Eli Smart

Name, where are you from?
Eli Smart, Kaua’i.

Describe your style in three words?
Rubber soul wannabe.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
Paul McCartney, he slayed it. Encore was 'Helter Skelter'.

If you could be on the line up with any two artists in history?
Sly and the Family Stone. Such an inspiring group with the grooviest sounding records of all time, just wanna hear Sly’s voice live. Gladys Knight & The Pips. I wouldn’t have the nerve to go on after either of these artists and would totally bail out of pure anxiety but would stick around just to hang with The Pips, I’d wanna have a boogie and a cry to this tune.

Which subcultures have influenced you?
There was this movement in Brazilian music in the '70s called Tropicalismo where artists like Jorge Ben Jor, Caetano Veloso, Tim Maia, Erasmos Carlos, Lo Borges and a bunch of other fantastic artists came out of that I’m very inspired by. It was a beautiful fusion of traditional samba and bossa nova paired with funk and soul influence and the result is the punkiest, most beautiful deep tunes. I believe they were dealing with a lot of political unrest at the time and as creatives were being censored and sometimes even exiled so a lot of their music had double meanings beneath the surface and deep messages which I find so powerful. My understanding of this movement isn't vast so some of this may be incorrect but the music that I have heard, I love and it inspires me to draw influence from everywhere.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?
John Lennon. I just wanna talk to this dude and try and understand how he writes the songs he writes and where in the universe they come from?

Of all the venues you’ve been to or played, which is your favourite?
There’s a venue in Liverpool called Sound Basement, proper cosy and underground. Love it.

Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?
My grandma, her name is Denise Kaufman and she’s in a band called the Ace Of Cups. They got together in the '60s in San Francisco and recorded a bunch of demos from gigs and rehearsals and listening to them is magical, there’s one song in particular called 'Taste of One' which brings me a lot of peace. They didn’t get signed back then because nobody used to sign all-girl bands which is insane. So they had to do other things with their lives but they all stayed in touch and recently just recorded their first studio albums, which is a beautiful thing. They’re all in their '70s now, proper heroines.

Hawaii via Liverpool artist, Eli Smart, recently released his new track 'AM to PM' via Polydor Records. Listen, purchase or stream it at elismart.lnk.to/AMtoPM.