Elijah’s current success didn’t happen overnight. After years of experimenting and trying to fit into the “Warped Tour pop punk” mold, he stopped chasing expectations and started confronting his own emotions — the ones he’d spent years keeping hidden. The result? lowest — a 13-track collision of post-hardcore chaos and emo-rock introspection that’s as raw as it is real.

This debut album of Elijah is a gut punch of honesty, candidly exploring feelings of depression, heartache and purposelessness. Given the intimate nature of the lyrics, lowest marks the first time Elijah has felt a true sense of pride in his music. It’s unequivocally him, and fans are noticing the shift. In October, this Alabama native and current Nashville resident performed his first international shows in Australia and Tokyo, with those audiences singing every heart-wrenching word back to him.

Now, he’s experiencing that love on an even bigger scale with “The Lowest Tour” — his first full U.S. headline run, which kicked off Nov. 4 in Kansas and continues through Nov. 25 in Kentucky. Despite the darker themes of his music, Elijah promises a high-energy concert that’s both cathartic and a “punch in the face.” And after years of self-promotion on social media, he’s finally meeting fans in person with one of the most unique VIP packages on the market — $45 gets you a picture, autograph and cornhole battle.

Ahead of his highly anticipated headline tour, PopHorror spoke with Elijah about his journey to finding his sound, the creative process and surprising influences (like John Wick) behind lowest, the therapeutic nature of the stage and more.

Talking lowest and finding his sound

PopHorror: You released your debut album lowest on Oct. 24. How has the response been so far?

Elijah: It’s awesome. The response has been crazy. People have been asking for an album for as long as I’ve been putting out singles, so finally being able to kind of piece together everything into one cohesive project has really been a dream of mine for a long time. To see everyone enjoy it is cool.

PopHorror: You said in a social media post that these songs have been a “lifetime in the making.” What made now the right time to release this project?

Elijah: A lot of it comes from maturity and growth into what kind of sound I’m really wanting to do with my music. I think the majority of my beginning career was more or less trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to sound like and not compare myself to other bands, but draw influence from things that I enjoy and make it my own thing. It took me a lot of trial and error to figure out exactly what I wanted and I think now, I’ve finally gotten to a point where I can look at the music, listen to it and be proud of what I’ve put out. This doesn’t feel like a copycat of something else.

PopHorror: Definitely. I feel like your earliest songs on Spotify, like “Stitches” and “MAYDAY,” had more of a pop punk vibe. The songs on lowest are much deeper and heavier. Can you elaborate on your evolution into your current sound? Was there one song that made you say, “Yes, this is what I’ve been trying to do?”

Elijah: In the beginning when I was making the solo stuff, I was really more or less a chameleon of the surrounding music that I listened to. I was a huge Paramore fan and still am. Definitely my favorite band. I pulled a lot from that world of the early scene, Warped Tour pop punk stuff because that’s what I thought would be the safest bet. I’d failed so many times in other projects and other music stuff, so I was like, “You know what? I’m just going to do what I think other people might like instead of what exactly I want to do.” And of course, that brought no fulfillment whatsoever. I was just in the same boat that I was.

So eventually, I was like, “Fuck all this, I’m going to do exactly what I want to do and not really care whether other people like it.” I think every artist eventually hits the point to where they realize that making music is your own artistic expression, and other people liking it and making a living off of it is icing on the cake. If you’re actually in the music industry to express yourself, that’s what you have to do to begin with — express yourself. I think what fans actually connect with is an artist expressing themselves and not necessarily whether or not they like the song. People are more fans of the artists than the music most of the time. So I decided to be genuine and authentic with myself and, once I did that, it reflected in the music as well.

