Eli Lev is an award-winning singer-songwriter currently making his way across North America on a journey to build community through music. With his fans, known as the “Levitators,” keeping him going on his journey, he has no plans to stop spreading his unique sound across the world.
Lev began his career as an English teacher. He taught 8th grade English on the Navajo Nation reservation in northern Arizona for three years. While he had an amazing time teaching there, his desire to play music professionally was always at the back of his mind. After completing his master’s degree in education, he returned home to Maryland to visit his family and began to play local shows. He has been pursuing a career as a musician ever since.
Lev’s passion for music has stayed with him almost his entire life. It first started in elementary school when one of his friends gave him a mixtape featuring artists like Bruce Springsteen, Nirvana, The Police, MC Hammer, and U2. In middle school, he started writing songs. He said, “It’s always been a hobby, but never a full-time pursuit. Only in the last six years have I been a full-time musician.”
His music is described as “spanning pop, lo-fi rock, electronic, indie, folk, and Caribbean-kissed musicality,” with his diversity of instruments contributing to his unique variety of sounds. “I play guitar, piano, mandolin, harmonica, native flute, I use the loop pedal, I play percussion. I just like making sounds from instruments. I kind of just pick them up,” he explained.
With such a wide range of sounds, it is only to be expected for Lev to have a wide range of artists who inspire him. He said, “My biggest influences are Jack Johnson, Ed Sheeran, Jason Mraz, but also Cat Stevens, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, [and] Fleetwood Mac.” Through these artists and his own music, he has learned that music is truly a “healer of humanity.”
Lev is constantly on the road playing shows “locally, nationally, and internationally,” trying his best to connect with people through his music. “My favorite thing about music is to see people smile and clap and sing along to my songs and really make a special event and bring people together through community,” Lev commented.
In 2021, he released the Four Directions album, a project made up of the All Roads East, Way Out West, Deep South, and True North EPs. His next EP, Present Journey, which will ultimately be part of an album called the Three Worlds, is releasing in July.
If you are interested in hearing his music live, Eli Lev is playing at 868 Estate Vineyards in Purcellville on May 19, 2024, and performing in Maryland and West Virginia until the end of May.
