ELLA JANE
Destined to prove she is an impressive performer beyond her humble beginnings of making cover videos, newcomer ella jane has a lot to be excited about. “bored&blind” marks the fourth single for the artist who was named after Ella Fitzgerald and influenced by the likes of Regina Spektor and Adele. Articulate and ambitious beyond her years, ella shows no signs of slowing down, especially now that she says everything’s feeling the most authentic it’s ever been. Check out the interview and playlist she put together for us below!
INTERVIEW
Interview by Bridgette
March 4, 2021
Today I have the pleasure of being joined by ella jane. Thank you so much for being here!
Hi, thanks for having me!
I’m so excited! This is a huge day for you because your newest track “bored&blind” is out right now. Congratulations! I would love to hear more about that track.
Thank you so much! Oh my God, I’m so excited! It’s been very fun to see this whole thing through because this is a song I wrote when I was 16. I’m 19 now, so to see it come out to this finished project and be released in a way I’m really excited about is really fun.
What was the process like writing it? Especially since you wrote it when you were 16 but finished it more recently; what was it like to go back to yourself three years ago?
Yeah, so I wrote the song along with another song that I’m going to be releasing in the same summer. I was at some writing/arts camp thing when I was 16. So this was before Sophomore year, I want to say. It was just another song about an unrequited crush and actually I remember that I had been going through this really bad writers’ block situation. I remember everyone else was just pumping out songs and I was just sitting there staring at a piano. And all of a sudden it just kind of came together, but I left it alone for a while. And when I had been looking at my songs and thinking about what I wanted to record and put out, I just got really excited about it! I think it’s been interesting to look back on my old writing because my writing has changed a lot. I think it’s improved a lot. Even the people I listened to back when I wrote it, that has changed a lot. But I think what’s been the most rewarding is seeing the end result with the production. I worked with Mike Irish on the production, and seeing that come about in a more mature way that reflects the sound I want now combined with my old writing was a really cool experience.
That’s awesome. So you just mentioned you were at a writing camp; I’m curious, who were your early influences? How did you get into music?
My influences have changed a lot. It was always kind of in the singer-songwriter realm, especially when I was younger and developing my first— you know when you first realize you can listen to who you want to listen to? So it wasn’t just who my parents were putting on. Although, I was raised with really good music. My dad is a jazz fanatic. I was named after Ella Fitzgerald, down to the middle name: her name is Ella Jane Fitzgerald. [Laughs] My brother’s middle name is also Coltrane. I don’t know how my mom let him get away with that. [Laughs] I digress. So we just had a bunch of really good music playing in the house, but then once I started listening to my own music, it was a lot of Adele, Amy Winehouse, Regina Spektor, Ingrid Michaelson, stuff like that. And then, I think around the time I wrote “bored&blind”, I had just found Billie Eilish’s EP. That was a whole big thing; she was a big influence in writing that. I would say the kind taste I have now didn’t really come together until middle/end of high school, so it’s just really interesting to see that reflected in my earlier writing.
That’s really cool. And I’m sure, since you wrote that song three years ago, you never could have imagined it’d come out like this.
Yeah, never.
It seems like sort of an aggregate of your personal experiences in the last three years, which is awesome.
Yeah.
Who are you listening to now? Who has been influencing you more recently?
Now it’s funny because I listen to both a lot of indie-folk and then that sort of indie-pop thing. So sonically they are on kind of opposite ends of the spectrum, but I feel like what unites it all is the writing. I’m a huge Lorde fan, Phoebe Bridgers, Maggie Rogers, Frank Ocean, Harry Styles, all of that kind of stuff. It’s been kind of fun revisiting the bands that my parents tried to get us into when we were like four and we were like The Rolling Stones...what? [Laughs] But it’s been nice to get back into it and I think it’s more fun to rediscover things on your own, you know? Because then you can be like Oh, I actually like this, as opposed to it just playing in the car when I was seven. [Laughs]
Right! And you can look back and actually appreciate it a little more.
Yeah.
So with “bored&blind”, I know you’re working on a music video?
Yeah!
I would love to hear about the inspiration behind that!
