Music

Elijah had a passion for music both listening and collecting along with playing and recording, some of his first experiments with properly recording tracks ended up being the Bladeology Podcast intro. Over time Elijah's interest in music and proficiency in recording it grew and grew, no matter where he was he would bring an instrument of some kind along with him. 

The Story:

Elijah and I had been friends online for a few years, and previously I had worked on some art pieces for him under my "Colorful Filth" brand. We spoke frequently about art and music, and eventually when I got into knife design myself Elijah would always provide incredible feedback on aesthetics, functionality, and the industry as a whole. 

In January of 2022, Elijah was in (I believe) PA working on a project, and we talked about how fun it would be to create a song together. Elijah had his black Les Paul and mandolin with him, so he came over to my apartment to lay out some ideas and have fun with some collaborative writing.

What we didn't expect was a one day jam session to turn into a fully fleshed out song. Elijah started with the mandolin riff from the intro, which I then accompanied with acoustic guitar. From here, Elijah and I went back and forth writing rhythm and lead guitar sections which were then accompanied by virtual drum and orchestral tracks him and I wrote together as well. There was an incredible level of creative energy and flow during the whole process, it was almost like the song wrote itself. We called the scratch track "Munksham Mix", and planned to record vocals at a later date. 

Unfortunately, we never truly had the opportunity to finish the song. We planned on adding vocals, and even discussed how cool the concept of a band made of knife industry nerds could be in the near future. 

Despite this, we are left with an instrumental metal track that I feel truly represents much of Elijah's creative mind and vision. The track screams "space cowboy" vibes, and I can't help but feel immediately connected to Elijah's unique style and how it translated into Munksham Mix. I was able to connect with Elijah's father as well, and made sure to send him a bunch of CD's of the song. He told me how excited Elijah was about this initial recording the first time he showed him, and it was truly surreal to be able to help have a creative impact on someone who has had such an impact on me. 

I am forever grateful for the opportunity I had to create something special with Elijah. From the very beginning, his work and art has always been a huge inspiration to me. To this day, I still find him to be one of the most influential people in all of my knife related works and hobbies. I miss talking music, knives, and art with Elijah, but will always cherish this experience and the song that gives me something tangible to remember it by. 

Rest in Paradise brother,

- Paul Munko (@munkoknives/@colorfulfilth)