@elijah.elijah

over ONE MILLION streams on my debut record in less than a week. so thankful ⚡️ headline tour starts next week, and all the VIP is almost gone… ↓ ↓ THE LOWEST TOUR ↓ ↓ 🎟️ elijahofficial.com 🎟️ 11.4 – Wichita, KS – The Wave (Indoor) 11.5 – Denver, CO – Marquis Theater (VERY LOW TICKETS)        11.7 – Las Vegas, NV – Grey Witch 11.8 – Anaheim, CA – Chain Reaction 11.9 – Phoenix, AZ – Last Exit Live (LOW TICKETS) 11.10 – Tucson, AZ – Club Congress 11.13 – San Antonio, TX – Vibes Underground (LOW TICKETS) 11.14 – Dallas, TX – RBC (LOW TICKETS) 11.15 – Oklahoma City, OK – Beer City Music Hall 11.16 – Memphis, TN – 1884 Lounge 11.18 – Nashville, TN – Cannery Hall (The Mil) 11.19 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade (Altar) (LOW TICKETS) 11.20 – Columbia, SC – New Brookland Tavern 11.21 – Lynchburg, VA – Super Rad Arcade 11.22 – Harrisburg, PA – HMAC Stage on Herr (VERY LOW TICKETS) 11.23 – Pittsburgh, PA – Crafthouse (VERY LOW TICKETS) 11.25 – Newport, KY – Southgate House #ontour #newmusic #rocktober

♬ Grip – elijah

PopHorror: Your lyrics are insanely vulnerable and emotionally charged. Where do you get your inspiration? Is performing these songs cathartic in a sense?

Elijah: I don’t really talk about anything. I have a really bad problem of controlling all of my emotions and pushing them really far down. So the only time I can actually do it is whenever I’m writing music because it’s kind of like my safe area that I can talk about stuff to myself, which ends up being put out into the world. But I don’t really see it like that. I just see it as the song that I created and just block all the emotional parts off once I put it out.

I do co-write a lot with one of my best friends, Luke Healy. It’s his life experiences as well as mine and, like I said, it’s a lifetime in the making. I’m really digging deep within myself and he was doing the same thing, to be as vulnerable as possible, to make the best music that we could possibly make in this time frame. So I think I got over my fear of not saying what I wanted to say and just said it. It made me feel a lot better from certain things that I went through in my life. I’m sure every artist can attest to it — it’s not the easiest thing to put your own emotions out there. Even if you’re not an artist and you just want to talk to somebody, it’s very, very difficult to talk about things that are hard that you’ve went through because you don’t want to be judged. You don’t want to feel weak. You don’t want to feel like you can’t handle yourself. Men in general have a really hard time talking about our emotions because we don’t want to feel weak or vulnerable. But at the same time, I drive myself crazy if I don’t say anything. I’ve got to say something at some point.

And the show aspect is definitely a therapeutic thing for me. Having music in general is definitely a way to get out that energy that a lot of us have, those pent up emotions. I played sports in high school, so football, baseball, basketball, whatever gave me a chance to get all that extra energy out, let go and set myself free. It’s the same thing for me on stage. It’s really the closest thing that I’ve ever found [to sports] to get rid of stuff in a safe, controlled environment.

PopHorror: I love how the album is broken up into three parts/phases, all tied together by the “lowest hotline.” What was the idea behind that?

Elijah: About two weeks before I put it out, I came up with all of that. It was not a thing at all, but I wanted to make something that flowed cohesively and felt like an experience instead of just a bunch of songs slapped together on an album. I really wanted it to be a full listening experience. I’m a big fan of Tron: Legacy and John Wick, and all the post-utopia, dystopian society action movies. I actually sat down and watched all of John Wick and all of Tron. I watched Total Recall. If I’m writing or in some sort of creative space, I’ll turn on a movie to get myself in the mode of, “What do I want to visualize this song feeling like?” So I just watched a bunch of movies and was like, “It would be kind of sick to do a hotline type thing,” and then made it all happen in two weeks. I really cut it close at the end, but we made it! It’s on Spotify, we made it work.

PopHorror: I think you’re the first artist I’ve talked to that was influenced by John Wick.

Elijah: Cool! Not the extreme killing part, but the environment of it. I think it’s cool.

PopHorror: Obviously every song is meaningful to you, otherwise it wouldn’t be on the album. But is there one track in particular that you really hope is connecting with listeners?

Elijah: I have two. “lowest,” the title track, was one that I wrote to be a transition song between “between my lies” and whatever other song was going to be before it. So I didn’t really write it in the beginning as an actual song. It was just going to be a minute-long interlude type thing. But it ended up blossoming into exactly what I needed to say at the time. I was going through a hard time mentally and trying to find my place in the world. Every day I woke up, I just felt very lost and confused about what I wanted to do with my career and my personal life.

