Meet Elijah Marrewa | Drummer & Percussionist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elijah Marrewa and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elijah, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I have always been surrounded by music. Growing up, my dad played in a blues band, so some of my earliest memories are of watching him play. There’s even a picture of me, around 4 or 5 years old, playing on a red plastic toy drum set on stage next to my dad and his band. I started playing music in elementary school, taking piano lessons and playing clarinet in the school band. But my true passion for music was the drums. I started taking lessons at 9 years old from the drummer in my dad’s band, and from there, my obsession kept growing.

By the time I was 10, I had already formed a cover band with some classmates and was practicing and playing gigs pretty consistently. At 12, I had the opportunity the play in my middle school jazz band as a 6th grader. At the same time, I joined the Young Lions Jazz Conservatory and met my long-term mentor Gilbert Castellanos. It was the first year for the Conservatory, and I was surrounded by kids my age to high schoolers who were playing at levels I’d never seen before. By then, I was completely hooked and realized at a young age that music was what I wanted to pursue for a career.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The one thing that really drives me to continue pursuing music is the sense of community that comes with it. Being able to sit down with just about anyone and create music is a feeling I can’t describe. Most of what I have learned today is from playing with other people. Sure, I could lock myself in a practice room all day, but nothing beats creating real music with real people. And even though I’ve been a gigging musician since I was 13 years old, I have only scratched the surface of a long line of musical tradition and have so much more to learn. But that’s what inspires me to keep going, the idea that I will never truly know and learn everything. I have played a lot of different music with a lot of different people over the years, from Rock, Hip Hop, Jazz, Blues, Brazilian, and Afro-Caribbean music. And the one thing they all have in common is the ability to bring people together; that’s what I want to achieve with my music. To be able to share my authentic self and ideas with people and bring them together.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Having lived in DFW for only a short time, I would hit up all of my favorites. Steve’s Wine Bar, Paschall Bar, which are in Denton, then go down to Dallas and check out Triumphs Espresso & Whiskey, and Revelers Hall. I always love exploring around Bishop Arts District. I am still very new to the area, so I am always looking for new things to do and see.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to give a big shoutout to all of my mentors, teachers, and overall supporters in San Diego. All of my lesson teachers, Mike Holguin, Matt Taylor, Tyler Krutel, and Charlie Chavez, taught me pretty much everything I know about the drums today. Also, all of my band directors growing up, Richard Ciavarelli and Jeanne Christense, who constantly supported and challenged me to become a better person and musician. I also want to thank Chuck Perrin, who runs Dizzy’s in San Diego. He is a big supporter of the arts and always has a place for me to share my music whenever I am home. But I think the biggest shoutout goes to Gilbert Castellanos, who has been my mentor for the past 9 years. Gilbert is one of the most prominent voices in Jazz in San Diego, running the non-profit Young Lions Jazz Conservatory. Without him and this program, I definitely would not be the person I am today. I like to think of Gilbert as my “Jazz Godfather”; he has been there for me since the beginning, constantly pushing me outside my comfort zone to grow into the musician he saw I could be.

Instagram: elijahmarrewadrums

Image Credits
Kevin Arellano