Latest / The Scene Projects / Eli Gardiner: Music, Minneapolis Scene, and Emotional Performances

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Eli Gardiner: Music, Minneapolis Scene, and Emotional Performances · The Scene Projects

• 0:06
  Welcome into a very exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:09
  I am your host Bubba Sartz.
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  And today, we're at the Midway Saloon for the songwriter showcase.
• 0:14
  We'll be here all day rolling tape and recording a plethora of amazing artists and our
• 0:21
  kickoff is none other than Eli Gardner.
• 0:23
  Welcome to the show,
• 0:24
  Thanks for having me.
• 0:25
  Man, this is a pleasure.
• 0:27
  We're getting to meet for the first time here on stage as I meet most musicians these days,
• 0:31
  it seems like.
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  Before we get too far into the music, why don't you
• 0:35
  give us a little bit
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  of who you are and what it is that you do?
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  Well, first and foremost, I'm a songwriter.
• 0:41
  I'm originally from the UP Of Michigan, and I've lived in Minneapolis now for about six
• 0:45
  years.
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  And I play solo shows and duo shows and full band shows as well all over the Midwest.
• 0:53
  That's awesome.
• 0:54
  That's awesome.
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  I love that you list songwriter at the top.
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  I think that's so important for musicians that do write songs to identify with that.
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  So I appreciate that already.
• 1:05
  Absolutely.
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  I always I always leave leave with a song that informs everything.
• 1:08
  Yeah.
• 1:09
  Well, we're gonna move pretty quickly today and try to get as many songs out as we can.
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  You got one lined up for us off the top to kinda get it started?
• 1:17
  Yeah.
• 1:17
  I think so.
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  Let's let's try this one.
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  This is is called Make Me Cry Again.
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  This is about, actually, about a songwriter showcase here in Saint Paul I wrote.
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  And it's about a special night that everyone was hearing songs, and there was a particular
• 1:40
  songwriter who played her song, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
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  So I went home and I wrote this song.
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  Darling singer songs make me cry again.
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  Spirits on the ceiling are my lost, long lost friends.
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  A fever in the eyes of the brokenhearted men.
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  Darling singer songs make me cry again.
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  It's been coming down forever.
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  It's the warmth in the fingertips Where the cold air catches, your understanding slips.
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  I'll dream of it forever.
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  I'll watch easy sway and dance.
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  Try to catch the snowflakes, try for circumstance.
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  So darlin', sing your songs, make me cry again.
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  Spirits on the ceiling are my lost bastard friends.
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  The fever in the eyes of the brokenhearted man.
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  Garland, sing your songs, make me cry again.
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  Catch the whisper as you smell her breath.
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  And you've both been drinking, and now you wonder what is left.
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  The melody surrounds you like a blanket like stair.
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  Sing the words that matter, sing like he's still there.
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  So, darling, sing your songs, make me cry again.
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  Spirits on the ceiling are my lost bastard friends.
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  The fever in the eyes of the brokenhearted men.
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  Darling, sing your songs, make me cry again.
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  Darling, sing your songs, make me cry again.
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  Thank you.
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  I I don't know that a better song for today could have been written.
• 5:29
  That's a great way to start it, Eli.
• 5:30
  Thank you.
• 5:31
  Thank you.
• 5:32
  So the UP of Michigan, That explains the lumberjack look.
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  Okay.
• 5:37
  You're welcome.
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  I got jokes.
• 5:38
  That's good.
• 5:40
  Yeah.
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  I've heard that one before.
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  Yeah.
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  I bet you have.
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  It's fitting though.
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  I I got some family up in that array, and I know the the lonesome feeling of the woods that
• 5:51
  can be.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Definitely, man.
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  I think I think nature and and just being around great big bodies of water and and the
• 6:00
  snow and the cold informs a lot of my inspiration, a lot of my songwriting.
• 6:06
  How long you been playing?
• 6:09
  Since my hockey career was over, which was, like, right after high school.
