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Ellisa Sun

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With a new EP due next week, our favorite soulful, soul-baring singer/songwriter Ellisa Sun is sharing her latest single, “Just A Little More,” with TrunkSpace. Come for the song, stay for the chat below!

TrunkSpace: We spoke earlier this year. Are you in a different mindset – creatively, emotionally – than you were when we chatted back in May?
Sun: Absolutely. I’m still the same person, of course, but I feel like I’ve learned a lot over the past year and a half. I’ve grown not just as an artist, but as a businesswoman. And I’ve built a band I’m insanely proud to have. I’ve learned to collaborate and create this EP with my band from the ground up. With my first album “Moon & Sun” (released in April of last year), the songs were pretty much written and arranged ahead of time. With this EP, I worked with my band to create five pieces of intricate music, inspired by my personal experiences with love and loss. Emotionally speaking, I haven’t changed much – I’m still the crazy person I was back in May! But I have been lucky enough to find a partner since May, Ken Michienzi, who serves as my rock through the insanity of navigating the music industry and touring the USA in a 30-ft RV.

TrunkSpace: How do those creative and emotional changes directly relate to your new single “Just A Little More,” which we are premiering here today?
Sun: I’ll just go ahead and be super open with you: I wrote “Just A Little More” when I was first dating Ken, my current partner. When I first started dating Ken, I wasn’t totally sure what I wanted. I knew I liked him, but I also wanted my freedom. I was conflicted, and I talked to a lot of my friends about it. Nowadays, with all the dating apps and the ability to pick up a person with a single tap of your finger on a screen, it’s easy to throw people away. I was afraid of getting hurt. I was afraid to take the leap and admit I liked him. Suffice it to say, it worked out and we’re together still! But, this song is about that chaos of being afraid to admit your true feelings for someone.

I wrote the song and brought it to my band while we were on a band retreat in Watsonville, CA. We had the weekend to hang out by the beach and it was a beautiful and peaceful place. The song came together over the course of a day, as my band members added their parts organically. Over the next few months, the song grew even more into what it is today! This is a testament to the creative changes I’ve made over the past year and a half. We worked together as a group, and this is something I’ve always wanted: a harmonious band that communicates effectively, works hard, and creates fearlessly.

TrunkSpace: The single is from your upcoming EP of the same name, due September 21. Would you say this is a new chapter in your creative life, and if so, what does the EP say about who you are as an artist in 2018?
Sun: Well, here’s the sad part of all this “harmonious band” talk: my band broke up after we created this EP. Nothing bad though! One member needed a break to focus on his family, one moved to New York, and as for me: I was ready to leave the Bay Area. It’s all good – I’m so grateful we ended things peacefully, there was no drama and we still keep in touch (we’re even doing a full-band reunion tour in Boston, NYC, Philly, and DC at the end of September!)

I left 1 month ago to embark on a year-long tour in my 30-ft RV with Ken. This is DEFINITELY a new chapter in my creative life, because I no longer have my band. I am being forced to focus on my craft alone, with Ken to play the Cajon for me, which is really nice. But I’m being challenged to improve my guitar skills and songwriting.

The EP is both a showcase of me and my band’s hard work, and a sort of “time capsule” of my life in the Bay Area since this was our last project together before taking a break. I’m using this solo tour as a time of reflection, to figure out what I want next: where I want to live, what types of sounds I want to create, and how to make a full-time living off my music – cause I am hellbent on making that happen!

TrunkSpace: You and your band self-produced the EP this time around. How did that change the process of recording for you? Did having more creative control mean having more of your vision take shape?
Sun: Absolutely. We wrote, arranged, rehearsed, produced and recorded these songs over the course of a year. This is VERY different from “Moon & Sun,” which was recorded at a studio over the course of four days. I wrote three of the five songs, but the other two were started by Niko, my bassist, and Chuck, my guitarist. The songs would start out as one idea and end as another. We had the time to play around with ideas, throw out new ideas, throw away ones we didn’t like, and start over if we had to. We kept shared Google Docs with notes and ideas, rehearsed at least twice a week, and made sure we were all on the same page. It was truly a collaborative labor of love.

