Latest / Unsigned518 / Unsigned518 - Episode 173 - Simon Elijah

Transcript

Unsigned518 - Episode 173 - Simon Elijah · Unsigned518

• 0:01
  Speaker A: He was born on a Saturday in.
• 0:03
  Speaker B: 73 he loves punk rock music fighting the 13 jabbing the dazzle Jazz rock.
• 0:09
  Speaker A: Now on the beat guitar with a.
• 0:12
  Speaker B: Short quick radio bass his motherfucking envy scrolling look at motherfucker cuz here he comes Andy Sculling wearing his orange hats.
• 0:27
  Speaker A: Welcome to Unsigned 518S. I'm here with Simon Elijah. How's it going, man?
• 0:31
  Speaker C: Hey, how's it going?
• 0:33
  Speaker A: It is going well. And you, you just came from a gig this morning?
• 0:38
  Speaker C: I just came from a gig. It was like I had a very short turnaround to get back from Troy. I was playing at Mojo's Cafe, and I had to get home and eat some food and then drive here. So it was kind of a long drive.
• 0:50
  Speaker A: So not. Not quite right from the gig yet? Not quite yet.
• 0:53
  Speaker C: I was home for about 10 minutes.
• 0:54
  Speaker A: Nice. Perfect. But want to go back, I guess, and tell the story of, you know. And I will. I do want to get into, like, your age, you know, being that you're still in high school, you graduate in a couple weeks, but where you're at in the scene is you're in the perfect place, man. You know, you're. You're young, you're ambitious, you're talented. So I guess I want to go back and hear the story of Simon Elijah up until kind of like current day.
• 1:27
  Speaker C: All right, we can do that. Okay. So I guess when I was really little, like, my parents always tried to have some form of music in my life. When I was, gosh, like three or four, they started me in this program called Music Together. So that kind of, you know, put a little bit of a spark in me. Terry Robin was my teacher. She's a local folk singer, and she's still on the scene. She's still going strong. But, yeah, that was kind of like my first exposure to music when I was really little.
• 1:59
  Speaker A: And was that something, you know, like. Because a lot of the times there, you know, or not a lot of times, but there's differences. There's parents that get their. Their children into music because the parents want them to, or there's some that just see that, like, interest in it. Like, did you have, like, that just, you know, were you banging on drums or, like, singing songs when you were a kid?
• 2:20
  Speaker C: I think my parents might have wanted to have musical kids because I was definitely banging on pans and I wanted to play the drums when I was little. But my parents. Neither one of my parents are musicians at all. Like, they might have played stuff a little bit way back when. But, like, my sister and I are the only musicians in the family, so I think they kind of wanted that for us. They wanted to have music in the house. And they definitely do have that now.
• 2:42
  Speaker A: Right.
• 2:42
  Speaker C: And when I was in elementary school, like, third or fourth grade, I picked up clarinet because that's the instrument I chose to learn in school. I had wanted to do drums for a long time, but then clarinet, I liked it because it had a lot of buttons. But, like, the saxophone was too heavy for me, so clarinet it was.
• 2:59
  Speaker A: See, I was the opposite. My first choice was saxophone. And I was a little asthma kid, so I was like, you know, my mom was like, no, I'm not like, you know, we take you to get shots twice a week and, like, all these breathing treatments. Treatment. So you're not playing. So I ended up playing drums.
• 3:16
  Speaker C: Drums? Yeah. Well, yes, I played clarinet. I kind of. I don't know, I was pretty good at it for, like, a third or fourth grader, but I was never really into reading music. I was never really into the stuff we were playing. I also did, you know, chorus and, you know, regular music class at the same time. And I had a good teacher and stuff. I would always like to learn stuff on the side. And I'd always just been good at playing stuff by ear. Whatever pop songs I was hearing on the radio, I learned, like, some klezmer songs because my mom's side of the family is Jewish, so we. It was kind of like part of the tradition a little bit. And that was fun. But I don't know, when I got to sixth grade, I joined. I switched schools, went to middle school, and I quit clarinet. You know, band in middle school was much bigger. It was, like, too loud for me. I just didn't like the stuff we were playing. I just wasn't enthusiastic about it. So I. I quit band. I convinced my parents to let me quit band, and then I joined chorus, and I also started taking guitar lessons.
