{"id":7275,"date":"2023-10-05T20:51:01","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T01:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=7275"},"modified":"2023-10-05T20:51:01","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T01:51:01","slug":"eli-lev-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=7275","title":{"rendered":"Eli Lev Exclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Mateo J. Biggs<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMaking the world a smaller place, one song at a time\u2026\u201d is not something you would think of when imagining a songwriter who grasps his audience\u2019s attention with acoustic guitars and rhythmic beats notable only in the indie genre. Silver Spring, Maryland born and raised, the Brackety-Ack was lucky enough to have Washington Area Music Award two time winner and SAW Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Competition winner(2021) Eli Lev reach out for an exclusive interview. Eli Lev will be performing in Roanoke, Virginia on October 27th, 2023 at 3rd Street Coffeehouse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: You were an English teacher on the Navajo Nation for a while, what made you decide to switch your path in life?<\/b><\/p>\n

Eli Lev: \u201cI was an 8th grade middle school teacher and pretty much taught in Arizona, Israel, Andorra. I got my masters degree in Indiana. Well\u2026 after my master’s there was this moment where I just didn’t have a position or a job lined up. To see what would happen if I took the chance, I started with a show at a coffee shop in DC. There was a traveling musician coming through and they found me on Facebook and asked me if I wanted to play. It was the catalyst and I went from there. There was a part of it where I wanted to know what it was like deep down, the other was a happenstance that the musician asked me to perform.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What would you say inspires your music? Between tonal choices and the keys you play in music, what inspires this?<\/b><\/p>\n

Lev: \u201cI think, really, that my experiences with different cultures; from the Middle East to Europe to indigenous cultures\u2013 these different sounds all are universal and I think my music incorporates the sounds I have picked up along the way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What is your goal in music? Many media say that it\u2019s for \u201cus to come together as humans\u201d, do you think you are achieving this?<\/b><\/p>\n

Lev: \u201cMusic is incredibly powerful and is a way for humans to connect and create a community. It is absolutely happening on tour, people are enjoying the music, they are clapping and engaging. It is an amazing experience and I would love to continue to serve people through my music. I work hard at it and I’m glad people are saying what they say about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: Out of many more well known cities in Virginia, or on the east coast in general, what made you come to Roanoke?<\/b><\/p>\n

Lev: \u201cSo when I reach out to venues around the country, I’m essentially exploring. I give a bunch of towns and spaces a chance to share my music. 3rd street coffeehouse was like “yes please”, I was happy to take them up on the offer when they showed they were interested. It’ll actually be my first time playing in Roanoke.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: You\u2019ve played internationally, including a European tour at one point, what has that experience been like given where you are from?<\/b><\/p>\n

Lev: \u201cI was in France, in Spain, and in a small country called Andorra where I lived for a few years and my last European tour was right before shutdown. I was back on a plane as everything went down and I was very lucky to come back. It was amazing, sharing the “americana”. They were great audiences and very appreciative of my music.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: Many newspapers and magazines online have claimed you to be of the Indie genre, what exactly would you claim your music to be?<\/b><\/p>\n

Lev: \u201cI would describe it as John Denver and Jason Mraz had a musical baby. It is folk, pop, lyrically forward and heartfelt. I think it is accessible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What inspired you to make your debut release \u201cFour Directions\u201d? Your newest EP \u201cWalk.Talk.Dance.Sing\u201d, what would you claim the theme to be?<\/b><\/p>\n

Lev: \u201c”Walk.Talk.Dance.Sing” is essentially the pandemic mixtape. Each song is in chronological order, each is an exploration of the lessons I was learning; an internal monologue of everything that was happening during the shutdown. These songs are the time capsule to keep all the lessons I have learned with me, internal reflections and lessons.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: You have been featured on many online medias such as \u201cBuzzfeed\u201d, \u201cCBS Radio\u201d, \u201dAXS\u201d and \u201cThe Bluegrass Situation\u201d, what made you reach out to \u201cThe Brackety-Ack\u201d?<\/b><\/p>\n

Lev: Whenever I play in a new town I want to make sure to connect with the local community. It’s important to let people know that an event, a performance is happening. I reach out to outlets that I think their audience would be interested in the music and I let them know. With the Brackety-Ack, I think the college demographic is an important audience since they are the tastemakers. What I listened to in college has stuck with me all my life so I hope that through my music they will continue to carry it through their formative years and their lives as well\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Mateo J. Biggs \u201cMaking the world a smaller place, one song at a time\u2026\u201d is not something you would think of when imagining a songwriter who grasps his audience\u2019s attention with acoustic guitars and rhythmic beats notable only in the indie genre. Silver Spring, Maryland born and raised, the Brackety-Ack was lucky enough…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7276,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-7275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-summer2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}