TrunkSpace: Last we spoke we referred to your music as “sexy.” Will that sexy vibe carry forward into the new EP?
Sun: (Laughter) Me calling my music “sexy” was a joke at first – I use that adjective too much and my bandmate Niko made fun of me, so I (of course) kept doing it. To me, “sexy” doesn’t necessarily mean the cliché, slow jam, baby-making music you hear on your local late night radio. Rather, it’s a word to describe music that makes you feel something. Sometimes that feeling is emotional – it brings you back to a certain place or time. Sometimes it’s physical – it makes you want to move your body or it gives you the chills. Other times it’s mental – it sparks questions you’d never had before.

But I do want one of my songs to result in a baby being conceived. Just saying. That’s a real goal of mine.

Photo By: Ken Michienzi

TrunkSpace: We also spoke about the various styles and influences we heard in your music. Did you try to bring anything uniquely new to this project, sonically or lyrically, that you never tackled before?
Sun: Yes! A lot of this is EP is new sonically and lyrically. Compared to “Moon & Sun,” this EP is a lot more upbeat. The songs make you want to move and sway a bit more. Sonically speaking, we experimented with tons of sounds. Quincy, my drummer, tried a bunch of different percussion instruments. David, my keyboard player, tried out piano, synth, and organ sounds with the songs. All of the guys were fabulous singers and came up with their own backup vocal lines.

We created A LOT of demos, test mixes, and versions of the songs before we settled on the final arrangements. I also had the pleasure of working with two horn players, Dan and Ethan, who work really well together and created some truly delicious horn lines in all of the songs. I even sing in Spanish in one of the songs, “Chaos”, with my guitarist Chuck! I speak Spanish and I generally want to sing more in Spanish, but haven’t had the chance until now.

TrunkSpace: When you’re choosing the first single, do you pick the track that you personally enjoy most? The track you think will be the most accessible to a mass audience? What is the formula you use when making that decision?
Sun: I chose the track that is the most representative of the band. “Just a Little More” shows off our band’s many talents and it’s my personal favorite. I have a deep emotional connection to this song because of where it came from and how it grew with the band. It’s easy to sing along to, and hopefully my audience will enjoy singing along to it! Since I’ve been on the road, I’ve played a lot of house shows where the crowd is intimately listening to every word. So I’ve incorporated a lot of sing-alongs with the song, where the crowd sings some “ooos” and the chorus line “break your little heart”. It’s been so much fun!

TrunkSpace: What are you most proud of with the new EP?
Sun: I’m definitely proud of how collaborative it was. We created the songs together and we did the legwork to finish them. It feels so good to know your music came from a place of peace, a place of true love. It wasn’t just some guys I hired to play the chords I wrote, and there was no drama about who gets to play what. We made it together.

TrunkSpace: Do you place expectations on yourself and your music when you release something into the world? Does the “Just A Little More” EP or the single of the same name have personal goals attached to them that you hope to achieve?
Sun: I absolutely place expectations on myself. Ken can attest to that – he has to deal with my constant self-deprecation. I’m incredibly proud of this EP, and therefore terrified to release it into the world. I’m scared of people saying negative things about it, or telling me what I should or shouldn’t be doing in the music business as a result of this EP. But I always try to remember that I’m following my heart and my dream for MYSELF, not for anybody else. I am doing this because I love it and it makes me feel alive.

As a personal goal for the EP, I want people to feel connected to the songs and relate to the lyrics. This EP is all about love: the chaos of love and the payoff of all the ups and downs. All I want is for people to feel something from my music and share it with people they love.

TrunkSpace: Time machine question. If you could jump ahead into the future 20 years to get a glimpse at how your career played out over the next two decades, would you take that trip? Would you want to know how things ultimately work out, and if not, why?
Sun: This is a very difficult question! I would say, yes. If someone offered me the chance to travel through time, why the hell wouldn’t I?! If I wind up under a bridge homeless and living off dead rats because my music failed, I’d rather know now. And if I wind up living in an enormous mansion surrounded by servants and statues of pure gold, then I’ll know to keep on truckin’.

