Meet Elis

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with ELIS below.

Hi ELIS , really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I grew up in a home where I was taught the importance of giving service to others. Both my parents were public servants: my dad worked for the government investigating criminal fraud, and my mom represented foster children removed from their parents for abuse and neglect. My older sisters studied science: one is working to become a physical therapist and the other received her doctorate in psychology and works as a therapist for children and families. I followed their example by volunteering at our church and organizing a drive for the homeless when I was in middle school.
Striving for excellence was another value modeled in our family, and an expectation I had for myself. As a child, I struggled to fit in and make friends. Since I did well in school, I threw myself into my schoolwork and relished the validation I received from teachers..
As soon as I learned to sing, I began writing songs. Growing up as a queer girl with undiagnosed autism caused me to feel very isolated, and writing about my own experiences helped me feel less alone. I used singing and songwriting as an outlet for the feelings of isolation and rejection I felt from my peers. My understanding of myself changed and I began to see myself as unique instead of broken. As I grew as a person and a songwriter, I realized that not only was music transformative for me but that it could also help others understand and process their own struggles and emotions.
Standing up for injustice was also a value very strongly modeled by my parents . I became active in public protests when I was in elementary and middle school, and was first exposed to protest music soon after. Protest music is a large part of who I am as an artist; I ao, to use art and music to make positive change in our world. I believe that I have a very real responsibility as a musician, a songwriter, and an artist to use my voice and my music as a force for social change. The music I write ranges from queer love songs to help gay girls like me feel less alone, to songs that raise awareness about the continuing mistreatment of women and other marginalized groups in society.
My path as a queer woman and an artist has been shaped by my upbringing and my experiences in the world. My purpose in life is to use music as a tangible tool for social change in any way I can.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My name is ELIS and I am a seventeen year old singer/songwriter and aspiring rockstar. My music is influenced by artists ranging from Florence and The Machine to David Bowie to Tina Turner to The Indigo Girls.
I grew up singing; encouraged as a young girl to sing in the church choir and in school musicals. I learned to play the piano – a graceful pursuit for a child who was loud, brash, and desperate to be heard. The piano was expected, but the guitar was not, and I grew fascinated by it. Curiosity triumphed over fear, and at the age of eleven I taught myself how to play my cousin’s old ukulele. Later, the cheap acoustic guitar sitting in my sister’s room caught my eye. By night, I stayed up late molding my fingers to the strings, and by day, tapped strumming patterns along the walls at school. I fell in love with the guitar and began writing the lyrics and melodies in my head.
I am now lucky enough to attend high school at Idyllwild Arts Academy, where I have been in the songwriting department for four years. I have delved into both classical and jazz theory, learning everything from sonata form to melodic minor modes. I have taught myself the electric bass, the cajon, and the drums in order to perform in my friend’s bands and arrange my own band for performances. In my junior year, I executed a full symphonic arrangement of my original song “Charcoal & Rum”. I won the “Contemporary Concerto Competition First Place Award”, and performed the piece successfully with a full orchestra. Last April, I was able to release my first single “Rearview” on all platforms with the help of the Idyllwild Arts Academy Arts Enterprise Laboratory Grant Program. Thanks to that same program, I will be releasing my debut album in May (keep an eye out for it). I am also grateful to have been accepted into the New York University Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, which I will be attending in the fall.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The number one quality that has helped me as a musician and an individual is optimism; a trait that is often overlooked and regarded as naiveté or ignorance. My decision to live life as an optimist is one of the bravest decisions I make every day. Instead of simply accepting the world as it is, my belief that things can be better has helped me see the world as it can be and work toward making it a better place. I believe in myself and in others and in our collective possibility to make real and lasting change. I refuse to give up hope that together, we can and will change the world.

If you are looking to grow as a creative, be as bold as you can. Keep reinventing yourself – a hundred or a thousand times if you need to. Explore every facet of who you are; pour every ounce of character and emotion into your art. Raw and honest feeling is the foundation of art and what draws us to creativity as human beings. Art and music allow us to be more than the average person and give us permission to be the personification of our heart and soul.

The foundation of my creative process is embracing hard work. The way I reach my goals is never giving up until they are achieved. However, hard work and self care go hand in hand; you’re not going to get anywhere if you’re sleep deprived, hungry and burnt out. In the age of the internet, it can be very discouraging to be an artist. On social media, progress and success seem to happen overnight; everyone is a prodigy and a viral celebrity. It is important to remember that behind every seeming overnight success are years and years of consistent hard work, practice and commitment

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

I think it’s extremely important to continue to expand your skill set. Never stop learning. If I only ever focused on my strengths in music, I would have never learned to play the guitar or the drums. My comfort zone was clear cut and simple: singing and writing lyrics. No one in my family played an instrument, and I had no lessons aside from piano as a child. Furthermore, if I stuck to what I knew I never would have learned production and music technology. I would still be standing back in studio environments, letting the boys in my class “handle it”. Your comfort zone does not always contain your greatest strengths. I would say that guitar and music technology are now some of my most important talents as an artist, yet they did not come to me naturally.

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Cierra Breeze

Jack Lue

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