• 6:13
  Okay.
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  Hockey, It's pretty typical of the UP Yep.
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  Youth.
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  Yep.
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  Keeps you out of trouble.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, and then you fit right in in Minneapolis.
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  I imagine it's not too much different out here for the kids growing up on a lake, on a frozen
• 6:28
  pond somewhere, slapping pucks around.
• 6:31
  That's a great thing.
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  It's one South Dakota doesn't have a lot of that.
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  So I'm definitely jealous.
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  Hockey is one of my favorite sports.
• 6:38
  Oh, really?
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  Oh, yeah.
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  I love it.
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  What's your favorite team?
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  Blackhawks.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  We probably have issues, but it is what it is, but it's okay.
• 6:45
  It's okay.
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  So, Eli, you've been up here for six years now.
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  What do you think of the the Minneapolis Saint Paul music scene?
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  I mean, I was impressed the minute I started playing shows, the minute I started meeting
• 7:00
  people.
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  There's all kinds of resources.
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  There's all kinds of places to play.
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  I'm even I'm finding out new places in the surrounding area all the time.
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  And then not to mention just the the amount of talent you have outside of the songwriting
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  realm for picking up bands and picking up players.
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  I learned how to be a band leader doing that, you know, meeting people, finding the right
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  people, finding the right musicians to fill out my sound.
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  It's been nothing but really greatness for for what I do.
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  Right.
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  And I and I think I I speak for both of us when we say that our our Midwest country music
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  organization family are are a big part of that and a major resource, at least for me Mhmm.
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  To to find those people and Absolutely.
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  And to have that.
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  I had Gary Spencer on stage with me right here last night, and that wouldn't have been
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  possible without the Midwest CMO and everything that it's brought to me.
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  So, yeah, it's brought you to me as well, Eli.
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  What's what's next?
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  In regard to what?
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  Well, what's what's next as far as songs?
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  Yeah.
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  In my life?
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  Yeah.
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  I don't know.
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  Well, we'll get to that.
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  That'll be the next question after this song.
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  Let's see here.
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  Let's let's play a song about a special spot in in the UP Of Michigan.
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  This is called Mission Hill.
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  This is off my my acoustic album I put out this past this past year called Transient.
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  All that they say never comes true.
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  All that you believe
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  is
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  what's been done to you.
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  It's where I never let go.
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  Doesn't matter of the future.
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  The past has been one.
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  Drove by the lake,
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  Thanks.
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  Beautiful little song.
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  Thank you.
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  Yeah.
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  I love it.
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  Great sounding Martin there too.
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  Thanks, man.
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  I love the way that wooden strings can make a person feel.
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  Thought about that a lot this year.
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  It's like, great.
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  It's just a little bit of just a little
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  bit of metal strings and a piece of wood, but, man, the emotions that you can convey and that
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  can be conveyed to you with it is just unbelievable.
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  What a magical instrument.
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  I think that's the right word.
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  I think music and and the creation of something is about as close to magic as we have right
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  now.
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  Definitely.
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  Definitely.
• 12:38
  Well, Eli, you got you got a band.
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  Right?
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  Eli Gardner band?
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  Is that Yep.
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  Did you go by?
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  Awesome.
• 12:44
  Awesome.
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  So does it change from what we're hearing today when you play with the full group?
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  Or is it more kind of the laid back acoustic stuff you're playing for?
• 12:54
  No.
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  Just with the full production.
• 12:55
  No.
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  No.
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  It definitely changes.
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  It changes how the song sound.
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  It changes the song selection as far as the sets I do.
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  Sometimes I'm in the mood just to play electric and just to play loud and, you know, moody and
• 13:11
  angry and or just to get just to just to get on and on a on a jam and just see what happens
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  with the song.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, and that's great.
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  It's so you you play a lot of covers with your band?
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  Are you doing those type of shows and then getting to work in originals?
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  Or up here in Minneapolis, is it all original stuff and getting out there in that setting?
• 13:29
  It's never really been about where I'm located.
