The Eli Young Band has been making music together for over 18 years, and while some bands at this stage might be experiencing infighting or even be considering breaking up, they just released their brand new single, “Love Ain’t,” and are still going strong.  Mike Eli attributes that to the fact that they put their friendship first.  He says, “It is hard to stay together.  If it were easy I think more bands would make it to this point. But we try to put our friendships first before business, before money, before anything and so as long as we continue doing that I think that this band will continue hopefully being successful.”

Bassist Jon Jones also believes the pace of the band’s success and the journey they have been on has contributed to their commitment to one another.  He says, “I think it’s helpful that we’ve had the kind of success that we’ve had when we had it. We were able to graduate college and still have that hunger and not be making a living playing music by any stretch of imagination then.  But we were doing well enough that we had an idea in our heads that maybe we could get there, and so you had a goal to strive for.”

While they’ve had success, the Eli Young Band has so much more they hope to accomplish, and Jon says, “I think that kind of mentality is kind of what still keeps us through. We’ve had all these little baby steps. It’s been such an incremental career for us that we stay hungry and we know that we have to rely on each other to make it happen.”

Eli Young Band – how keep band together  :45

Mike Eli – “We try to put our friendship first. It is hard to stay together.  If it were easy I think more bands would make it to this point. But we try to put our friendships first before business, before money, before anything and so as long as we continue doing that I think that this band will continue hopefully being successful.”

Jon Jones – “I think it’s helpful that we’ve had the kind of success that we’ve had when we had it. We were able to graduate college and still have that hunger and not be making a living playing music by any stretch of imagination then.  But we were doing well enough that we had an idea in our heads that maybe we could get there, and so you had a goal to strive for. I think that kind of mentality is kind of what still keeps us through. We’ve had all these little baby steps. It’s been such an incremental career for us that we stay hungry and we know that we have to rely on each other to make it happen.”