He's also a part of this rad NYC party called Tiki Disco, which started out as Eli, Lloydski and Andy Pry's cute little backyard party at Bushwick's pizza place Roberta's and wound up becoming everyone's favorite summer party within three years. You know a party has made it when you see that random girl you went to high school with in Florida post on Facebook about how she is "Excited to go to Tiki this weekend!" We asked Eli for a recording of his set from this past weekend on the rooftop of Output in Brooklyn, but mostly we just wanted a tour of his studio. We know he is a big nerd and we need to know what he keeps around him while making all of the feel good music he makes.
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"My studio is located inside my home in the West Village in Manhattan."
"One thing about my studio is there's basically nothing in it except records. This is my Madonna shrine. Obviously, I don't acknowledge any of her recorded output released after 1994 but all the early stuff is still my fave."
"This the desk I sit at when I'm making beats. It's super messy and full of random things like Le Bain drink tickets, Yo! MTV Raps cards and of course my trusty Run-DMC coffee coaster."
"Lots of old t-shirts. Although my musical tastes have expanded greatly, for some reason I still dress the way I did when I was a 12-year-old skater."
"Recently my wife and I put lots of stuff in storage including the majority of my '70s and '80s toys. I could not bear to part with these two, though. Anyone my age will understand!"
"So you may have noticed there haven't been any gear pictures yet. I'm not into gear. The idea of lots of wires and patch bays and upkeeping old synths and all that shit gives me anxiety. Also, I decided way back that spending all my money on records was much more important. So mostly there are just records everywhere. Good thing I have a bunch of old disco holy grails that no one cares about!"
"My first real skateboard! There's an anarchy sign on the tail that I put on with Wite-Out but unfortunately you can't see it here."
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"I have lots of comics. My favorite are the Sandman books by Neil Gaiman. Please don't be too impressed by my rare Sandman and Death action figures."
"I keep these buttons attached to speaker wire to remind me who the king and queen are! The Madge pin was a present from Mike B. Thanks Mike!"
"This is my only piece of hardware here. My first sampler, the legendary S950. I will never ever give you up."
"This is the boring stuff you already know I have. It's where I make mixtapes and stuff. Also, an old dusty Darth Vader head down there for some reason."
