With the release of his newest EP, Elijah Would!, Variance’s Ethan Ijumba sat down with artist and producer Elijah Woods to discuss his new EP, Hey There Elijah. Known for his introspective lyrics and evolving sound, Elijah opens up about the personal themes within the project, exploring his journey through self-growth, maturity, and artistic reinvention. As they dive into his creative process and collaborations, including work with renowned producer Andrew Goldstein, Elijah shares how he’s blending nostalgic elements from his musical roots with fresh, pop-punk influences. The conversation provides a glimpse into Elijah’s world as he reflects on both the pressures and joys of navigating new sonic territories while staying true to his craft.
Ethan Ijumba: So, Elijah Woods, you've recently unveiled your new EP, Hey There Elijah. In this project, you've shared a lot of personal revelations that delve into the themes of aging, growth, evolution, and maturity. Could you elaborate on where you currently stand in your career and how this album encapsulates this phase of your journey?
elijah woods: I feel that it's a constant process; you're constantly growing and evolving. For me, this step and this direction was a step in maturity and a step in finding a new sound for myself. I feel that as a creative musician, you go through these chapters and seasons in your life, and this was a really good way to end book one that I had just gone through. I started a lot of these songs about a year and a half ago, and I was just looking for something new and exciting and something to re-inspire me with music. I'd been making music prior to that, and it started to feel like I was living in a vacuum. I opened the doors at that point to other writers and producers, and it re-inspired and reinvigorated me in a way that I didn't know it could, and with that came some life lessons, lost friends, and some big amazing things. I got married in the middle of all that, and it was just a wild year.
EI: That said, compared to your last EP, it was Bright Orange Everglow, The Sunset Sessions, and it was more acoustic guitar-centric, had a lot more stripped down, and not a lot of layers, but still depth lyrically. It differs heavily from this project and has more of a pop rock, pop punk direction that it goes forth as you worked with Andrew Goldstein. Was there any preconceived idea or notion that you would go in this direction when making this EP, or had it just been an approach where you knew what you wanted to do?
ew: When I was in the process of writing all these songs, I was looking for a new sound and just something that excited me again. It's so funny when I chat with my managers, they're like, “Are we reinventing the wheel? What are you doing? Are you going in a different direction? Are you pivoting?” And I'm like, no, it's all me. It still sounds like me; it's my voice, and I'm not singing the songs any differently. Some of them are a bit higher than maybe previous stuff, but as a producer first, I always just look for a new way of packaging things. For me, this is the package of music that really excited me. It nods to my childhood and how I grew up on bands like Avril Lavigne and Limp Bizkit. I feel like, sonically, it's exactly where I wanted to end up. It was a good stepping stone into this next chapter of things, and it felt like it could give me a different side of myself to everybody who's listening, which is really fun for me as a creator.
EI: That being said, blending that early 2000s with a tinge of indie undertones into it. You had a lot of time to experiment with these new sounds and genres. Was there anything in your mind that went about feelings of doubt, pressure, uneasiness, or discomfort when trying something new like this?
ew: There is a lot of self-doubt; you're not wrong to have the last project's success and songs that almost leaned country to do so well for me. I made that whole Bright Orange Everglow project in five days. It was just so cool because some of the songs took off and did well in Asia, and then they started doing really well here. That creates a world where you're like, okay, well, do I just do that again? Do I keep everybody happy? Do I keep making the same sort of sound? I went through a period of three to four months where I was just writing those songs and beating those things to death, and I wasn’t that excited about that sound anymore. That being said, the songs are still the same; they're just packaged differently. There's something I like to think about when writing songs and producing them. I’m not the first person to say it, but a song can be any genre, and sometimes, the song fits in a different genre better…like “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman. It's a song that could be done a million different ways, and it's still the same strong song. Some productions or voicings of it lend better to different generations, but the goal is to create good songs first and package them together where you see fit. There's a lot of self-doubt with that for me; opening my doors to other producers, other writers, and stuff was so exciting for me just because I've never really done that, and I had the chance to work with some idols on this project and this next project coming up as well.
