Eli Waltz is an Americana folk singer, songwriter, and bandleader based in Washington, D.C. Read more to learn about his musical process, especially surrounding his new EP, Burning Moonlight.
Eli Waltz is an Americana folk singer, songwriter, and bandleader. After living and performing in Beijing for a while, he now lives and is based in Washington, D.C. His group performs regularly in the DMV, with upcoming tours across the country. Waltz’s folk fingerpicking style, combined with his strong songwriting and dynamic vocals make for an enlightening listening experience, as well as his signature harmonica solos. Waltz also runs, hosts, and performs at several musical series in D.C. which feature local songwriters, usually in the folk, blues, and country genres.
For Waltz, learning how to play the trumpet came before his guitar, harmonica, and songwriting skills. He describes how he did not necessarily grow up in a musical environment in Massachusetts, but rather to a family more versed in the medical/science world. However, he knew at a young age that music was what he wanted to pursue. He chose the trumpet “like Harry Potter in a wand store,” and although he picked it up quickly, “I didn’t want to put in the work and ended up quitting,” he says. Discouraged, halfway through high school, he thought, “Maybe music just isn’t for me,” but then he had a spiritual awakening a few months later with a guitar at summer camp. “That was really the start of me realizing that I had some innate skill with music and enjoyment,” he says. “I remember just playing two chords over and over and over again … everybody hated me,” he says with a laugh. After that, he was dedicated to learning different styles and genres. Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt taught him fingerpicking, and Little Walter, John Lee Hooker, and Ray LaMontagne taught him the basics of the blues, leading him to pick up the harmonica.
Even though he had been playing and performing for years, Waltz only began releasing his own music on streaming platforms in June 2022. He used to be a restaurant/cocktail bar owner in D.C. – “I tried convincing myself for years that I could feel just as much for craft cocktails as I could for music,” he says. “But in the end, it just never really compared.” It wasn’t until he made the decision to leave the bar business behind a couple years ago that he began recording his music that would be released in the future few months.
Waltz would describe his music genre-wise as psychedelic folk rock with influences like traditional Chinese folk and classical music on one side of its spectrum. “The other side of it is this more intimate, soloist, maybe duo, vibe,” he says, having worked with violinist Hannah Wyatt in the past for their Waltz & Wyatt* *EP. “And then there’s everything in between. Sometimes it’s an Americana, old-school country kind of sound. Sometimes it’s straight-up rock and roll.” “It’s like Bruce Springsteen meets Alt-J,” someone once told him. “I think it’s a great thing to be idiosyncratic, and so that’s the goal,” he says.
Burning Moonlight* *was released on March 10. Its title nods to how Waltz noticed he got most of his creative work done late at night into the early morning after bartending shifts. “Since leaving the industry, it’s been hard to shake the sleeping habit,” so he still tends to burn moonlight instead of daylight when creating. “Tourin’ The Thrush” sets the scene for the rest of the EP with Waltz’s classic vocal style that still adds something new and beautiful background vocals/harmonies. This song was the first song he ever released, “an absurdist song peppered with little meaningful quips about my life,” he said. Regarding his songwriting process, “Sometimes it feels like it comes out of this ether,” he says. “And it’s hard to explain or to even consider it’s coming from you; it feels like the ideas are just appearing.” In a less abstract way, sometimes he has partial verses or chord progressions prepared on guitar or vocals. “I’ve just been collecting them over the years … and when I write, then I might piece them together, and then now I have a verse and a chorus.” This stitching together creates a bit of exciting tension, he explains, as he gets to discover which tempo or key changes would fit best. “That is most of the reason why I tagged the word ‘psychedelic’ onto it, because it kind of screws with your sense of time or your sense of where the song is going,” he says. It’s cohesive, yet still has an underlying sense of unpredictability.
Waltz prefers to record songs live with him singing and playing the guitar simultaneously, which he discovered while recording Waltz & Wyatt – “I feel like something is lost when I do one or the other, layered over one another,” he says. Burning Moonlight contains live recordings with his band that he describes as lightning, who paint their instrument arrangements to add their own story to a song.
Performing live is thrilling for Waltz, such as at his recent almost sold out Pearl Street Warehouse gig. He describes playing small versus bigger crowds: “The intimate crowd where you can hear a pin drop can be very terrifying sometimes … Everybody hears every note that you’re playing. But then the song ends, and usually it’s a very enthusiastic response, and after that first song, you can just get more involved in the performance,” he says. “And for big shows, it’s another kind of thrill. It’s almost like rock climbing or something, where adrenaline is pumping, and you’re just seeing the sea of people … you’re looking at this giant organism that’s responding to things that you’re saying.” Performing is another aspect of his creative work, among writing, recording, and collaborating. “Performance is like entering a flow state where you just kind of forget about yourself … It’s true for the listeners, and it’s true for the performers,” he says. “And it’s what makes things so magical; it doesn’t matter who you are.”
Waltz is ambitious about the future for his music career, and he is not shying away from the hard work that comes along with it. “It’s much less dumb luck than everybody tells you, and my business experience in the restaurant world is coming really in handy,” he says. “We’re sitting on a lot of material right now,” he mentions, that he’s recorded at his alma mater American University’s state of the art studio, as well as TreeTop Studio in Frederick. Besides his intimate folk singer/songwriter soloist side is more rock, which his next EP, The Enemy, will lean into. Its title track “The Enemy” “is a song about our inner or outer demons–with whom we choose to fight or from whom we choose to run away,” Waltz says. Expect new tunes from The Enemy soon, and make sure to stay up to date with Eli’s upcoming exciting adventures at eliwaltz.com!
Emma Page, a recent Journalism graduate of The George Washington University, possesses a passion for music journalism and storytelling in all its forms. Originally from Baltimore, MD, when she is not writing, she can be found at a local concert or making music of her own.
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