More or less, that song was an ask for help to myself. I know a lot of us have battled with depression before. I’m sure most of us that listen to heavy music kind of use that as a way to get away from certain things. But when I go through it, I have to bring myself out of it. Most of the time, I can look at myself from a bird’s eye view and say, “This is what’s going on. This is why I’m feeling this way. How do I find a way to get out of it?” Writing that song allowed me to, instead of being a slave to my own emotions, pull myself out of those things at the time and feel a lot better, which was nice.

So that song and “my own misery” are my two favorite ones. “my own misery” was the last song that we wrote for the album and we needed one more song for the album. Me and Luke got in my studio in my spare bedroom, and I had written the chorus for “my own misery” a year ago. We scratched everything, took the hook, wrote a whole song in 45 minutes and it ended up making the record. That song itself was the encapsulation of exactly the things that I’d been going through leading up to this record — being a slave to my own emotions and being over it.

@elijah.elijah

maybe im addicted to my own misery… 10.24.25 // debut album NEW SHOWS ADDED ⬇️ 🎟️ elijahofficial.com 🎟️ 11.4 – Wichita, KS – The Wave (Indoor) 11.5 – Denver, CO – Marquis Theater        11.7 – Las Vegas, NV – Grey Witch 11.8 – Anaheim, CA – Chain Reaction 11.9 – Phoenix, AZ – Last Exit Live 11.10 – Tucson, AZ – Club Congress 11.13 – San Antonio, TX – Vibes Underground 11.14 – Dallas, TX – RBC 11.15 – Oklahoma City, OK – Beer City Music Hall 11.16 – Memphis, TN – 1884 Lounge 11.18 – Nashville, TN – Cannery Hall (The Mil) 11.19 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade (Altar) 11.20 – Columbia, SC – New Brookland Tavern 11.21 – Lynchburg, VA – Super Rad Arcade 11.22 – Harrisburg, PA – HMAC Stage on Herr 11.23 – Pittsburgh, PA – Crafthouse 11.25 – Newport, KY – Southgate House #rock #newmusic #metal #tour

♬ original sound – elijah

PopHorror: One of the things I enjoy about you and other artists is the effortless switch between clean singing and screaming. How do you decide which style goes where?

Elijah: I think the more I play shows and the more I tour, the more I want heavier songs because they’re just so much more fun to play live. But a lot of it just comes with the emotion that each lyric brings to me. A lot of it is based around the music, the riff that I write, how the drums are going or whatever the song calls for. It’s really more of an emotional response for me whether it’s something I want to scream or something I want to sing. It’s more or less a subconscious thing. Sometimes it is like, “Oh, this would be cooler to scream than it would be to sing, so I’ll just do it like that.”

The Catharsis of the Stage

PopHorror: You have your sound and your debut album, and now you’re about to hit the road on your first full U.S. headline tour. How are you feeling as it gets closer?

Elijah: As stressed as anybody could be, but I’m excited. It’s going to be really cool. I’ve really tried to put together the best show possible that I could. Artists don’t want to be a support band, an opener their whole life. Maybe some people do, but that’s just not me. I definitely want to go out and be my own person, be my own artist and headline. And it’s an answer to fans who have been wanting me to do it for a really long time. Finally, I’ve gotten to a position where I have something to tour because before, it was just a bunch of singles. I was like, “I’d love to do that, but I can’t really put together headlines with a bunch of singles. I need an album.” So I’ve finally got a full show.

PopHorror: It would’ve been a very short set!

Elijah: Super short. And from a financial place, we’re able to put together the right show and the right team to make something happen. It’s kind of short, something like three weeks. But we had Australia and Tokyo, and then all kinds of other stuff going on, so I had to fit it where we could.

@elijah.elijah

my debut album “lowest” drops THIS FRIDAY ⚡️ who’s ready for it?? #rock #alternative #metal #tour #rocktober

♬ original sound – elijah

PopHorror: For anyone who may be seeing you live for the first time this tour, what’s an Elijah show like?