• 4:16
  Speaker A: Okay, and how old were you with. With the guitar lessons? Now we're talking.
• 4:19
  Speaker C: That was in sixth grade. So, gosh, I don't know.
• 4:24
  Speaker A: I'm like, super old. So I don't even know how old I'm.
• 4:26
  Speaker C: Sixth grade, like 11 or 12. I don't know, something like that.
• 4:29
  Speaker A: So, like, taking the lessons now, was that something that, you know, coming out of, like, you know, learning the clarinet and being in music class and then taking the lessons, was that something that you found was good to have that structure, or was it still a little bit, like, restricting the guitar lessons?
• 4:49
  Speaker C: Oh, totally. So I started. My parents, like, still wanted me to have some type of music in my life. So they were like, well, I know this person who does guitar lessons. That person was Cathy Winter, local folk singer. She's, you know, played at Cafe Lena. She toured back in the day. And I started lessons with her. And I gotta be honest, at first I hated it. Like, she's a great teacher. But, like, the stuff I was learning, just the basic, like, curriculum or whatever was just like these classical pieces where it was just like a little finger picking and plucking and stuff. And I was just bored out of my mind with that. Like, I just wasn't into that shit. And then I started discovering songs with chords and I was like, oh, I can just like strum these chords and play to whatever song. I don't really remember what the first song is, but I, you know, I realized that I could play songs that I liked. And then even then, like, I still don't think it really took hold until high school. Really. Like, I didn't start taking it seriously until a couple years ago.
• 5:45
  Speaker A: So, you know, learning clarinet. Clarinet's obviously a very different instrument. It is, but are there. I mean, I honestly don't know the answer, but are there, like, similarities with, like, structure and notes and chords? Like, you know, with all those buttons on a clarinet?
• 6:03
  Speaker C: I mean, music is music, but clarinets are weird. They're, like, tuned to a different key or something. So like a B on a clarinet is not the same thing as a B on a guitar for some reason. Don't ask me to explain music theory to you. I'm not. That's my sister. My sister ended up playing clarinet and now she's in ninth grade. And she's incredibly talented, way better than I ever was. And she's, like, the best in the school. She's insane at clarinet. So we always have clarinet in the house. She's always practicing late at night when I'm trying to go to bed.
• 6:30
  Speaker A: So, like, learning the guitar, when you first learned that, like, the basics, which was, you know, obviously not the greatest part of the journey. Yeah, but once you had those basics and realized that, oh, shit, I can.
• 6:42
  Speaker C: Do so much, oh, I never got those basic skills, like the finger picking stuff that never caught on. Like, I. I mean, still, like, I'm getting better, but I'm not gonna admit to being, like, the world's most skilled guitar player. I'm just. I like, do, like, somewhat easy stuff and I'm like, good at what I do, but I have no understanding of music. Theory or anything, really.
• 7:01
  Speaker A: I mean, you know, I'm a 52 year old dude who's been playing guitar for 35 years and I still don't have the basics. I don't consider myself, you know, like, super great and like. Yeah, so it fits what you do, though. Yeah, but like, once you got past, I guess, the, you know, the actual physical restraints.
• 7:21
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 7:21
  Speaker B: Being in.
• 7:21
  Speaker C: Once I could play bar chords. Yeah.
• 7:23
  Speaker A: And then, you know, the doors of that open. So when did you start writing your own own songs with a guitar?
• 7:30
  Speaker C: So I think I started writing my own songs. I keep using grade levels to say this because, I mean, hey, easier for me. I don't pay attention to what my age was. Maybe like this was. Must have been ninth grade when I wrote my first song. I guess before that I had like written some parodies and stuff. But the first song I wrote, I kind of started with like funny music, like comedy music, kind of inspired by like Loud and Wainwright and stuff like that. And he's a guy like dead skunk in the middle of the road. So that was kind of my inspiration at the time. And the first song I ever wrote was called South Texas Sea. And it was a song about how Americans are bad at geography and kind of a play on how US maps put Hawaii and Alaska in the ocean. So like a little bit political, a little bit just. It's just like a funny song. It was very bad song. But after that I wrote a song about toilets and the Adirondacks and I wrote a song. Then I started writing some more serious songs. But it kind of took some time to work up the bravery to like write a serious song that was like, emotional in some way.
