Hailing from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Eli Jae follows the release of his soulful house-tinged R&B track, ‘All Over’, with this VIPER interview…

What five words define your sound?

Emotion, Elegance, Beauty, Artistic, Unique.

Tell me something unique about your creative process

I take notes of ideas that come to my mind, on my phone or on paper and I always channel my emotions to give all of myself into whatever I’m creating, whether that’s musically or anything at all. 

Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?

My new single ‘All Over’ which is out now!

What inspired you to make that song?

I was inspired by my experiences with women, especially the good, intimate and fun moments.

What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music?

Touching on topics that I denied myself of talking about because they still hurt. Losses, heartbreaks and sad moments. All of that emotion.

What’s the best/worst experience you’ve had on stage? 

Honestly I think the best is yet to come because I love all my performances besides one and that’s the worst experience, the mic kept going off during my performance and I didn’t really like that.

What is your favourite song to perform?

That would be ‘Most Beautiful Girl’. The ladies love that song.

Which artist/song/album made you want to make music?

‘Nostalgic Ultra’ by Frank Ocean.

What’s the meaning behind your name?

Eli Jae is derived from my real name Elijah.

If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?

It would be sports. I played a couple of sports like football, tennis, badminton, and I’m sure I’d do pretty good there.

What’s success to you?

Success to me means learning and growing.

What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction?

When I knew for a fact that I had fallen in love with making music and creating ideas around music.

Where can people keep in touch with you?

I’m @elijaemusic on all social media platforms.