Elijah: A lot of people, especially before I put out this album, didn’t realize how energetic some of the shows were. And like I said, it’s like a release for me. So I just go up there and lose my mind a little bit because it’s my only place that I can actually lose my mind and have fun. It is hammer, hammer, hammer, punch in the face the entire show basically. We have an amazing band. Thankfully, I’ve been able to put together some really cool musicians to play on stage with me, which is probably the hardest thing that solo artists can do — actually find a cool band that they vibe with. These guys are now some of my best friends.

Xander and Brandon play guitar, and Chris is my drummer. They elevate the show like no other. Those guys have been in bands for years and they look sick, spin around, head banging, body banging. They’re having a blast, so I really try to be as fun and interactive with the crowd and as energetic as I can possibly be while also singing the song. In the beginning, when I first started touring, I couldn’t do both. I have to run and train before tour, it’s a whole thing. My front of house guy kills it every night. We’re definitely trying to blow people’s minds as much as we can.

PopHorror: And you just got back from playing some shows in Australia, as well as one in Tokyo. How was that experience?

Elijah: It was crazy. I never thought when when I first started playing music that I would ever actually be touring in different countries. So it was a culture shock and dream come true for sure. Tokyo was awesome. Definitely the biggest culture shock I’ve ever gotten going to a different country. I’ve been in Canada and all over the U.S., and there’s so many different cultures in the U.S. But Japanese culture is really, really cool to see firsthand. And Australia was a lot of fun. It was warm, which is cool. Spring was starting, so basically it felt like April or May would here, but their seasons are flipped. I had a lot of fans out there, merch line was always long. It was lots of fun.

PopHorror: How do the international fans compare to the U.S. crowds?

Elijah: They’re crazy! They are wild. I guess a lot of people don’t go over there too much, so whenever a band does come, they are just moshing their asses off and singing as loud as they can just to get a little piece of it.

PopHorror: Do you have a big fan base abroad? Did they know all the songs?

Elijah: Some of my top cities on Spotify of people that listen to me are Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. So I was pleasantly surprised by how many people actually knew the songs.

Giving Fans Their Money’s Worth

PopHorror: You have a VIP option on this tour for fans to meet you. What’s it like meeting them in person instead of just through social media?

Elijah: It’s really cool because I’ve built this whole thing from social media being an independent artist and not having a huge budget — or really any budget — in the beginning to advertise myself. TikTok and Instagram was the only way that I could get in touch with people. So it’s great to connect instead of just being a face on the screen. I met people in Australia who said, “I found you when you first started, when you put out ‘Stitches.’ I’ve been commenting on your stuff for three years.” That’s crazy, like, you’ve been commenting on and liking my stuff for three or four years and now I’m finally just now meeting you. I get mind-blown every night, even if it’s just two or three people in a random city. It’s still a surreal experience to know that someone cared enough to see me on their phone and now spend money, drive and take time out of their day to come out and see the show.

The VIP experience for this is a little bit different than what I’ve usually done in the past. I wanted to do something interactive with fans instead of just, “Hey, how’s it going? Put my arm around you, take a picture, now go to the back of the line.” I do a Q&A every VIP. So if anybody has any questions about the craziness that is being a solo artist in the rock world or my personal life, please ask away. We’re also doing a cornhole game and are going to give away some prizes for people that can actually make it or beat me. I’m not actually that good, but I’m from Alabama. I tailgate. I’m kind of a redneck, so I’m pretty good at cornhole. We’re going to do some giveaways and I’ll announce those pretty soon. And then we’ll give a little tote bag, a signed poster that’s exclusive to the VIP.

It’s more of a hangout session. I really try to give people their money’s worth because, especially nowadays, everything is so expensive. Just getting to the show is expensive. You’ve got to pay for parking, gas, food. Some people are driving four hours and getting a hotel. If they’re paying $45 to meet me, it needs to be worth it, not just, “Hey, how are you? Bye.” I think that’s really shitty and a lot of bands do that. I don’t like that. I get it from an artist perspective — you’re meeting random people all the time and sometimes it gets overwhelming. But it’s kind of what you signed up for.

PopHorror: I think all of that is well worth $45.

Elijah: Thank you! I appreciate it.

The Journey To Success

PopHorror: You’re celebrating your debut album and first full headline tour, but how long have you been working toward all of this? When did you start pursuing music?