EI: Let's delve into your collaboration with Andrew Goldstein, a renowned figure in the music industry. His work with Blink-182, blackbear, and All Time Low, among others, is widely appreciated. How did working with him influence your music, and what specific techniques or advice did he offer that encouraged you to explore new directions?
ew: He's just such a good hang, and I think that's the piece I really attach myself to in the studios. I've been doing music production for as long as I can remember and in sessions for as long as I can remember. But as an artist for me and my project, I've done very few sessions with outside producers and writers. I've opened my doors up to that in the last year, working with Andrew, Jack LaFrantz, TMS, Jason Suwito, or any of these guys who are just so talented and way more talented than me. Opening my doors to them and seeing their opinions is the coolest part. But it all comes down to just them being good people. There's nothing better than just walking into a room, having a great time, and looking up and being like shit; we made an incredible song. I remember when I walked into the studio on our last day, and Andrew was like, this is so dumb and so stupid, but does anybody ever call you Elijah Wood? And I was like, every day in my life, like all the time, I'll be in an airport, and somebody would be like, yo, are you Frodo?
EI: It’s like having the last name McLovin.
ew: Exactly, he asked me that, and I was like, honestly, all the time, and he said we should write a song. He started strumming the chords for “Elijah Wood,” and then we just started laughing and having a great time writing it. It's one of my favorite songs. It's so silly, and it's an existential crisis about how I would like to live this other life as the guy I get mistaken for all the time. I think that's what excites me about making music.
EI: Now, when it comes down to the other tracks, could you have 2010, “We Should Stick Together,” “Sunlight,” “January Eyes,” and “Wash Away.” If you had to briefly describe what your song “2010” represents, what would you say it represents?
ew: Nostalgia and listening to big shiny tunes when I was a kid. I don't know if you ever had those CDs, but that’s what we wanted to accomplish. It's like that summer with your friends, put on a CD in the car and listen to that thing. Very lighthearted, very easy, and the lyrics don't mean too much, but there's a lot of impact in the chorus and the production, and just that energy, which I love, the simplicity of that time is reflected in those lyrics.
EI: How would you go about describing “We Should Stick Together?” What exactly did that one represent to you?
ew: So, that one was so cool because I realized I didn't have anything on the project that gave a nod to my previous work. I felt like I wrote that chorus in eight seconds, and it was so clever and easy. It felt really good, happy, and upbeat; then I listened to it sonically against the rest of the stuff and thought this was great. This gives us a different color palette from this project, giving a bit of relativity to the fans. So, I included that one because I just couldn't stop singing it and it felt so catchy to me.
EI: And then “Sunlight” was another song you wrote yourself. You seem like a very DIY guy, and I give you props for being able to do it. What exactly does that song exactly mean to you?
ew: That was the last song I wrote for the project. I went through this whole year of self-doubt and losing one of my closest friends just to some stupid argument and all this like all these ups and downs and all this all this unsureness, and that's that song was me expressing that and just being like please give me a path forward and please just let me figure out what the next step in that and that is and ironically enough I listen to lyrics now. I literally just moved to LA 10 days ago on the 1st, and I realize that it's just about moving here. I was so seasonally depressed when I wrote that song and just not having a good time. I used to live in Toronto and in the winter it's horrible there. It's just like it's cold, gray, and miserable, and I just need to go west and be in the sunshine, and now I'm in the sun.
EI: Then, in “January Eyes” you have a chorus reading that you felt like summertime like whiskey over ice fire in the sky; you felt like mid-July to these January Eyes. Is there any specific personal nod that you play into there? Is that a reference to anyone specifically? Does that have any specific inspiration or influence on what that record's about?
ew: When we wrote that, I wrote that with Jason Suwito and Jack LaFrantz, who worked with Benson Boone and all these guys. We have such a good time in the studio, and our workflow generally is that we'll go into the studio and just shoot out ideas. So if it's a chorus idea and then we try another chorus idea, then trying out kind of feels like a verse. I then take it home, and I look at it all. I'm like, okay, what do I like? How do I piece this together? And we did the demo for “January Eyes,” which was just the chorus, the guitar, and then that vocal stutter. It's actually my voice in the room with all the music playing on a microphone, and I heard it. I was like, oh my God, we did something so special here. Then listening back to it, what I personally think it's about, and who knows like anybody listening to this can tell me what they think it's about. I think it's about having a relationship end and having a personal loss in your life, thinking back and being nostalgic about those feelings, and having somebody who felt so warm and positive in your life when you're in the dark. I like to think “January Eyes” is bleak, and dark, and you are the sunlight in those eyes, and you are the thing that gave me warmth.