• 8:34
  Speaker A: And did you like, learn a bunch of COVID songs? You know, like a lot of people, I mean, myself included, like, I went through learning a bunch of COVID songs.
• 8:42
  Speaker C: Oh, absolutely, Absolutely. I learned so many covers first. Like, I would have these big binders, like these big three ring binders of just chords printed out. So I was learning, you know, Eagles, Tom Petty, you know, Loud and Wainwright, like all across all genres. And I think my, like, first time ever, like performing at all, if you could call it performing, was jamming with my uncle at Thanksgiving and just like family gatherings. So I would do that and I'd play music for the family. I'd like bring my binder and like plan out which covers I was gonna play. And, you know, I would play those originals that I had written and then from there my next performing experience. A couple years later, I started having these live stream concerts on YouTube. So I started a YouTube channel. I would, you know, tell all my friends, like, hey, I'm having a live stream concert at 7 on Saturday. Show up. So my friends and family would show up in the comments and I'd play some songs and. Yeah, so that was kind of my first time, like, ever performing. But that was mostly covers.
• 9:42
  Speaker A: Right? But I mean, that's so cool. Like, it's weird for me to get that perspective of, you know, again, you're. You're still in. In high school and to have YouTube and, you know, that network of friends in high school, like, combined. Do you find that that gave you, like, enough of a boost in confidence to have, like, your, you know, your homies supporting you and showing up and like.
• 10:06
  Speaker C: Yeah, I guess there's just a nice. Like, I have, you know, I've built up a good group of friends over the past couple years. And also, you know, I met people through school just like my teammates, I run track and cross country, so they would, like, show up to these live streams. My family, they're just always been supporting me. And that. Yeah, I guess that kind of. They encouraged me to keep writing songs and I just started to write more original songs and then eventually ended up where I am now.
• 10:35
  Speaker A: And so, like, as far as gigs, you know, doing the booking and the finding the gigs and everything, again, it's kind of a. Out of my own just personal curiosity, which I guess all my questions are, realistically, do you do all your own, like, booking?
• 10:52
  Speaker C: I do. I do do all my own booking. It's kind of nice. I was listening to an episode of unsigned518. I think you're talking to Girl Blue.
• 10:59
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 11:00
  Speaker C: Recently, and she was talking about how.
• 11:01
  Speaker A: Oh, no, it's probably girl love.
• 11:02
  Speaker C: Girl love. I get too confused.
• 11:04
  Speaker A: Yeah, me too.
• 11:04
  Speaker C: About how, you know, the emotional work of songwriting is a lot, and it gets exhausting sometimes, but it's kind of nice to just send some emails.
• 11:14
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 11:14
  Speaker C: And they're right about that. Like, I don't mind the booking. I fully enjoy it. I like reaching out to people. I like making the phone calls. It's like, it's work, but it's, like, straightforward. There's no, like, creativity to it, really. It's kind of just having the guts to reach out to people.
• 11:30
  Speaker A: But there, I mean, definitely the guts is one thing, but there is creativity to it because, like, whether you realize it or not, like, you're already setting the parameters of what you expect and what's to be expected of you as you go forward. And if you're working with someone else doing your booking, they may have a different vision than you, and it may be mild and unnoticeable, but over the course of a couple years, it could set patterns that you don't like. So you're starting out being like, this is what I want.
• 12:03
  Speaker C: Yeah. I've been playing all types of gigs over the past couple months. I've been playing, like, two shows a week, and I've just been working up so many stories, and I'm finding out what I like and what I don't like and what works well and what doesn't work well. But one thing that I've been trying to do from the beginning is just build up the infrastructure for, like, a bigger career. Even if I'm playing small shows at coffee shops, the way that I'm reaching out to those places, the way that I'm reaching out to restaurants, I strive for a level of professionality that I would have if I were reaching out to larger venues or working with an agent or something. So I just try to build that room for growth above myself. So, you know, I have a website, I have socials, I have electronic press kit. I do all that. And I put in all that work so that there's room to expand and room to grow.
