Canadian Pop Artist Elijah Woods was just like any rambunctious sporty kid from the “great white north” before he found his knack for producing and performing his own tunes, which has now led to viral pop hits and world tours even ahead of his debut solo album.
“I think I’m just some kid from a small town in Canada and the fact that my music is being recognized anywhere else that isn’t four square miles from my house is really, really cool,” he told Esquire Philippines in an exclusive interview.
Elijah Woods in an H&M A/W Wool Sweater
Woods cited his fellow Canadian, Justin Bieber, who recently dropped his seventh studio album amid a whole lot of hullabaloo about his personal life and marriage, as a major influence on his music. SWAG, which was a surprise release by the pop superstar, came at a time of controversy, rumors of a rocky marriage with his wife Hailey Bieber, and a paparazzi encounter that had led to the “it’s not clocking to you that I’m standing on business” sound bite.
The record drew mixed acclaim with many critics saying we were hearing Bieber's best songwriting and R&B to date, while others still craved more cohesion conceptually.
“I grew up listening to all the stuff he (Bieber) did as a kid, and I was blown away at his voice and the quality of songwriting and obviously, he’s not writing those songs.,” he said. “To have the marriage between an artist and a song do that well and have them still shine through when you know it’s a Justin Bieber song, especially when he’s just a kid from Canada I think that’s really cool… and I can definitely see myself in that light,” Woods added but noted that he would never really compare himself to Bieber as an artist.
Woods in an H&M Innovation Stories Velour and Sapatero "Dela Paz" Burgundy Loafers
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Woods didn't always see singing as a serious path to pursue and didn’t really think it was a cool hobby to get into.
“I was really into sports and I was like, no, singing's not cool and I grew up in a small town. I just wasn't encouraged… when I hit maybe, I don't know, 18 or something like that, I was like, oh, I should write songs. That'd be a really fun thing to do,” the singer/producer reminisced, adding thatt he taught himself how to sing by deep diving into hours and hours of YouTube tutorials before eventually taking vocal lessons and giving music producting a try.
“It’s come a long way since then. It was pretty spooky at the start. I’m screaming into auto-tune and I’m just like, does this sound good?”
His smash hit "24/7, 365" has garnered hundreds of millions of streams on major streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and even blew up on TikTok.