Photo By: Ken Michienzi
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Ellisa Sun

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Artist/Band: Ellisa Sun

Website: www.ellisasun.com

Hometown: Seal Beach, CA

Latest Album/Release: Moon & Sun/April 2017

Influences: Amy Winehouse, Lake Street Dive, Lauryn Hill, Norah Jones, Alabama Shakes

TrunkSpace: How do you describe your music?
Sun: Ah, such a difficult question! When people ask me this question I generally say “jazz/soul”. My band and I create a sound that’s equal parts easy listening and rockin’. Let’s say Norah Jones and Alabama Shakes had a baby, but then the baby was raised in a chaotic household by Amy Winehouse and Lauryn Hill. The baby was also heavily influenced by her godmothers Alicia Keys and Brazilian singer Elis Regina. Simple enough, right?

TrunkSpace: When we first heard the remix for “Past Noon,” we said to ourselves, “This is has a very sexy vibe to it.” After listening, we went to your Twitter page and saw in your self-description section that you wrote, “I make sexy music.” We were right! Do you view “sexy” as a genre or is it a component of what you create?
Sun: This question makes me so happy. I constantly use the word “sexy” to describe how I want my music to sound, and it drives my bass player Niko crazy. He literally just gave me shit a couple months ago and said, “You need to come up with adjectives other than ‘sexy’ to describe music!” Now my band and I try to use the word as much as possible. I grew up listening to a lot of R&B/Neo-Soul, which is the sexiest music. Lauryn Hill’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” and Alicia Keys’ first album “Songs in A Minor” were the first CDs I bought, and the element of sexiness is undeniable. The feeling I get from listening to R&B/Neo-Soul heavily influenced my musical tastes. In my opinion, “sexy” is both a genre and a component of what I create. It’s a way to describe music that really turns people on (figuratively, of course), and everyone has different ideas of what that means. It’s that moment when you’re watching or listening to a performance and you say “UH!” or physically respond with your body without being aware of it.

TrunkSpace: We can hear so many different styles of music within your own signature sound. Is bringing in those different elements a conscious effort or is what we decipher just a natural blending of who you are creatively?
Sun: It’s definitely not a conscious effort. Lately this has felt like both a problem and a gift – my band and I are influenced by many different types of music, and we want to convey that in our performances. As I continue to “build my brand” and navigate the music business on my own (I am my own manager, publicist, etc.) a lot of people have told me to pick one genre and stay there for continuity and success. I understand this perspective, but have a difficult time putting it into motion since I’m so passionate about simply creating the best art that I can, and sometimes that art doesn’t fit into one box.

TrunkSpace: Are you comfortable in your own songwriting skin? If so, can you pinpoint the moment you found your voice?
Sun: Here’s a fun fact about me: it was my dream to be a singer and musician since I was 10 years old, but I didn’t start writing songs or singing in front of people until I was 23. I’m 29 now, so I still feel like this is only the beginning. My songwriting is an ever-evolving process, and I think it will continue to be a process for the rest of my life – and that’s the beauty in it! If I was done growing, then my music wouldn’t grow.

TrunkSpace: What does your writing process look like? How does a song go from inception to
completion?
Sun: Usually I write my songs on guitar, coming up with a melody and lyrics either at the same time or separately. When I feel comfortable performing it, I’ll play it for my band and they add parts. It’s truly a collaborative effort and takes lots of open minds, communication, and love. Quincy (drums), Niko (bass), Ethan (trombone/trumpet), Daniel (saxophone), Chuck (lead guitar), and David (keys) are such talented, creative, hilarious guys and I am so, so lucky to have them – we work together really well and we truly have fun! After several rehearsals and lots of trial and error, we decide it feels ready and we perform it live to get a pulse on how people respond. Then we go back to rehearsals and make changes as necessary.

Late last year and in 2018 we’ve started writing songs a little differently – right now we’re working on a song that started with a guitar part Chuck wrote, and a song that started with Niko writing the chord progression and feel.

