Meet John Idalis

Hi John, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story? 
I was born and raised in mostly Los Angeles- my family moved around a lot during my childhood. We spent some years in San Bernardino County, but most of my upbringing was in LA and its suburbs. I lived there year-round until I was 17.

At 17, I moved to the Phoenix area to attend Arizona State University. While in my senior year in the theatre program at ASU, I released my first album (really more of a mixtape in hindsight because I don’t think I had really found my identity as a songwriter yet… still, it’s my first body of work. So I still refer to it as my first album) called, “A Playlist 4 U.”

I graduated in 2020, and since then, I have released an EP, “Les Jetables,” and an album, “The Self-Crucifixion of Elizabeth St. Clair to Rid the White Race of Our Sins.”

As I write this in mid-June(ish), I am releasing the remix album of my most recent album called, “The Book of Elizabeth: Remixes, Alternates, and Acoustics,” on June 30th.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
OH NO. It has been BUMPY. To say the least.

I won’t go into it too much today (maybe one day I’ll make an album exploring my childhood in depth), but I will divulge that the reason why my family moved around so much during my childhood was because we were actually struggling with homelessness. My mom recently revealed to me that, in total, during my upbringing, my family was evicted from over 10 homes.

Some of my earliest memories is being a toddler and my family sleeping in the car at a gas station overnight. My fourth birthday, I remember my family was staying in a spare room at a friend’s home. Not that there weren’t any stable years during my coming of age where we lived in one place for a few years. But if we weren’t in a place of our own, we were staying in a motel, a friend’s home, sleeping in a car- some nights, we didn’t even have a car and would just wander the streets of LA waiting for the nearest McDonald’s to open so we could use the restroom and brush our teeth.

I will say… the years of being homeless really taught me to be creative. I have actually written and produced several songs (that have been released too) that I recorded while being homeless. With a computer and microphone, you can make music anywhere!

I will also say… years of therapy also taught me that the truth will set you free. Again, I won’t divulge too much today (maybe in a future project), but during my family’s bouts of homelessness, it was vital that everyone in my family maintained the image of wealth. My family was never rich, but it was a facade that we had to convey at all times. If any of us tried to apply for government benefits or homeless aid (and some of us did try), we were threatened or told we’re overreacting. As you might’ve guessed, upholding the lie that you’re wealthy when in fact you’re homeless is a very hard lie to uphold. That’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned in my 25 years so far: lying takes much more work than just living in truth. When you live in truth, you can get the help you need.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
GREAT QUESTION. I have been thinking about this concept a lot… success…

For me, success is happiness. Like I truly am content and happy with my life. I work two very normal day jobs. I come home and make music. It’s great! All I ever wanted during my childhood were two things:

1. Have stable housing

2. Time to write music

And I have both. If I work normal jobs for rest of my life, I will die happy knowing I had stable housing and time to write my silly songs.