We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Eli Menezes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Eli below.

Eli, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I moved to NYC from Rio de Janeiro when I was 18 years old. Didn’t speak any English and at first my intention was to spend a few months in the US to learn the language and play music. I arrived in NY with $500 and started playing at a church in Queens right away. Soon after, bar gigs playing Brazilian music and jazz for very little pay.
At that point I wasn’t thinking very long term and was taking a “go with the flow” approach, one day at a time. In some ways I think that helped me because I wasn’t putting too much pressure on making a living as a musician in NYC. I was playing as much as I could, meeting new people while trying to keep my expenses as low as possible.
New opportunities started appearing, I started meeting and playing with more and more musicians in the scene, one gig led to another and pretty soon after that I found myself in the studio with gospel singer Fred Hammond who I used to watch his live videos and I was a big fan of his work. That was my first major gig! From that I got more gospel gigs with Mary Mary, Marvin Sapp and Donald Lawrence. Then my first major gig outside of gospel was when I got called to play with Lauryn hill for some shows she had in Asia which led to more pop, R&B, hiphop gigs and recordings. I feel blessed that I’ve had to opportunity to use the gift God’s given me with so many amazing artists and musicians. Since then I’ve been in the studio and/or stage with such artists as Richard Bona, Trey Songs, Faith Evans, Natasha Beddinfield, Common, Estelle, Thalia and many others.
Im glad I never had a plan B and from the beginning I knew I had to make plan A work.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Im from Brazil and I come from a church background. My grandfather is a pastor of a big church in Rio de Janeiro. That’s where I started playing music. I started playing electric bass and some acoustic guitar at the age of 11. In my early teens, I realized guitar players were getting a lot of attention and I wanted some of that too so I started playing more guitar! By being around music and musicians all the time, I naturally picked up some other instruments like piano and percussion but my main focus was always guitar and bass. I always knew that music was what I wanted to do. Didn’t know exactly how, especially in Brazil where things are more difficult to achieve. By the age of 15, I was skipping classes to hang out at recording sessions. Not super proud of that but it definitely taught me a lot!
Being in this industry helped me stay out of trouble for the most part but also taught me how to deal with people, learn patience, discipline, flexibility when things change at the last minute and how to focus on your goals while doing what you love. These are some of the things I aim to bring to every situation Im in, from local gigs to major tours and recording projects.
I’ve been recording and producing a lot more lately and really love working with an artist and their vision. Sometimes their sound and vision are not very clear at first but that’s when I can come in and not imply my sound but help bring out the best in them while creating something together that they will be proud of and represents who they are artistically.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My first year living in NY was pretty tough. I didn’t know that many people but luckily I didn’t have a lot of expenses. I went through a time when the only money I was making was $20 for playing keyboard at a very small spanish church in Queens. That was my money for the whole week! I remember walking everywhere to try to get a paid gig, bars, clubs, churches, I was open to anything. To this day when I think back, I still can’t explain how I was able to live on that. I was having one meal a day which at the time was a drink and a couple of sandwiches from the dollar menu which cost me $3.25 a day. I really wanted to make music work and did not want to take a regular job because I had the feeling that once I got a taste of making more money with something else, it’d eventually become harder and harder to give it up and go back to making music for less money. I had seen too many musicians who had to get a day job and eventually stopped playing music altogether. They had a steady salary but were miserable doing something they didn’t care about at all. I was determined to not let that be me. I had many doubts, many times.
On a particular week, I was feeling very down and started thinking that maybe moving to NY was a very bad idea. I called my family back home and my mom was gonna send me money to buy a flight out of NY. I hadn’t told anybody else about it. Then Sunday afternoon, I go to my last $20 church gig. I show up but still don’t say anything. Im waiting until the end of the service to tell the pastor that I will be leaving NY. (Not to make this a religious thing, I know some people are very skeptical about these things but I’m saying it because it’s how it happened). Halfway through the service, God decides to use this woman at the church who doesn’t know me at all and she starts telling me about a lot of the things that I had been feeling and that I’ve been through on my own then she ends with: This is not the time for you to leave, just trust Me.
I decided to stay and still didn’t tell anybody what my plans that week were. I’m convinced that was from God because the very next day I had my very first recording session! I ended up staying in NY for 20 years after that.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I was aware of how important mentorship was when I first started. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by older and better musicians than me. That had a big impact for sure. If I was more aware of it, I feel I would’ve taken more advantage of their knowledge and wisdom.
That goes for most careers nowadays. You can learn so much more than you can learn in college for a fraction of the price. I’d find someone who’s doing what id like to do and just pay that person to let me shadow him/her, be in the same room and learn from real life experiences. You’ll see all the it entails, the good and the bad.

Contact Info:

• Website: elimenezes.com
• Instagram: elimenezesgtr
• Facebook: ELI MENEZES
• Twitter: Eliguitar1