ELEW Interview: SXSW 2010

If you've heard rockjazz, then you've heard ELEW. He invented it, perfected it, and has become a household name connected with it. A onetime classically trained jazz pianist and a former sideman for Wynton Marsalis and Elvin Jones, Eric Lewis went on to win jazz music's most prestigious award, but then realized that in order to really excel, he was going to have to transcend the classic jazz world and invent something entirely different. When he began to treat his grand piano like an electric guitar -- using it to reinvent and explore rock music and re-create the many layers of contemporary pop and Hollywood music with his famously fast fingers -- is the moment when Eric Lewis became ELEW. Leading up to his first appearance at SXSW, Spinner was able to speak with ELEW about his back story, his his influences, and why he's no longer afraid to be vulnerable.

Describe your sound in your own words.

The sound of an electric guitar rocking through a piano. It's a hybrid sound. It's the sound of the American entertainment business coming through the piano. Hollywood movie scores, an electric guitar ethos, and just all of the drama that we find in film entertainment coming through the piano too. Really the idea is that the piano is being used to depict all of these familiar feelings and sounds that we experience in the American entertainment ethos.

How and when did ELEW come to be?

Mine is the typical 'Lion King' story mixed in with the kung-fu story mixed in with the "sorcerers's apprentice" story. It's all about a guy falling in love with an art form and doing everything he can to be like the masters of that art. I'm talking about masters like John Coltrane, Miles Davis, etc. And so I came from New York to find that dream. Through all the spectrum of emotions and challenges came a story of the techniques and situations that comes out in the music. The music is indicative of the joys and sorrows I experienced. I went to piano schools, then won the biggest competition in the jazz world. At first, my own emotions started to emerge, and at first it was crippling, thinking I was panicking. Once I was able to survive this thing that was coming through me and learn to harness it, in the end I came up with this style to make a statement: is jazz supposed to be about an American art form, and if it supposed to be about innovation, then why are we doing only things the masters have already done? I want to break the prejudice against using rock or hip hop music within this field. Because of my radical way of playing, I never got a record deal, and many whom I thought had my back abandoned me, so I went my own way and discovered new things very relevant to jazz.

Who are your musical influences?

I'm very influenced by John Coltrane because of his whole journey from being a weaker sax player and then getting strong, then having to stop because he got hooked on heroine. Then he went cold turkey, and his grandmother talked him into getting back into the music. Toward the end of his life, he dedicated all his time to practicing and improving. I like the fact that I can observe his career and his progression. It makes it easier for me to be boldly vulnerable.

How did you come up with your band name?

When I noticed that I had turned 30 and didn't have a record deal, I realized I needed to make some big changes to get into the pop world. I need to stop wearing these Brooks Brothers suits, and get more into this other world. Part of that change was to make my name more distinct from all the many Eric Lewises out there, and so I adopted ELEW as an interesting name that sounded American alternative rock. The mystique of a single name was good branding.

I've read that your invention of rockjazz has "alienated and angered those in the traditional jazz world". Do you think they'll catch up and embrace what you've done, or are they hopelessly left behind at this point?

Here's the thing. A lot of the reasons they have for being pissed have more to do with things outside the music than inside. It's a lot more personal than it is about the music. I'm not the only person taking rock tunes and putting them into jazz, not even the first person. I'm the first one who's doing it while respecting the pop game and entertainment game, by doing it the hard way. Most of the scorn is about what I am and am not supposed to like, look like, do, etc. It also seems to be more resentment that I fell in love with mainstream rock after having all this training. The jazz guys reflexively turn their nose up at that stuff.

What's your biggest vice?

Overeating. I'm having to really pay attention to that. I can't dismiss the aesthetic necessity as being superficial if I'm going to survive in the entertainment business. Long ago, I had another big vice where I gambled for chess, learning from chess hustlers, and it was those guys beating the snot out of me that taught me to deal with these situations boldly.

What's in your festival survival kit?

I'm definitely going to need Gatorade. I stand when I play, and I get lots of cramps if I don't hydrate. Also my sneakers, of course.

Have you been to SXSW before?

Nope, this is my first trip.

You've been a sideman for Wynton Marsalis and Elvin Jones, performed at a pre-Oscars party for the biggest names and faces in Hollywood, and performed personally for President Obama and the First Lady. Now you're about to play a festival where you're among hundreds of unnamed artists and a raucus public. Which do you prefer?

I totally prefer the raucous rock-hungry crowd. I'll be playing the Elephant Room while I'm in Austin too, and I love that place.

What's your musical guilty pleasure? What's hiding on your iPod?

Simon and Garfunkel's 'Canticle,' a Japanese rock band called Ellegarden, The Beach Boys' 'God Only Knows,' some soundtrack music from 'Escape from New York,' meditation music from Java, and also some snake charmer music [seriously].


Rob Needham is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.