Eli Dasilva and His “Spring Collection”
Eli Dasilva is a 17 year old artist from the often snowy oasis of the Northern hemisphere known as Canada, and he has quite a lot to say for such a young gent. Dig some fresh tracks from his “Spring Collection” while you get to know the young man behind the music.
EB: Where are you based out of? How did you get your start?
ED: I’m based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I got my start in middle school in early 2018. SoundCloud rapping was kind of a meme back then. So I thought, why don’t I upload some of my beats, just for fun. I had made these beats with my cousin in GarageBand years prior and everything just spanned from there. I originally just wanted to be a producer. My cousin and I make all of the tracks on my Spotify. I’m a guitar player so I usually come up with riffs or ideas and present them to him and we have our own little band dynamic going on
EB: That’s really cool because your social media didn’t strike me as a band type thing. It seemed more like a one man project. What does your cousin do within the group?
ED: @joshuaraposo_
Basically when I was nine we discovered GarageBand on my home computer and we made a couple beats and both liked it. Then last summer we reconnected, both still making music and decided to make a few tracks together and it went from there. Yin and yang. I’d send him a riff, he’d make it a whole instrumental, he’d send me a instrumental and I’d make it a song, I’d send him my vocals and he’d mix them to radio quality. We both have different gifts but they really click when put together, so it’s less of a band and more of a collaboration.
Through working with him in this short time I’ve grown so much as an artist and so has he, we started off making indie-ish rap, Tyler, The Creator-esque, but that was still a part of me trying to be something I wasn’t. We continued working and both grew smoothly into the genre we are now, somewhere between indie rock and sometimes pop. I love it, it makes me embrace guitar because for a while I stopped playing it thinking it was useless.
It can seem that way with guitar sometimes, when it disappears from the mainstream. But then you get to thinking about it, and electric guitars are just so damn cool still.
EB: The guitar can provide such a range of sounds, and the technology is more exciting than ever. What kind of guitar equipment are you working with? Are you a fan of effects pedals or do you do most of your effects digitally?
ED: I do most digitally. I have a little marshal stack and a few Epiphones. I usually use guitar rig by native instruments, but I like messing around with tape saturation and making my own sounds. I just go by ear. It took my a few years to gain confidence in my ears but now I trust them completely. If it sounds good to me then it is good.
EB: What kind of stuff are you guys listening to that maybe gave you a little push toward the styles you are currently exploring?
For me, alot of grunge. Always been a big fan of Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Meatbodies. I just started listening to King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Obviously for indie some Mac Demarco. I listen to music everyday, a wide variety everyday, and just absorb it all. I’m constantly trying out new alternate tunings when I get stuck playing the same chords. Tons of indie rock, grunge, some pop punk, some funk. That new Meatbodies track “Reach For the Sunn” gave me some inspiration the other day. Their guitars sounded more saturated than distorted, very heavy and pleasing to the ears.
at this point, Eli sent us a clip of his newest track, but Evil Bubble is spoiler free....
There’s my most recent track. I'mworking with some saturation and stuff just from the inspiration off the one song. Mine is way more upbeat and poppy but the saturation on the guitar under sounds great in the chorus
EB: The groups name is Spring Collection right?
ED: No that’s the name of my latest EP. My Spotify is just my name because Josh never really wanted it to be a full band. It’s hard to explain.
EB: So the “band” is your thing, but the writing process is collaborative with Josh? Almost like he’s part of the “band” but just not a “touring” member.
Yeah, he’s MORE than just my producer because he is present in all aspects of making the song, but I write the lyrics and the base ideas and such so it is a collaborative effort. We don’t really have a name for it I guess that’s why it’s so confusing. We never really thought of it much. He was just a producer at one point, and I was just an artist at one point. But the more we worked together the more it became both of our ideas forming together to make one big idea monster. So a band is closer to what it is now, but the producer artist dynamic is closer to what it was before. EB: Was there ever a thought for you to take the group into a live setting? Do you have any plans to do that for yourself in the future?
ED: Of course! With this last release we were talking about how all of our songs would have to be played with a band live. So maybe it will be like a tame impala sort of thing, where Kevin Parker makes all the songs, but when playing live there's a band.
EB: What’s your general outlook on the future for the group?
ED: Honestly I just want music to be my career. I want it to be able to support me. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been consistently interested in, and has really aided my in finding my interests. It truly is a gift from God.
EB: Any releases coming soon?
ED: Josh and I have a few ideas we are pursuing, I’m hoping we can have a new single out by the end of August.
EB: Favorite Star Wars film?
Oh dude, Revenge of the Sith.
EB: Tight choice. We all know who had the higher ground eh? Alright, last one. Rank:
Metallica
Megadeth
Anthrax
Slayer
ED: Ok well Metallica first because they were my first introduction to metal, then Megadeath cuz Dave Mustaine, then Slayer, and then Anthrax cuz I never really got into them.
EB: SLAYER.
Anything you’d like to say to your fans and friends before we end this interview?
ED: Yes! Keep streaming “Spring Collection”, it’s about to hit 5k on Spotify. I’d also like to say thanks for the opportunity of having this interview. This year made me realize that I could have a future in music, it’s really put the fire under my feet to keep going.
enjoy amigos, stay evil, viva evil bubble...