Eli Piccarreta trusts his gut.
That’s what landed him his dream job — one that his 16-year-old DJ-self never thought existed.
“If I had known about this job from an earlier age, I always would’ve been striving for it,” Piccarreta said.
But as soon as he did discover the position of A&R, or artists and repertoire, in the talent scouting record label world, he knew he would do anything it took to get there.
Back in the day, Piccarreta could be spotted hosting a dance-to-get-candy trick-or-treat ordeal in his front yard as a middle schooler, playing the video game DJ Hero, DJing for high school dances or blasting hip-hop and rap from his room.
Now, Tucson High and University of Arizona graduate Piccarreta, 26, is off in the music scene of Los Angeles, making waves that keep getting bigger.
Tucson will always be a big part of his life and who he is, though, and he brought the desert and all his memories there with him as he made his way through Atlantic Records’ ranks to become the vice president of A&R, for Artist Partner Group, or APG.
Eli Piccarreta has worked his way up the ranks of Atlantic Records, becoming the vice president of A&R for Artist Partner Group.
“I’ve always loved music, but I guess the real start for me was when I started DJing when I was 15 and still at Tucson High,” Piccarreta said. “I remember being in middle school at these dances thinking the music wasn’t very good or that I could do better.”
Under the name DJ EP, Piccarreta started DJing at proms and formals for high schools across Tucson, and by college, eventually made his way up to DJing at hip-hop events at the Rialto for rising artists like Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q and 2 Chainz.
His father, Mike Piccarreta, remembers having to ask Eli to turn his blaring music down every day, and even the cops coming in response to a noise complaint from the neighbors when his trick-or-treat dance party became too popular with the kids on the block.
“Ever since he was a teeny baby he’s been drawn to music,” his mother, Marie Piccarreta, said. “I’m excited to see what he does next.”
Piccarreta’s father reckons that Eli got his musical ability from him mother’s side of the family, since she played the cello, and her father played bass in the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra.
“The role of an artist is to put out music that is authentic to them,” Eli Piccarreta said. “For me, it’s all about authenticity. I’m the biggest fan of every artist I work with; that’s what it has to be, you can’t lose sight of why you’re doing it to begin with.”
Under the name DJ EP, Eli Piccarreta started DJing at proms and formals for high schools across Tucson, and by college, eventually made his way up to DJing at hip-hop events.
Back in 2016, at the start of his career with Atlantic Records, Piccarreta signed YoungBoy Never Broke Again after discovering him on YouTube. In the span of this past year, YoungBoy has earned “No. 1” status three times on the Billboard 200 chart .
Piccarreta has signed many other successful artists including NoCap, Quando Rondo and Rico Nasty, who has an album coming out before the end of the year.
If he could write a book, Piccarreta said it’d be about “trusting your gut.”
It’s following that love-at-first-sight feeling that he encountered when he found the scout position at Atlantic Records during a college summer internship.
“That’s always been at the heart of it with anybody that I sign,” he said. “I think I’ve always been in tune with my gut.”
