FINDING HOME: ELLIS’S ‘NO PLACE THAT FEELS LIKE’
Photo by Stephanie Montani @bystephm on IG
Singer/songwriter Linnea Siggelkow, currently based in Hamilton, ON, began our interview with an intriguing anecdote. She shared how Swedish botanist Carl Linneaus had a penchant for naming the most captivating plants and flowers, naming his treasured favorite after himself, Linnaea Borealis. Linnea also named her own plant, Ellis. Faced with the challenge of a hard-to-pronounce name and an imminent show, she cleverly embraced the alias Ellis, a play on her initials (L.S.).
After diligently sowing seeds, she has reaped an enchanting sophomore album, no place that feels like, which blossomed on April 26th. This 11-track record can be likened to a delicate flower, unfurling its petals with each track, some of which carry a haunting beauty. Ellis’s sound, characterized by various elements of dream-pop, folk, and indie, makes each song a unique bloom, offering a glimpse into her personal journey and innermost thoughts.
So, tell me, what’s going on in your life right now? Is music full-time? Are you working?
I teach piano and guitar as my main income source these days. Pre-pandemic, I was starting to ramp up a little bit with Ellis, and I was touring more. I had been working a bartending job, which I had quit to do music full-time… but this was in 2019 and then things obviously got weird, so I started teaching over the pandemic, and I really enjoy it.
How has your journey as Ellis been since making music in 2018?
I had sort of played in some other bands before, but Ellis was my first real project that was all mine. I started playing shows, and then I made an EP with my friends. We put it out and it got some attention on the internet. Then, I signed a record deal, made a record, and was touring. The record came out in April of 2020, which was just such a crazy time. I had a year of tours lined up, which were all obviously canceled - it felt like everything was crashing and burning. It took me a while to figure out what the next move was. It felt like I had to start all over again, so I’ve just been slowly putting this record together. Now I feel ready to give it another proper go.
The setbacks due to the pandemic were definitely frustrating, but it’s incredibly exciting that you’re gearing up to release more music and that everything worked itself out in the end. Growing up, was music always a central part of your life? Were there other experiences or interests shaping you? Do you recall a specific “coming to music moment”?
I started playing classical piano when I was about four, so music has always been a part of my life in that way. Then, when I saw the music video for Avril Lavigne’s song “Complicated,” it really changed everything for me. In my own life, I hadn’t yet experienced seeing a young girl playing electric guitar and making rock music. After that, I saved up all my babysitting money, bought a guitar, and started playing. I also grew up in the church, and played in the worship band - that was a lot of my early experience playing music. As a teen, I would write songs and record them in Garageband, keeping them on my own little secret SoundCloud. It was always just for myself. Eventually, I ended up going to school for political science because I didn’t really think that I would ever share my music in the way that I have now. It was always a very private thing to me. It took me quite some time to feel like I could perform and release my own music, but now, I can’t imagine it any other way.
So, even though your own music was a private thing to you growing up, did you ever perform on stage at Church with the worship team?
Yeah, totally. I loved it, I just have such complicated feelings about worship music now, but it was a really good experience. Even just realizing how you can create a feeling that people respond to through music. It was definitely a valuable experience as a musician.
The first thing that stood out to me was the cover of no place feels like. It definitely gives a hint of moodiness. What is the meaning behind the album cover?
It’s actually my bedroom. We took everything off the walls for it. I think the record is all about the concept of home and feeling like you belong somewhere. I had made a mood board that had photos of a lot of desolate places, and realized that this feeling of loneliness was a reccuring theme. I thought it would be really cool just to have a picture of an empty bedroom, my empty bedroom, which is where I write a lot of my music too. I wanted it to seem like a room that is lived in, but doesn’t settled, almost like a liminal space
There are 11 tracks on the album, do you have a favorite one?
Yeah, totally! There’s one that’s especially precious to me. It’s funny because I've been sharing the record with my close friends over the past few months to see what their favorite songs are, and I think almost every song from the tracklist has been chosen except for this one song. Sometimes I really labor over songs and I’m very intentional with putting it all together, but with this particular song, I was in the thick of a feeling, and it sort of came all at once. I never changed it, and it's just very special when that happens. It felt like it was just this little moment in time and this very real feeling that lives so viscerally in this song. It’s called “Balcony Hymn”.
You have described your music in the past as emo dream-pop. Would you still describe your sound this way? Were there any artists that influenced your sound on this record?
I never totally know how to answer this question. I still feel like it's a good umbrella, but this record especially is a little all over the place genre-wise. There’s a little stripped-down folky song, there's some kind of crazy more electronic songs, there are string arrangements, and there's some more straightforward pop songs. I guess I tend to use a lot of synth pads, reverbs, and atmospheric soundscapes which gives it that dream pop feeling. Also, I tend to write the most when I am feeling something deeply, so I feel like there is a certain sadness that attaches itself to the songwriting, which is where the emo part comes in. Plus, I grew up loving emo music. I wouldn't call myself an emo artist, but there’s obviously the influence of that.
Do you have any artists that you are currently listening to that you think inspire the sound that you're creating?
Truthfully, when I'm writing, I try to avoid listening too much to contemporary music because I don't want to be too influenced. For me, the song always begins with the lyrics and the story I’m trying to tell. Then, the arrangement of the music is usually crafted around the lyrics, serving as a sort of soundtrack for that story. It feels more like scoring a film in my head than trying to emulate any specific sound. However, there are artists that I admire that I have drawn inspiration from. When I was writing this record, I was listening to a lot of 90s female singer-songwriters because I like the emotional storytelling, artists like Sarah McLachlan and Sixpence None the Richer. I don’t know if there is any direct influence, but their songwriting is definitely something that I admire and nod to, whether intentionally or not.
Ellis's journey beautifully exemplifies resilience and creativity in the face of adversity. no place that feels like stands as a testament to her unwavering dedication to her craft, and highlights her exceptional talent as a songwriter. Dive into the album now on all streaming platforms and explore Ellis's "Current Rotation" playlist on Spotify for a glimpse into some of her current favorite songs.
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