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  It's been about just what I do.
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  I don't really do many covers.
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  If I'm doing a solo show, if I feel like it, I'll do, you know, one or the one you know, a
• 13:41
  couple here or there.
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  But usually with a band, I the reason I'm playing with a band is I wanna do my own stuff.
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  And it's about the expression of it.
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  And so I think covers can, know, can serve a purpose.
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  But I think for what I do, it's I have so many songs anyway that I wanna play.
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  I usually don't get to most of them, you know, a lot of them that in in the set.
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  So I usually don't do covers.
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  No.
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  That's awesome.
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  In South Dakota, where where I'm from, there's not a lot of room for original music.
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  It was kind of the impetus for why I started the podcast and all these shows was to help
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  some of my friends in South Dakota just to get their original music out there in some
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  capacity.
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  But coming up to Minneapolis, it's such a different scene.
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  Right?
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  It's a different thing up here.
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  You have a lot more shows.
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  You have a lot more venues.
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  So you can do a lot more things.
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  Playing, you know, with multiple bands on one bill, that's not something that we do a lot of
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  in South Dakota.
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  Mostly, it's, you know, a four hour bar show.
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  You're expected to kind of perform this thing, and and we get paid better than most bands do
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  to to play, you know, rooms similar to this.
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  But it it it takes away from it.
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  Right?
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  I don't get to express myself as much as I would like.
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  Is there a stipulation on playing cover music?
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  It's it's more of a stigma.
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  Right?
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  When you come in and you say that you have original music, most owners and bookers are in
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  the realm of, well, original music doesn't sell and my my clientele really don't wanna hear
• 15:10
  that.
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  They wanna hear songs that they know.
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  See, that's a I I I grew up in a small town too and I think that's a misnorm that happens that
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  it's not really, I think, very few times have some has someone said in a booking situation
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  where, oh, you have to play covers.
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  Usually, they'll ask, like, what you do, you know, and what kind of music you play.
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  But I can understand that if you're having a four hour set as far as just having enough
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  material.
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  Right.
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  Right?
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  Right.
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  Well, and and it's just it's it's because of the history that we've had.
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  You know, I grew up I grew up on stage essentially playing those type of shows.
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  Right?
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  So I just thought that that's kind of what it was.
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  Everyone else in South Dakota has has been the same.
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  Right?
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  It's just been what the scene was was the was that.
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  Right?
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  It it was that was the expectation.
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  Right?
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  Was that's how these shows are supposed to go.
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  You have one band and they play for this line.
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  That's just it is what it is.
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  Right?
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  And I'm trying to kinda break that mold a little bit and go, well, we have all of these
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  talented people that are songwriters, right, that are that are writing the stories that are
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  happening right now, not a story that happened sixty years ago.
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  So we're trying to break that stigma.
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  We're trying to break that barrier, right, to get more original music out.
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  And, you know, our thing just growing up in a rural area, I mean, South Dakota has 780,000
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  people total.
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  Right?
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  And they're based over a million square miles.
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  So it just gives you a there's not a lack of talent, but there's just there's a lack of
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  population to support the talent that we do have.
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  Yeah.
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  So, yeah, I love that you get to go out with the band and play nothing, you know,
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  essentially nothing but original music and and I'm I'm a little jealous.
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  I'm not gonna lie.
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  Yeah.
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  Mean, it's it's about finding the right shows too, I think.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  And we're looking.
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  You know, that's why I ended up up here.
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  Right?
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  That's that's why I'm trying to branch out of South Dakota and get away because it's easy to
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  get locked into that.
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  Like I say, we get paid maybe better than most bands would in in situations where you're
• 17:09
  playing just original music.
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  Right?
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  We don't do a lot of cover charges and things like that.
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  It's just not it's not part of what the music scene is down there.
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  The big differential for me that kind of clicked in my brain is that, do you want to be
• 17:22
  an artist or do you want to be a performer?
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  And sometimes there's there's, you know, sliding scale.
