Conversations with Elijah Strange

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elijah Strange.

Elijah, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
It all started a whopping two years ago when I was still in high school, and I wanted to do the talent show at our school. I didn’t have really any friends with the same mindset for music like I did, but luckily my brother recently got into it like I have been for years and I convinced him to play bass.

Unfortunately, Covid had ruined the opportunity to perform but it was a blessing in disguise because we didn’t have a drummer. A year or so passed and I was just going through post-high school stuff like finding a job and such. Around may we played our first “show” with our first drummer. I say “show” because it was just a pool party at our friend’s house. Maybe a month or so went by and our drummer decided separately due to personal reasons. So here we are again without a drummer. Honestly, I was very discouraged, I mean this is something I love to do but how do I know this is what I’m supposed to do? A month went by and we’re still looking for a new drummer, then one morning at the church I played for, I was talking to their current pianist (who was also a guy I knew when a friend of mine tried to start a band prior to ours) about the dilemma we had. A little more background knowledge: this guy was in the high school band was a wizard behind the piano. So I ask him jokingly, “you wanna play drums in our punk band?” He said yes. Thankfully this guy was a better musician than I and killed it on the drums, and his name was Matt. From then on we practiced for months until we knew we were ready to record some songs and make our way into the local music scene.

In October we decided to record our first album “Whatever Ave.” with a person our mom knew from church, Justin Belew who owns Bibb City Sound. The whole process was new to us and we had no idea what we were doing, thankfully Justin was great at what he did and a great guy having the patience to help us through this point in our journey. We had our album and our social media presence was more or less consisting of friends and family. Now we just needed our first REAL show, our debut show. Me and my brother had been going to these shows at a shop called the Cuckoos Nest, which was owned by a family friend and I was getting to know the people in the scene. For me, I felt like we need a show asap, so I message a group chat full of people from the scene and two bands reached our “Kids with Matches” and “The Normas” side not: the whole time I’m doing this I was full of anxiety, I’m not a really big people person, but I had to be one to do what I needed to do. We all agreed on a date and we were ready to rock. November 5th, 2021 was a pretty cold night, and I was terrified my hands were going to freeze up and I was going to embarrass myself for our debut show.

Luckily, it turned out to be the best night of my life, finally being able to live these rock dreams I have been playing in my head since I picked up a guitar and everything just seemed right. I knew this is what I was supposed to do that night. From then on we have just been reaching out and getting as many shows as possible from Orlando, Florida, to the Auburn University campus. We have released our second album “Magnolia St.) and we recently just played our one-year anniversary show. Honestly having an opportunity like this is unreal to me, I mean now we’re just going strong, trying to get more shows, getting our social media presence up, making a name for ourselves, and trying to be the best band we can be.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As most people doing music, if they are asked if it has been easy, they’re gonna say no, and I’m one of them. It’s never gonna be easy (unless you’re a D’Amelio) I’m kidding but that’s what makes the journey. Mainly finding a place to perform that’s the hardest one for sure. I’m just thankful for all the struggles we’ve had to face, all of the little arguments, having to sleep in a Buc-ee’s parking lot and the countless hours of sleep we missed. They ultimately bring us closer as bandmates, therefore making us a better band. I know it sounds corny, but I like the struggles it brings because it’s what we love to do. Not struggle but play music.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a guitarist, singer, songwriter and dabble on the drums. Now I am a weekend rocker so I’m an electrician by day. I have been playing guitar since I was about twelve, and I was in the high school choir.

We as a band are known for our performances, we try to bring as much energy as possible, having this classic 90s punk sound, interacting with the crowd, jumping around, crowd surfing, playing baseball mid-set, etc. Just doing what we can do people can enjoy going to shows and wanting to go to more. What really sets us apart is that we try not to take ourselves seriously. Obviously, we treat this whole thing seriously, but we’re really just having fun we don’t put on a front of trying to be some hardcore guys because we’re not. We just love music no matter what genre and want people to feel that same love when we perform.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Our main place to find us is on Instagram, we have a TikTok as well but we’re slacking that end, trying to do better. We are on every music platform like Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, and YouTube.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/_the_review_band_?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2s1PsB8kr6Reg82NM3bGep?si=BWyNtZwWQrWXPJ3az3vlow

Image Credits
Noah Ligon, Sarah Elizabeth, James Capps