The most popular song from Boonie Town seems to be ‘No Destination’. Do you have a favourite?

ELI SMART

They’re all fun songs and I dig them all, but I think I really like ‘Come Down’. I enjoy the story and it’s just a cosy tune for me. I wrote it in a cosy time in Liverpool. Even though it has kind of like a gloomy connotation to it, it is still quite a real and uplifting song, To me, in a fun way. So, I kind of gravitate towards that one.

BRANDON

Can you tell us more about the story behind the song?

ELI SMART

Yeah, it was inspired by a story of some friends of mine. And just observing people, as they kind of, you know, come off the different come downs of life. I don’t refer to it like, a drug come down context, it’s more like the high of being in a relationship or a certain moment in life. And then there’s like, the natural come down when that comes to its natural end. And the song to me, was inspired by that. And with like a kind of ‘Dear Prudence’ kind of message like looking on the bright side, and you’ll be okay kind of vibe. Don’t fight the come down, like we all feel come downs and we all feel very alone, yet that’s the kind of unifying thing, you know, you can find comfort in that. That’s kind of that’s the story I’m referring to.

BRANDON

And separate from the EP, what inspired the song ‘Every Flavour’.

ELI SMART

That’s a song that I had the melody and the guitar line bouncing around for a very long time, actually, probably like, a little over a year. I started at my first year of university and didn’t finish it till a few months ago, but just because I would try to start a few times, and I just didn’t know what I wanted to write it out with it and nothing was clicking. So I would kind of just let it sit and come back to it. But I ended up finishing the lyrics for it in Liverpool. When my dad had found this wacky old book in a thrift shop about some crazy old circus, it was just this like, mystical random book. I was so over trying to find a way to make lyrics for this tune, because I liked the tune, but I just didn’t know what to sing. So I just like flip through random pages of this book, and read the first lines off of it, and it somehow inspired the first verse. Then I would flip to the next page, and just, like, run off a thought and have that inspire the next verse. So it was kind of a jumbled together song. And, you know, if you’re looking for meaning in it, it might be a little hard to find. But I just wanted to set like a general kind of mood, that fit that melodic part of it. 

BRANDON

And just like Every Flavour, do you have other music that’s been in the works?

ELI SMART

For sure. I’m always working on something. In these last two weeks I’ve been in the studio here with a friend of mine. This guy Luca, who I’ve met over the last year, we’re kind of collaborating. He’s been coming out to Kauai a few times last year, and we’ve been working on songs together. He was just here for a couple of weeks and we were just making a bunch of material for a record and we came out of it with about 10 tunes. So I’m happy to have just exited that period of heavy studio grind.

BRANDON

What does your creative process usually consist of when producing music in either Liverpool or Kauai?

ELI SMART

Yeah, it’ll just be. It doesn’t have a super strict form. But you know, I’ll go through voice memos of stuff I’ve noted down or I’ll have like a guitar riff bouncing around in my head, and I want to put a melody to it. And then once I have a guitar and a melody, I’ll then move to lyrics because that tends to often be the barrier for me, lyrics. It’s not a barrier, but like the thing which requires the most energy and time and like what I want to put the most energy and time on. So I’ll spend time on that, and then maybe I’ll hash out a demo or a really rough one. Or just go straight to recording if I have the parts, you know, realised enough in my mind. And yeah, I’ll give it a listen, rework it if I need to, but I like to kind of jump off the initial, whatever the initial direction of the song is I trust. 

BRANDON

Would you say that Aloha soul, as your music’s often referred to, is becoming a popular genre globally?

ELI SMART

That would be awesome. I would love Aloha soul to inspire other people to make Aloha soul. Yeah, what I mean by calling music that, is it’s my way of just paying homage to these surroundings here on Kauai, that have inspired me my whole childhood and have nurtured me and continue to do so. And just, you know, paying tribute to, Hawaiian culture, like I said where music is so present, and so deep, and I really admire that and I’m moved by it. So yeah, I think everybody from all over the world can tap into their own environments. Aloha soul, you know, that’s just like finding what’s special about what’s around you and the soul that’s there. Because every place and everybody’s got it. So yeah, it’d be my dream for Aloha soul to take off. And it’s many different forms from wherever you’re from.

BRANDON

It seems to have quite a rich history behind it, or rich meaning.

ELI SMART

Yeah, that’s kind of my intention with it. I’m definitely not of Hawaiian heritage, so I call the music Aloha soul, I say that in a light way, but my only intention with it is that I’m so moved by music and Hawaiian culture and its environment. So it’s to just show that or move that forward or tell more people about it. And yeah, inspire people to dig into their own surroundings.

BRANDON

So if you had to choose three artists that have had the biggest impact on you musically, who would they be?

ELI SMART

It’s gonna be boring again, but definitely The Beatles. The band Alabama Shakes. They’re a newer band. The lead singer, specifically this girl, Brittany Howard, she’s an incredible songwriter and guitarist. She’s far a more like a modern artist you know, definitely taking influence from old records, but synthesising it in a very creative, forward-facing way. She totally is a role model for me. So, The Beatles, Britney Howard. And then probably like Stevie Wonder. I’m thinking of like, those early records when he was my age, so not fair, he was like 22 and making the craziest records of all time, he got creative control because he did his whole bunch of early Motown hits. And then he got creative control from Motown after that to kind of like, do whatever he wanted. And there’s these records, starting with Music of My Mind which I think was released in like 1971. He’s so young, but he’s playing all the instruments on it. And he’s a role model for me like that, because I enjoy playing all the instruments on most of my tracks. And I could just hear how he’s like hearing every part, and he’s playing through every instrument and that’s really cool to hear. You can hear Prince doing the same on his records. I don’t know, there’s too many amazing artists. But right now, my answers are The Beatles, Alabama shakes, and Stevie Wonder.

BRANDON

So Elton John, has shown some interest in your music. How did that come to be?

ELI SMART

That was incredible. That was like the coolest thing to wake up to ever. That happened because on my team, there is a very talented radio plugger, named Liv Carson, and she somehow had a source to his show. And I think I’m sure he gets sent a bunch of music all the time to listen through and maybe choose for his show. And I think my song via Liv was one of the options and I’m just so flattered that he chose it amongst whatever else there was. Maybe the name Cruella Deville helped stand it out. As I know, he’s a fan of extravagant characters and outfits. So whatever it was, thank you, it meant a lot.

BRANDON

Did he single off Cruella DeVille as one of his favourites?

ELI SMART

That’s the song he played. And then he chatted about it a bit and talked about the title. And I just thought it was so cool.

BRANDON

That’s amazing!

ELI SMART

Yeah, he’s such a badass. He’s definitely a role model too. He’s so good.

Click here, to listen to Eli’s music.

Words: Brandon Thomson

Images: Megan Anderson @megaan