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  But for me, I mean, the reason that I do this is to be an artist and and to create things.
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  And sometimes that has to do with create, you know, in the moment stuff where you're doing a
• 17:38
  cover song differently or something.
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  But for the most part, like, I'm not out there trying to be, you know, someone.
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  I am presenting what I'm doing.
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  Yeah.
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  You're presenting yourself.
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  Your art.
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  And I
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  there's something that people don't talk about with with playing covers is that if that's all
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  you do, you don't develop as an artist.
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  Right.
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  You're not digging
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  in deep.
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  That's just the bottom line.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Think and when I think that there's there's a lot of people that aren't that don't wanna do
• 18:09
  that.
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  They don't have the songwriter bug.
• 18:11
  That's not how they're choosing to express themselves anyway.
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  Right?
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  And that's totally fine.
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  Right?
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  I I don't have any problem with it.
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  I don't begrudge anyone.
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  I'm here to support all musicians, but really, as a songwriter myself, that's where my love
• 18:22
  is.
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  I love telling stories.
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  Right?
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  You know, every song that I've written is a little piece of me from an experience that I've
• 18:28
  had personally.
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  I think just listening to a few of yours already here the same.
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  So, yeah, why don't you go ahead and play us another one, I love hearing the things that
• 18:36
  you've created.
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  Alright.
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  Let me see here.
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  Say it's a choice and not a disease.
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  You say you can't see the stars through the trees.
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  But you're not in our lawn.
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  It's time for a change.
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  Time to look in the mirror and feel strange.
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  04/01/2017.
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  It's been four years since you've been clean.
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  Well, seems these days you either fight it or die.
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  So find those people who can help you try.
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  There's a car going down the interstate.
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  There's a man behind the wheel.
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  It's getting late.
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  Running out of time, running out of life.
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  It's hard to get
• 22:29
  Well, boy, I felt that one.
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  Thanks.
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  Thanks, man.
• 22:33
  Yeah.
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  As someone who spent a lot of time behind a windshield and also a lot of time not sober.
• 22:41
  Wow.
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  Touching song, man.
• 22:43
  Yeah.
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  I wrote that song.
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  It's called Eaten Alive.
• 22:47
  I wrote that for my brothers because they both were in the drug trade deep, and I lost one of
• 22:52
  them to addiction.
• 22:54
  Sorry to hear that, Eli.
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  My other brother's in recovery, and he's actually a recovery coach now.
• 22:58
  I'm really proud of him.
• 22:59
  And he wrote a article for our hometown paper, and he described the feeling of being in the
• 23:05
  throes of addiction as being eaten alive.
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  And I I just saw the whole picture after reading the article in front of me, I wrote
• 23:12
  just wrote that song.
• 23:13
  It's amazing, man.
• 23:14
  That that's what being a songwriter is, is to be able to take these stories and and these
• 23:18
  powerful these powerful emotions and these situations that, you know, this experience that
• 23:25
  we have in life and being able to put that feeling, you know, with this beautiful magical
• 23:30
  instrument and a voice together to tell that story.
• 23:33
  And now now it's affected me.
• 23:36
  Right?
• 23:36
  And then I get to carry it out in the world.
• 23:38
  And yeah.
• 23:40
  Eli, I really appreciate you getting us started.
• 23:42
  You wanna go ahead and plug your website or anything like that for our listeners?
• 23:46
  It's really easy.
• 23:47
  I'm eli gardiner dot com.
• 23:48
  Gardiner's g a g a r d I n e r.
• 23:51
  And Instagram and and all that stuff too.
• 23:55
  Awesome, man.
• 23:56
  Well, Eli, thank you so much for getting us started here at the songwriter showcase.
• 23:59
  Thanks for having me, Steve.
• 24:00
  And, yeah, everybody give a big round of hugs.
• 24:02
  This is Eli Gardiner.
• 24:05
  Excellent, brother.
• 24:06
  Thank you.
• 24:06
  Yeah.