Eli Dachs – Thirteen (Official Video)

(For Lyrics turn on subtitles/cc)
Composed by: Eli Dachs and Gavriel reichman
Vocals by: Eli Dachs
Production/music by: Gavriel reichman
Covert art: Yechiel Landman
Video: Akiva Hammond
13….
Many children have that one hobby, that movie, that one toy, that food, or that one sport etc. that they call their own. Something that they're good at, that sets them apart from everyone else.
Well, in my case, it was singing.
Ever since I was a little kid, I dreamed of becoming a singer. I was seven years old, to be exact, and I was sitting in the backseat of my mother’s blue Honda Odyssey after a YBC concert when the dream popped into my head. In that van, I happened to write my first song. On that night, my love for singing was ignited. I sang everywhere I went, I wrote everywhere I went, and I conducted concerts for my family every Shabbos to practice my performing and to do something I loved. The big pole in my basement became my recording microphone, and the pillar in my kitchen was my performing mic. Singing became, not just a hobby, but a passion, something that made me, me. Singing ignited my soul, and I poured my heart and personality into it.
As I got older, I started to question this dream I had of becoming a singer. Was it nerdy? Was it try-hard? Was it not for me? Was it unrealistic? All that I had once believed that I would be - did that change??
Indeed it did. And why was that??
I allowed other people's views about my dream to infiltrate my own views. The people telling me it was too crazy to try, that my goals were unrealistic, they got in my head until I no longer believed I could do it. It was unrealistic to them, so it became unrealistic to me. I stopped singing during my early teen years because of other people's perceptions and “advice,” and I never listened to myself and my dreams. I forfeited my own passion and personality to try to fit in with the crowd, and I ignored the younger Eli tugging at my arm and begging me to do what he did, allowing himself to dream and disregarding everything else.
When I went to Mesivta of Waterbury, my dream of singing became re-ignited. I began to allow myself to dream again, and singing gave me a voice, in more ways than one.
I started to rethink: maybe I really do have a talent and I could become this person I always wanted to be?
That’s when I started to grind. I started writing, expressing, singing, and building back up my childhood dreams.
In 2019, I finally built up enough confidence to put out my first song. Then, I started to practice Bar Mitzvah and wedding songs, and I worked on letting people know that this is what I wanted to do. Although it happened slowly in the beginning, I finally brought my childhood dreams to reality.
I think thirteen year old Eli would be proud.
Lyrics:
Low 1: Have you ever had
Something that means so much to you,
Now you look back,
sitting there on the top shelf of your room,
Collecting dust but once it was all that you knew
Low 2: well one day that changed
From one look that made you start to think,
All that you loved maybe was really make believe
And I’m a fool for what I felt at 13
High 1: When did everything I do stop being for me,
And when did I give up on my childhood dreams,
Or did I fail,
My thirteen year old self
And now I’m sad
Looking at pictures that I had
When I was 13
Low 3: I started feeling something,
That everything around me,
Happens for a reason,
And I’m not a fool for what I felt at 13.
High 2: when did everything I do start being for me,
It’s when I started to live my childhood dreams,
If I could tell,
My thirteen year old self, it’s ok to fail it’s all in how you prevail
Bridge: Believe In yourself
Trust in yourself
Cause no ones gonna do
It for you
It’s gotta be you
get real and get true
It’s how you get to know the real you
By Believing In yourself
And Trusting in yourself
Because no ones gonna do
It for you
It’s gotta be you
get real and get true
It’s how you get to know the real you