INTERVIEW WITH ELI & THE STRAW MAN

The guitar is an undeniable musical instrument that whispers wordings of the heart. If you are a lover of creative music, you might want to pay close attention to this.

Lately I was on the internet going about my regular routine searching for creative artworks and boom I stumbled across a band whose concept drove and still drives goose bumps all over my body. I listened to a track “Figure out” (currently my ringtone, my mother and sister fell in love with the tone immediately they heard it. I got in touch with the band and boom I nailed an e-interview with the lead singer “Eli Maiuri”.

The band’s performance - ranging in style from haunting hymns to vibrant pop tunes - features the mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation of the Indie Roots Rock genre, shaped by gospel and folk influences and enriched by resounding vocal harmonies.

 

Band Members:

Eli Maiuri - Lead vocals, guitar

James Gizzie - Guitar

Nathaniel Goold - Guitar/lap steel

Phil Bosley - Bass

TJ Rogers - Drums

Tam Maiuri - Trumpet, percussion

Here is a brief question and answer season.

What’s the origin of your band?

Eli & the Straw Man is a new musical project fronted by songwriter, lead vocalist, and guitarist, Eli Maiuri. After a decade of hobby songwriting, the small business owner and father of two is bringing his passion to life, taking his catalogue of songs to the stage and the studio with the help of seasoned musicians out of the Niagara region, Canada.

The full band emerged out of a collective desire to provide a solid platform for Eli’s natural songwriting moxie. Beautiful, unconventional melodies, delivering poignant lyrics rooted in social and personal truisms, are skillfully brought to life by the well-worn musical expertise of the supporting band members and their gutsy, charismatic performance style.

Major concert or shows you have performed?

As this is a new project, we have only preformed a hand full of shows to date (mostly in Toronto), but are working on booking more gigs. Info here: www.eliandthestrawman.com/shows

 

 What is the challenging aspect in your production? 

I think finding time to balance a family and a band is the most challenging thing at this point. Both can take a considerable amount of time to be good at.

What are your future aspirations?

My aspiration in music is to write songs that people can relate to and identify with. I would like to show people that you don’t need to be a poet or great writer to pen a good song. You also don’t have to be a virtuoso musician to create good songs. You just have to be honest about what you say and be honest in the delivery of it. People cannot ignore honesty whether they agree with the message or not.

What advice will you give to rising artist especially those in same genre?

 Be honest with yourself.

Is there a link for readers to download your demos?

Yes, there are three demo tracks which can be downloaded here: ow.ly/Fvqsd

It's "pay what you want", but we would rather people take the demos for free and save their money for the finished album. We will be working on recording the album this spring and hope to release it before year's end.

Wrap Up

A band functions like a tree, every part may be called different names, have different functions but they collectively connect to reveal one voice. If there is anything I learnt during the course of the interview is that team work, team spirit, and individual contentment is the ultimate virtue to be great.

I believe we are looking out for more gigs and albums from Eli The Straw Man, in the main time I’m looking forward to being present in your performance and video shoot. Thanks a whole lot and Godbless.

For those of you in Canada here are some Upcoming Events

Thursday Mar 12 - Jimmy Jazz, Guelph

Thursday Mar 19 - Bier Markt, TO

Thursday Apr 9 - Cameron House, TO

Saturday Apr 25 - In The Soil Arts Festival

May 2015 - Canadian Music Week

Follow Eli & The Straw Man on Facebook

You can also listen and download three of their demo tracks here: ow.ly/Fvqsd 

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