The Canadian singer-songwriter’s full-blown foray into his craft is several long years in the making, and he’s made it clear that he’s right where he’s meant to be
One of the most surprising things you’ll ever learn about Elijah Woods is that he hasn’t been singing his whole life.
It’s something you wouldn’t really expect of an artist who’s dropped a whole EP and several singles since he first started releasing music in 2021. But that’s Elijah for you.
The Canadian singer-songwriter had always been surrounded by music in his childhood, with his dad being a part of a The Beatles cover band. Sooner or later, Elijah would pick up the guitar, but singing had never really been on his radar.
He even dabbled in DJ-ing when he was 14 and later found himself producing dance music for other artists. While he decided to try his hand at songwriting toward the end of his teenage life, he had yet to explore the possibility of creating magic through his own singing.
Elijah’s full-blown foray into the music industry, then, was several long years in the making. His progression into becoming a singer-songwriter was staggered, and perhaps even spontaneous.
How Elijah found his voice
Elijah saw songwriting as somewhat of a teleportation device.
“I always love songs that can make you feel something and put you in a place immediately. Songwriting for me is just that. It’s like — how do I create this world where, as soon as you listen to the song, you’re immediately there with me or in your own space?” he mused.
Though he did write his own songs, there was still a missing puzzle piece that was pretty much hiding in plain sight: his own voice. It almost seemed like Elijah and singing were in a long round of hide-and-seek that only ended when he was finally hit with a good reason why he needed to get behind the mic.
“I realized that nobody was recording the songs I was writing because they were just super personal stories — stories about my love life and really specific things that had happened to me. So, I was like, I have to just learn how to sing so that these songs come out and so that they have a life. It was very much at a default, and it was not a planned thing. And it took a long time,” he shared.
There was no turning back at this point. Elijah knew he had to commit to this — and he did so by taking vocal lessons and spending much of his time on YouTube. It was a necessary learning period for him, even if it meant not everybody around him was going to have a good time.
“It was a horrible process for everybody else in my house because I sounded terrible for a long time,” he quipped.
Smooth sailing comes from showing up
Everything just seemed to flow smoothly from there. After releasing his first-ever song, “lights,” in 2021, he would go on to put out multiple hits each year.
The obvious question is — how does he manage to do it all?
“The main thing I’ve been trying to focus on as a songwriter and as an artist lately is just to be observant because I think there are songs floating around all the time,” Elijah told Rappler. “There are little ideas that are maybe disregarded in passing, but if you look at them for what they actually are, they’re really important.”
Documentation is key for Elijah, so his Notes app acts as a memory vault for whatever ideas pop into his head. He goes back to these thoughts every so often to see if any songs could form from the web of words he’s noted down over time.
“I think it was Rick Rubin who said that creativity is a conveyor belt and your job as an artist and as a songwriter is just to show up every day and see if you can grab something cool off of it. You can just wait for inspiration to strike, and sometimes, it does, sometimes, it doesn’t. But if you show up every day, it’s going to strike more often than not,” Elijah shared.
This was likely how Elijah’s latest single “Could You Love Me?” came to be — a synth-laden anthem about “loving somebody who doesn’t give you anything back.”
It really all lies in making a conscious effort to further your craft and doing it enough that you don’t have to force your brightest ideas to come out of their shell. Instead, they’ll come to you when you least expect it.
Lessons learned
In navigating the music industry for years now, Elijah has had much to gather about being an artist in this day and age. Over the years, he’s learned to trust his gut, do his research, and try to find his own voice — answers he was quick to mention when we asked about the most important things when it comes to pursuing a career in music.
“One, trust your gut always. Make sure that you absolutely love what you’re making and love what you’re putting out because if you don’t have that, then everything kind of falls apart,” he said.
“Two, if you can own your masters and your publishing for as long as possible and not sign a record label deal for as long as possible, you’re in a way better position. Don’t take the first deal that you’re offered. Make sure you’re doing your research and getting educated on music business literacy. So many great artists get screwed and so many great artists get pigeonholed into these really terrible deals and end up financially in ruin and ultimately that fizzles out their musical drive,” he continued.
“Three, always try to say something that isn’t being said. What’s important is you have a voice and people want to hear it. They don’t want to hear you doing somebody else’s song half as well as they’re doing it. Just follow your own path,” he added.
With Elijah’s knack for breathing sonic life into the words he strings together — coupled with all the valuable lessons he’s picked up along the way — it’s clear that he’s right where he’s meant to be. – Rappler.com
Content shared from www.rappler.com.