TrunkSpace: What is your favorite part of the songwriting process? What gives you the biggest thrill?
Sun: I’d say there are two favorite parts for me: The first is when I finish the song on my own – when I sing and play it on guitar and it feels more or less complete. The second is when I bring it to my band and they start adding their parts/ideas. Watching them play around with parts at the beginning of the process is so much fun because they’re not taking themselves too seriously and they’re simply feeling the “sexiness” of it.

TrunkSpace: Many songwriters have said that the process is a bit like therapy for them. Do you find that to be the case with your own songwriting?
Sun: Absolutely. I feel so lucky to have found songwriting as a form of therapy. I think everyone needs something to process their crazy, whether that’s singing or dancing or writing or drawing or running or knitting or playing Scrabble. Songwriting is a way to get something out of me. If I didn’t have it, I’d probably be locked up in a room somewhere.

TrunkSpace: Creative people are infamous for being extremely hard on themselves in the creative process. Does that apply to you, and if so, where are you hardest on yourself?
Sun: Ah, yes. This most definitely applies to me. I wish I wasn’t so hard on myself sometimes but I think it’s been built into me – might have something to do with my childhood but that’s another story! I tend to be hardest on myself when I first perform a new song in front of my friends or bandmates. I’m always critical of the quality of writing and my vocals, and I worry a lot about what people will think. We all have our inner critic, and mine is definitely mean sometimes, but I try to use it to make my music better and improve my work.

Another fun fact about me: I have several day jobs to make ends meet – I’m a Yoga instructor and a private voice coach. I am essentially running three businesses at once: my music, my yoga classes and my voice classes. One of my best friends has recently become a yoga instructor too, so we often swap stories and techniques (if you would like to know more about what it takes to complete yoga teacher training, head to https://www.siddhiyoga.com/become-certified-yoga-instructor). I am incredibly busy and running around from job to job, and it can be very difficult to make time for my music. My inner critic tends to make its way into my brain during those moments, telling me I’m not working hard enough or doing enough for my art. But alas, I must work to make ends meet, especially in the expensive Bay Area.

TrunkSpace: You released your debut album “Moon & Sun” about a year ago. Are you creatively a different person than when you wrote those songs? Has your musical POV changed?
Sun: Wow, I can’t believe it’s been almost a year! I don’t think I’m a different person now, but I do think I’ve grown creatively a great deal over the past year. I’ve been taking some of the Guitar Lessons Austin has on offer to improve my chops. One of my biggest idols is Lianne La Havas (if you don’t know her you better look her up NOW!) and she is a badass guitarist in addition to singer/songwriter. I’ve been listening to a lot of her music and hoping to get to that level someday. It’s also important to me that I stay a good guitarist because I play a lot of solo shows in addition to full band shows. I’m also collaborating with a couple producers on electronic music. Meanwhile, my band is more solid than ever, and it feels so good to have a group of people dedicated to my music.

TrunkSpace: What do you want people to take from your music? What messages do you hope they uncover and decipher in a way that they can apply to their own lives?
Sun: Above all, I want people to be inspired by my music. I honestly never thought I’d have the guts to do what I’m doing now. When I was growing up, the thought of singing in front of people paralyzed me with fear. But it was my dream to share my voice. I finally found it, and I hope my fans can find theirs too. Whether “finding your voice” means to literally write a song and sing it yourself, or maybe just finding some other creative outlet for yourself, do it. Don’t doubt yourself – just “jump and the net will appear!”

That’s not my saying by the way. (Laughter) I believe that’s some famous quote from someone I can’t remember right now. (Laughter)

Music has always been a really cathartic tool for me to process what I’m feeling – you can go to a therapist, talk to your friends, or drink as much alcohol as you want, but nothing helps me work through my thoughts and feelings more than listening to a really good song or album. I hope my music can do that for people.

TrunkSpace: What can fans expect from Ellisa Sun for the rest of 2018?
Sun: Big, big things are coming in 2018! I don’t want to disclose too much, but let’s just say I’ll be doing A LOT of touring in 2018. Right now me and my band are recording a 5-track EP entitled “Just A Little More”. We hope to release it by the summer. Stay updated with me by following me on all the things – i.e. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – to know exactly what I’m doing and where I’ll be.

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