• 12:49
  Speaker A: Right. And I don't want to, like, keep, you know, focusing on your age, but the fact that you're doing all that. How old are you? 17. 18.
• 12:55
  Speaker C: 18.
• 12:55
  Speaker A: 18. So the fact that you're doing that at 18 years old is. Is by the time you're 21, you're going to be a seasoned vet. And then even if you. Because you're cutting out, like, any middlemen and doing shit yourself, you can make. You are in, like, the perfect position to have a music career, to create your own music career.
• 13:21
  Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, we'll see. We'll see where it goes. But I'm just going to keep putting in the work.
• 13:26
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I mean, that's the. That's the key, you know, I mean, it sounds trite and simple, but, like, that is the key. Just be able to do the work.
• 13:33
  Speaker C: Consistency, you know?
• 13:34
  Speaker A: Consistency and work. Yeah. Well, I think we should hear a song, so.
• 13:39
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 13:40
  Speaker A: Are we going to hear.
• 13:40
  Speaker C: Listen to a song? So we're going to hear a song off my album, Fly Out. My album came out on my 18th birthday, actually, speaking of my age again. And this was the second single off that album, and it's called Poughkeepsie, and it's a song I wrote about visiting my Grandparents and kind of how the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren evolves over time.
• 14:01
  Speaker A: All right, cool. Well, let's check out Poughkeepsie. Simon, Elijah, and then we'll be right back.
• 14:12
  Speaker B: I used to call you on the phone every day Sometimes twice I tell you about my day and you'd give me what, your advice? You took me under your wing Till you taught me how to fly and I sure did fly away after a.
• 14:42
  Speaker C: While.
• 14:45
  Speaker B: Well, the day is along but the years fly by I'm 18.
• 14:55
  Speaker C: And.
• 14:55
  Speaker B: You'Re 775 so put me on a train to Poughkeepsie Get a ticket right out of Albany like an eagle to fly down the Hudson Pick me up front by the station I'll be there right on time well, you still mow the lawn with that Kubota.
• 15:41
  Speaker C: And the.
• 15:41
  Speaker B: Crane sits down by the pond.
• 15:49
  Speaker C: Resting away.
• 15:52
  Speaker B: Waiting to be used.
• 15:56
  Speaker C: Maple trees.
• 15:57
  Speaker B: They hide it away from you the grass grows longer than it used to Never forget that I'm here for you, too the days are long but the years fly by I made tea and your 75 so put me on a trip to Poughkerkeepsie Get a ticket right out of all these like an eagle that flies down the Hudson Pick me up from by the station I'll be there Right on time Anytime, anywhere Call me, I'll be there Anytime, anywhere Call me I'll be there Anytime, anywhere Call me, I'll be there oh, I'll be there Put me on a train to Poughkeepsie Get a ticket right out of all beneath like an eagle that flies down the Hudson down the Hudson Pick me up front by the station Be there Put me on a train Put me Got a train.
• 18:47
  Speaker A: All right, that was Poughkeepsie, Simon Elijah, and now, I guess. Tell us how you went from, you know, guitar lessons to writing your own song to singles and an album in such a. Such a short time.
• 19:02
  Speaker C: Yeah. So a lot of this story happened over the past year, the past two years. And a little over a year ago, I started to write more songs. I wrote. I wrote the first songs that are on this album. I think the first song. The album that I wrote was 9632, which I wrote, like the summer of 2023, maybe. And that song I wrote while I was backpacking out in New Mexico at Philmont Scout Ranch. And so I wrote that song. I got back. I started to. I got in a band at school. I played music in a band called the Evil Ducks. Shout out to them. We mostly Played like pop and rock covers. We had, we had a great time, but we are not still a thing, unfortunately. But I played a solo set at our school's Woodburn Festival. Was just like a little like Halloween music thing that we have. So I did a solo set and that was like, I got to perform for the school and that was exciting. And then around that same time, I started going to open mic nights at Cafe Lina. And that was a really big thing for me. It still is now. I go there almost every week. And I've just met so many people through that who have helped me get to where I am today. And I've made, you know, incredible friends through that and great connections.