EI: Beautifully said and I think it does describe your representation better, but who's to say everyone has their own perception we're all gonna say no; it means this even though you're the one who wrote it.
ew: Half the time, I don't even know man. Sometimes, I'll just go with it; what you think you're writing about isn’t even writing about it. I love releasing music for that reason. I wrote a song about my older brother who passed away a number of years ago, and it's so literal like it's literally like explaining these specific things that he was wearing or that he had gone through or what I experienced with him. I get messages about my song “Matthew,” saying it's so beautiful, and I can relate. How they just went through a breakup and all this stuff, and I'm like, that's awesome that you can insert yourself into the song and make it entirely your own.
EI: And then, last but not least, your song “Wash Away” takes us through what that one represented and what exactly that means to you lyrically.
ew: So that one's so fun, man. I'm obsessed with that song, and I'm obsessed with it because it was me trying not to write anything literal. It was trying to paint a setting completely hypothetically. I was snowboarding on the west coast of Canada in Windsor for a month or something like that. Like I'd taken a month and was like, I'm not going to make any music. I brought a little setup with me, and I was just sitting in the basement of this rental that we had and had this cool idea. I started thinking about how I would paint an opposite setting of the place that I was in. So I started singing with all this visual imagery about jelly and burnt toast, a house on the Gold Coast, a nobody-home crew sweater, sepia tone, and cool weather. And it was just painting a picture of something warm and lovely. As the song progresses, you sort of realize that things are falling apart and then the lyrics move to snow on the palm trees, stain on your white tee, and these little things that are really out of place and uncomfortable. Then it gets to the chorus for me, and it feels that I'm just pushing it all away, and I just let it all wash away. That's part of growing up and letting go.
EI: And then in summary, when you put this all together, did you feel that how it just jointly summarizes everything you put out and everything you did? How did it feel when it was all over and done?
ew: It was initially going to be an album, and I put so much energy, love, weight, and stress into making 12-13 songs come together and feel like a cohesive thought. Then, as I was listening to it over and over again and killing myself over trying to figure this thing out, I kept fighting the feeling that this doesn't feel like what I am supposed to and it doesn't feel like a continuous thought. When I decided to split it into two, it was my manager's idea. He's said what if you just put it out as two separate projects? It gave me a ton of relief because I didn't have to paint a story between all the songs or tell a story that felt cohesive throughout the whole thing. When I put out a debut album, I want it to feel that I said something more cohesive from front to back. All these songs sonically sound cohesive, and I have a Dropbox folder of all the songs, which is how I would have ordered them in an album. When I listen to it, it makes sense to me. I think it's just not exactly what I wanted to say. And all the songs say something exactly how I want to say them. But as a project, it's not quite everything I want to say yet. The fact that the songs are still coming out is like, I'm so happy about that. And it's one of the benefits I have of being independent; I can just decide to be. I'm putting out the songs now like I own the rules, homie. Yeah, yeah, I own the recording. So it's, it's, it's amazing.
EI: You alluded earlier about how you have planned many projects coming up to what we can see from you next. Just to get into it before I let you go, what exactly can we expect from you now that the EP is out?
ew: Yeah, I have lots more music coming out; my song “What It Means” came out on the 18th. It's a cool Beatles-y and probably the most eclectic song I've put out. I like pushing the genres even further and pushing the boundaries even further. I'm really excited to put that one out. I wrote that one with Jack LaFrantz, TMS, and Andrew Goldstein again; it was so much fun. My newest project, which will be dropped at the end of the month, is called Elijah Would, W-O-U-L-D.
EI: OK, all right. I see you're going off your name.
Yeah, exactly. Initially, I was like, how else can I play off this? Because I wanted to say, Hey There Elijah, and then that'd be the end of the chapter. When this music comes out, I'm to say Elijah Would put out another six songs, and that's it.
EI: Clever. Very, very clever.