Oh my God, I’m so excited! This is going to be my first music video, which is nerve-racking but very exciting. What’s funny about it is that I don’t think that all of me has ever really been on camera. When I was younger, I had this cover account and so people have seen me online torso up. Like, they all think I’m tall: I’m 5’3”, I am not tall. [Laughs] I think it’s going to be interesting! The music video is going to be really exciting; I don’t want to give too much away but we’re playing into some of the themes from the song. It’s just going to be really fun. It’s not narrative-heavy, I’m really excited to just do something kind of crazy visually because I feel like I hadn’t really had the opportunity yet to connect music to visuals. I’ve done it on my own a little bit; I’m really into art so I’ve done a lot of my own promo stuff in the past. But this is going to be the first opportunity to have a real video with a real visual, and to have a lot of fun with outfits and makeup and stuff, so I’m really excited!
That’s so exciting! That’s going to be really cool to put that out as your first music video.
Yeah, I’m so excited!
I love what you said about people having no idea how tall you are. [Laughs]
Uh-huh. [Laughs]
I feel like that is so real right now. Especially with your career specifically; you have four singles out and they’ve all been released within the past year. So considering the fact that no one is able to do live shows, what has your experience been like when you’re only able to connect with people online?
It’s very interesting because I don’t even mean to project a certain image of myself. A lot of people just think I’m tall which is very flattering. I posted a video with one of the people I live with here and she’s much taller and everyone was just like excuse me? [Laughs] I’m very flattered by it. But yeah, I think it’s going to be fun and a way for people to know me a little bit more and see me more as a person who can perform, and not just someone who takes videos of themself, you know?
For sure. So I know today you also have some more really exciting news besides the single; you were just signed to Fader! Congratulations!
Thank you so much!
How has that been? How are you feeling?
It’s been nuts! I’m so excited. I feel like I really wandered into great hands. It was kind of like a right time right place situation. Everything has been very strange to deal with considering I kind of started a career right over the course of the pandemic. So I haven’t really gotten that introduction to— forget about performing and being in the real world as a performer: I haven’t gotten to meet anyone really in the industry in person. So my entire past year has been over Zoom calls, even sessions and everything. It was really nice to have the first call with Fader. I was just sitting in my dorm room and it just felt like things came together. I feel like I’ve found my little niche and it’s going to be really exciting to team up with people I trust. And they want me to feel free to do what I want and put the version of myself that’s authentic out there, and that’s really exciting.
That synergy is so important, so that’s really great that you’ve found it. I like something you said earlier about doing everything over Zoom. You mentioned you’re also a student; have you found that it’s almost been more accessible for you to start your career this way? As opposed to something more normal?
Oh, 100%. I think TikTok honestly played a huge part in it. It’s weird to think about the last year as something overall positive, because I think it’s been so much happening all at once and there are obvious negatives. I’ve been very lucky that I’m healthy and my family is healthy, and that I have a place to be. Even being at school has been kind of nice. It’s just been so weird to experience everything happening just over Zoom basically because it’s kept it from feeling real, which is going to be interesting over the next year when I hopefully shows start coming back and I’ll get to meet people and exist in music in real life and not just on a screen. That’s something I haven’t really been introduced to yet. But I don’t know, none of this could have happened without it: without the free time and being at home for the rest of high school. I wouldn’t have gotten into promoting myself on TikTok which is something I was definitely afraid to do while in school. I was able to post things without worrying about going back the next day and being like I just posted on TikTok. [Laughs] I think it’s been, in a weird way, a right time right place situation. Everything just kind of checked out. I think I needed this amount of time for my music to get to where it is, both in production and writing. Things just kind of worked out in a weird way, which I feel really lucky to get to say about this year.
Congrats again on this release and on the past year! It’s been such an awesome ride to watch!
Thank you!
Before we wrap up, is there anything you have coming up that you want to share with those listening?
Just keep an eye out for releases in the future! I’m just really excited for everyone to hear this song and hopefully find more of an audience because I’m really — for the first time — excited about everything that I’m doing. I really feel like it’s totally me and I’m very excited!
Ella, thank you so much for being here! I really appreciate you taking the time!
Thank you for having me!