• 20:15
  Speaker A: And I think that's what really helps is the connections. It's the people that you meet.
• 20:20
  Speaker C: And I got to test out all these songs, like every song in the album. Pretty much most of them I got to play for people at open mic beforehand. So I would test things out at open mic and I'd tweak them and play them again. And then eventually I liked them and then I started recording them.
• 20:36
  Speaker A: Yeah. And that all goes back to still doing the work because even though open mics are, are fun, it was terrifying.
• 20:43
  Speaker C: The first time I got up there on that legendary stage.
• 20:46
  Speaker A: Probably the second time, I still get a little nervous.
• 20:48
  Speaker C: Yeah. And I've been trying to, you know, pass it forward and bring friends along who have never performed before. So I'll, you know, I'll drive people from Burnt Hills to Cafe Lena on the, on Monday nights. I'm like, you know, encouraging them, go, go play your songs. And that's been really beautiful to watch. But I guess talking about the album itself, I. Over last summer, I took a audio recording class at, at SUNY's Connectity with Jordan Demarist. It was like a one week course, just like Pro Tools boot camp.
• 21:20
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 21:20
  Speaker C: So I got student discount Pro Tools. I bought a mixing board, a couple microphones, you know, I. I got to work.
• 21:29
  Speaker A: Wait, so you did the album yourself?
• 21:32
  Speaker C: I did, yeah.
• 21:32
  Speaker A: Wow.
• 21:33
  Speaker C: Recorded and mixed by me.
• 21:35
  Speaker A: No shit.
• 21:35
  Speaker C: I outsourced my mastering, but everything else, you know, I kind of learned as I went.
• 21:41
  Speaker A: Wow, that's. And I mean, that's again, shows work because as a lot of people know, as most musicians know, the behind the scenes stuff, the mixing and producing and Pro Tools and all that, so much work. It's so much work.
• 21:57
  Speaker C: Especially when you don't know what you're doing.
• 21:58
  Speaker A: Yeah, it's so much work. And it's not. You don't get that instant gratification, I guess, that you get with a guitar, because a guitar, even if you've never played a note, you can, you know, strum something. Oh, that's a little Pro Tools.
• 22:12
  Speaker C: Like, at first, especially, there's so much frustrating stuff. It's like, oh, my God, I can't even get, like, the app to open. Like, why isn't it opening? Like, the playback engine? Like, fuck this.
• 22:24
  Speaker A: I don't even know where to begin.
• 22:26
  Speaker C: Luckily, I had, like, some friends who knew how to use Pro Tools. And Jordan, I'd be, like, texting them. I'd be like, so, hey, how do I set my playback engine? And then, like, Google. I just, like, Google this. Like, YouTube videos. Like, how do I do this? And it's just one thing at a time. It's a lot. And I learned a lot during that class, but it was still only, like, four days. So, you know, you can't learn everything in four days. Myself. It took me a year, and I'm still learning. But throughout the course of making this album, I learned to make. I learned to use Pro Tools. And the stuff that I've recorded, like, since putting out the album is like. Is even better. But I'm still. I'm proud of what I was able to do with Fly Out.
• 23:02
  Speaker A: And what do you like, you know, for other young musicians or old musicians that are just starting to get into it and putting out their stuff, you know, Because I always say, put it out. Like, just put it out.
• 23:13
  Speaker C: It's.
• 23:14
  Speaker A: You have to be you, you know, not that you have to look back at music you've made with, like, ooh, I'm embarrassed of that. But you have to advance. And to advance, you have to start somewhere where you have to look back and say, oh, okay, I could probably do something different here. Now, if someone's just getting into music, what would you say about just releasing something?
