We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Eli Pafumi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Eli thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made (either in terms of time or money)? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

I’ve wanted to be a full-time musician since I was 5 or 6 years old. As many of these stories go, I was banging on pots and pans until my parents subbed in a janky First Act drum kit that I beat to a pulp in a matter of weeks. Thus began the ever-evolving journey to actualize a career in making music. In middle school I started teaching guitar and ukulele to kids in the neighborhood, saving up funds to buy better instruments. By high school, i was performing at (and sneaking into) bars and clubs every week, putting away tip money and small venue payouts so I could record in proper studios and expand my at-home writing space. Coming from a lower-middle class family of artists and public school teachers, i knew at a young age that i would be responsible for all the resources i needed to succeed. I sacrificed a lot of time and energy trying to grow up fast, often isolating myself to prepare for some image of a life I knew I wanted; making a living with my creativity.

Come the end of high school I had managed to save up a relatively small but mighty earning as an independent teacher and gigging musician. With admission into my at the time dream school, Berklee College of Music, I was preparing to put myself in decades of debt paying for as much of my education in music as possible. Four weeks out from dorm move-in, financial road blocks started emerging from beneath me and i was suddenly unable to make ends meet as a new student. Crushed by the weight of losing this dream, i pushed myself to take all the funds i had earned over the past decade and point it towards two goals – build a home studio to make music on my own terms and travel. I leapt forth with the mentality that everything i hoped to find at Berklee could be simulated with enough persistence. I started bankrolling trips to Los Angeles for longer and longer periods of time, building up a music lesson business and taking odd creative jobs to fund my endeavors. Within a year, I had moved across the country from DC to California. I knew I had made the right choice when my first proper job was working alongside graduates of Berklee making the same rate as me. While I still dream of higher education, making a personal investment into my career allowed me to fine tune the areas of study outside of music that excite me while validating the creative progress i was making in my own right. Over five years later, my professional resume includes compositions for university music programs, professional theaters, and national film/television broadcasts. I’ve played to and alongside my idols, earning the respect of artists who took both conventional and unconventional artistic paths. Most importantly, I’ve built a career where I am in control of my creative decisions and while that’s often been a hefty or risky investment, it is the most empowering one I’ve ever made.

Eli, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve been on a hunt for intriguing sounds and collaborative art since i was a child. My mom is an actor/playwright/producer and my father a theater teacher/musician so there was always some creative project in motion in our household. One of my greatest prides is that i came from a home that believed in and supported young artistic entrepreneurs. I started acting and performing in elementary school and gigging and composing professionally by middle school. I omitted my age from my first professional composition job because i didn’t want them to know i was 12 at the time. By mid-high school i was crowdsourcing thousands of dollars to record in professional studios and opening for national touring acts in my home town.

Some accomplishments over the years include being a three-time Bernard/Ebb Songwriting Awards finalist, a TEDx speaker and composer for live theatre. My theatrical work has been done at The Hub Theatre, Shippensberg University and the Aurora Fox Arts Center among others. I’ve also taught as an independent music instructor in guitar, bass, ukulele, piano, drums, voice, music production and songwriting in dozens of private studios and public schools across the country for almost 10 years. My debut solo album Finding North released in February 2016 and 2019 saw my first credit as producer on RitaRita’s debut LP Savta’s Garden.

Having spent the past several years touring and performing around the world, I’ve now settled into the ever lovely Los Angeles. Partnering with my brother Jere Pafumi, we continue to expand our family recording project RitaRita while I write, record, teach and produce for whatever projects and communities await me!

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

All of us should vouch for the necessity of art in society yet it is so often disregarded. We are at such an interesting tipping point for the modern creator. There is more access to resources and audiences than ever before but we continue to be inundated with too many options and under-supported by the multi-million dollar industries that abuse our art for their own success.

The best way for society to support a thriving creative ecosystem is to get in at the ground level of artists they respect. Things like Spotify, Tik Tok and the current AI Lensa craze capitalize on current trends to portray artist success while syphoning off the real growth from the artist providing their work. Artist’s today need fans – not followers. We are at a time where you could make more selling 200 vinyl records than getting a million streams on Spotify. So continue to support art in grassroots ways. Buy merch at shows, pick up art from your local coffee shop, support an artist on Patreon, Twitch, etc, book an artist for a one-on-one lesson, share and spread the word about creators who excite you. With today’s overwhelming technological backbone, returning to individual connections between artist and fan is still the most rewarding for both parties and validates that artwork from being sucked into an endless virtual void.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Yes! I preach several books constantly to my creative community. The Artist Way by Julia Cameron had such a profound impact on the way i treat my day-to-day creative process. David Byrne’s How Music Works is a holy-text for artists. Ari Herstand’s How to Make it in the New Music Business is by far the current bible for working musicians. For my fellow songwriters – Songwriters on Songwriting is a must-own, i keep it on my bedside.

Some of the inspiring written work i encourage others to read that are not tied to my music life would be Weight by Jeanette Winterson, Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith, How I Paid for College by Marc Acito and the play Redder Blood by Helen Murray.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.elipafumi.com / www.ritaritamusic.com
• Instagram: @elipafumi / @ritaritamusic
• Facebook: @elipafumimusic / @ritaritamusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EliPafumi
• Other: Contact Eli Pafumi at [email protected]

Image Credits
Agnes Owusu, Nikki A. Rae, Nico Herrera