Elijah: I started playing guitar when I was 12. My guitar teacher wanted me to learn how to read music and play really lame stuff. I was like, “I just want to play Metallica riffs and AC/DC. I want to play ‘Back in Black,’ can you teach me how to play that?” He’s like, “No, I need you to read music first.” I said, “No, I’m not doing that.” So I put down guitar, put down music, pursued a baseball career that didn’t work out. Freshman year of college, I started picking music back up and writing songs. I ended up dropping out of college and moving to Nashville to write songs. I was doing that for a year or two being really, really depressed because I wasn’t finding my purpose and what I wanted to do.

I kind of dropped off the face of the earth from social media and started this whole project. In 2022, I put out the first song “Stitches,” still not knowing what I wanted to do. I just wanted to put something out and everything’s been a blur since then. Now, here I am on Zoom with you talking about a debut record and a headline tour. It’s been a wild ride, honestly. But I guess you could call it three years, going on four years, of actually doing this project, really finding out what I wanted to do and actually having a goal and a pursuit in mind of music.

PopHorror: What’s something that would surprise people to learn about you, maybe outside of music?

Elijah: I am a direct descendent of Francis Scott Key, the guy who wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.” That’s my crazy party fun fact that I have. And it’s actually blood, not like a marriage thing. My grandma, her maiden name is Key. Her great grandfather was Francis Scott Key. She’s passed now, but she had handwritten letters, real stuff from Francis Scott Key in her dresser.

Paranormal vs. Gore

PopHorror: And since we’re PopHorror, I have to ask, are you a scary movie fan? If so, what’s your favorite?

Elijah: When I was a kid, I got so scared from Scary Movie. I was like 9 and I went to a buddy’s house, and his brother was watching it. It scared the absolute shit out of me, so I quit watching horror movies. But I do like paranormal-type stuff. I’m not big into the gore stuff. I don’t think it’s scary. Some of those horror movies can get corny and I just get grossed out by gore. I can’t even watch somebody brush their teeth and I don’t like it when people spit. It grosses me out. I don’t know why. The Conjuring, however, messed me up for like two weeks. The Hills Have Eyes ruined me for an entire winter when I watched that on Halloween.

PopHorror: I agree that the paranormal stuff is scarier! And anything involving possession because I feel like both of those could actually happen. I saw a bit of The Exorcist as a kid and was convinced she was going to crawl out of my closet. I still struggle to watch it. But if gore grosses you out, maybe stay away from Terrifier.

Elijah: A lot of people told me to watch Terrifier. I don’t know if you’re the same way, but if a bunch of people are talking about something for me to watch, I don’t want to watch it anymore. They’re like, “You have to watch this!,” and I’m like, “Do I? I don’t really, though.” I’ll do it on my own time. That’s why I didn’t watch Game of Thrones for so long because everyone was talking about it. I was like, “You’re lame, be different.” Then I watched it and was like, “Okay, this is cool.”

PopHorror: Same here. I started around the second to last season and hated that I didn’t start it sooner. But it was so great to binge almost the entire series at once!

Elijah: Yes, I watched Season 9, Episode 1 and I really like it. I binged the entire thing over the summer in like two weeks and finally caught up.

Looking Ahead

PopHorror: After the tour, is there anything else upcoming for you? Or just any general goals for the rest of this year and next?

Elijah: I have a lot of stuff that I can’t say because it’s not announced, but a lot of cool festivals that I’ve been wanting to play for a long time and people have been asking me to play, I’m playing them next year. I’m doing a second album next year. I don’t really have an exact timeline, but I’m not going to keep everybody waiting super long. I hate it when bands take three years to make another album. Like, come on, write the songs, let’s go.

And for the past two years, I’ve been touring nonstop pretty much. All of 2024 and not all of 2025, but a good portion of it. So I kind of need a break from it if I’m being totally honest. I’m not sure if we’re going to do anything in the January, February area, but we’ll definitely be touring in March and April. I can’t say exactly what tour it is, but we are touring in March and April. But I need Christmas, New Year’s and February to reset and chill because that jet lag kicked my ass. I love Australian people, but holy shit, I do not want to sit straight up on an American Airlines flight again for 13 hours. I’m going to lose my mind. I can only eat so many bagged pretzels before I’ve had enough.

Thanks for speaking with us, Elijah! Keep up with him at elijahofficial.com/.