• 23:39
  Speaker C: So, I mean, of course I'd advise you to be smart about it. Don't just, like, put it out and hope something happens, because that's not gonna work. Like, the first single, 9632 that I put out, I put a lot of work into promoting it. And I was able. You know, it has thousands of streams now. I. And think of, like, creative ideas to promote your music. One thing I did was Philmont Scout Ranch, like, the boy Scout camp that. That inspired that song. I sent it to them. I was like, hey, do you mind reposting this on your Instagram? They did. Then it got a couple thousand listens. You know, submit to Spotify playlist. It's a lot of work, but if you want to get that, get those streams and get that attention, that's what you have to do. And it's just like putting in the work to do all the little promotional things and just not being afraid. Just send that email, make that phone call. Just like jump in. Just ask. Yeah, it never hurts.
• 24:22
  Speaker A: That's right. Whenever anyway, you know, whenever something.
• 24:24
  Speaker C: How did you get worse than someone says no?
• 24:27
  Speaker A: Yeah, like, just like, you know, we got JB AKA Dirty Moses on one of our songs and people like, how the fuck did you pull that off? And I was like, well I, I sent him an email and I asked him if he would do it and he said yes. And they're like, oh yeah, okay. Like that's how you get shit done. You do the work, you have consistency, you ask like, yeah, you know, you're doing all the right things. Because again, like having the knowledge to do the behind the scenes stuff with the pro tools and to be able to produce your own stuff means that you can produce it on your own time. Yeah, you can produce it on your own dollar. Because studio time, expensive is insanely expensive.
• 25:06
  Speaker C: And that, like hiring musicians and stuff, you know, I was recording stuff myself, some little, little Easter eggs. You might notice on the album, like everything is me, like, except. Except for some tracks. There's some electronic wind instrument, some EWI tracks, which is basically just like synth, violin and bassoon. And there's some like stand up bass from SO and Keener who someone I met through Cafe Lina open mic, who's actually my friend's dad as well, so he recorded some of that. But I recorded like any percussion on there. It's pretty minimal, Some shakers, some stomp box because I didn't have a kick drum, just like using that. And it was fun to be creative. And it's a lot of work to record, produce and write and play shows and do all my own booking. But it's kind of nice in a sense because there's plenty of stuff to do that I don't get burnt out of doing one thing easily. And then still I kind of move in phases. I'll be like, for two weeks I'll be like, okay, I'm recording stuff and then I'll just have like a one week kick where I'm like, okay, this week I'm sending booking emails. So I kind of get in the mindset and then.
• 26:03
  Speaker A: And again you get to choose when you do it.
• 26:06
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 26:07
  Speaker A: And what you're doing when. Which, yes. Is gonna pay off in dividends down the road, you know, starting now with. With running your own shit. So we should play another song.
• 26:17
  Speaker C: Yeah, we should.
• 26:18
  Speaker A: What do we want to play?
• 26:19
  Speaker C: All right, we're gonna play Ride with me, and I want to play this one because I'm graduating in a couple weeks at the end of June. I wish it was sooner, but it's almost here. It's almost here. So I feel like everybody the summer after senior year has, like, their thing that they do a lot. And I have some friends who graduated last year who, like, spent way too much time fishing. And, like, people have, like, that hobby where they're, like, leaving home because it's kind of, like, not as much to do. It's not like you have, like, summer homework or anything. If you don't have a job. People just like. So, you know, playing music is going to be one of those things for me, but the other thing is going to be riding my bike. I just got a new bike as an early graduation gift from my parents, and I'm super excited to take it out for a bunch of rides. So we're going to play the song Ride with me, which I wrote about going for bike rides with my dad during the pandemic.
• 27:07
  Speaker A: Okay, cool. Well, let's listen to Ride with me, Simon Elijah, and then we'll be right back to wrap it up.
• 27:17
  Speaker B: When will my long day be done? Wanna get outside and enjoy the sun? One more zoom call Just one more boring class Then I can take a bike ride with memory that will last Go outside, lube the chain put some spandex on click the helmet, grab the gloves and bike around the lawn I yell up to where you're working up on the second floor you're busy now but pretty soon we'll be out the door Won't you please take a ride with me? I'll feel sane and I'll feel free I'll take glue to my laptop screen so won't you please take a ride with me? Cross the road and hug the shoulder line one by one as we're pedaling in time Past fields of hay, fields of soy every kind kinda gray Up a hill, coast on down then back up again Past water towers, neighborhoods, rivers, streams and ponds Shady forests, quiet lanes and pastures full of rocks we get flat tires, brake malfunctions we get aches and we get sore but nothing stops our team of two from riding a little more Won't you please, please take a ride with me? I'll feel sane And I'll feel free I've been glued to my laptop screen so won't you please take a ride with me? As we pedal through our afternoon we make plans for bigger rides we can crank all the way to Canada maybe bike the Great Divide along the Blue Ridge Parkway Hundred miles, maybe two Even though the journey's hard I'd do it all with you Won't you please take a ride with me? I'll feel sane and I'll feel free I sing through to my laptop screen so won't you please take a ride? Ride with me? Won't you please take a ride with me? I'll feel sane and I'll feel free I've been glued to my laptop screens Won't you please take a ride with me?
• 30:39
  Speaker A: That was Ride with Me, Simon. Elijah. And Simon, I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your busy.
• 30:45
  Speaker C: Thank you.
• 30:46
  Speaker A: Busy Sunday, playing a show and then coming. Coming right here.
• 30:49
  Speaker C: The weekends. The weekends are busier than the weeks these days. I'm playing all these shows on the weekend after school, and then I go into school and, like, all my AP classes are done, so we're just, like, sitting around the whole time. So, I mean, I'm, like, way ahead on all my booking.
• 31:02
  Speaker A: So, like, school is your chill time for a couple more weeks.
• 31:07
  Speaker C: Couple more weeks.
• 31:08
  Speaker A: But before I send you on your way, I want to give you a chance to say what refer to as your gratitude. So microphone is all yours.
• 31:16
  Speaker C: Yeah, I came prepared with a list. So let's see. I don't know what order I want to do this, but I. It was like, midnight last night, and I was thinking, like, oh, I have to do my gratitudes. So first I want to thank you, Andy, and Unside518, as well as the whole, like, local music scene. Everybody, you know Metroland. I just did an interview with them. So thank you to TJ Foster for doing that and just all the wonderful people at Met through the local music scene. And I'm gonna be sad to leave it next year. I'm going to college in Connecticut, so I'll be coming home and playing shows. I'm looking forward to that. I want to thank all the other artists I've collaborated with, Ellie and Francis, who go to Skidmore. They're in a band called Question of the Century. We played some shows together. I just got done playing a show with Skylar Aaron this morning. She's been incredible. Sewin, who recorded stuff on my album, and also his band, Shannon Tea and the Troupe. And Shannon like just so many wonderful people. I want to thank Reese Fulmer at Cafe Lena specifically as well as all the other people at Cafe Lena I've met. Reese has just been an incredible mentor to me. I also love his music, so check out his music. So he's just been super helpful and all the other people I've met at Cafe Lena have really. I don't know what else to say. Of course I need to thank my parents. My dad has driven me to countless gigs and my mom co writes songs with me. So some of the songs on Fly out were co written Whale Watching in Maine. She wrote the words for that one and a lot of other songs since then we've written together and that's been really wonderful to work with her. I want to thank anybody who I've written a song about, whether they know about it or not. I want to thank Eric Ayat. I'm sorry if I pronounce his last name wrong. He mastered my album and did a great job doing that. And lastly, we didn't talk about this in the interview at all. I guess I left this out of the story. The first song that I wrote that kind of took off that inspired me to take this music career more seriously was a song I wrote called Can Opener Bridge, about the infamous railroad bridge in Glenville that takes the tops off all the trucks. So I owe my music career to the Glenville Bridge. And above all, I want to thank the Glenville Bridge for what it's done for me. And yeah, that's it. That was a long dad of students.
• 33:34
  Speaker A: All right. Well he is Simon Elijah. I am Andy scullin. This is unsigned 518. See you on the road. Unsigned 518 is produced and hosted by me, Andy Scullin. New episodes are available every week wherever you stream podcasts. A few like to help support the show. Please like and subscribe wherever you are listening. Or you could buy me a coffee@buymeacoffee.com unsigned 518 if you would like to advertise on the show, send me an email@unsigned518mail.com and to be a guest on the show, reach out to me through Instagram at unsigned518. Take care of one another and I and I'll see you next week.