Singer-songwriter Brynn Elliott sits down with Variance’s Ethan Ijumba to discuss her musical hiatus, growth as an artist, and the release of her new EP CAN I BE REAL?, which is available now via Atlantic Records at all DSPs and streaming services.
CAN I BE REAL? explores themes of authenticity, honesty and freedom,” says Elliott, “all the while communicating those core themes of empowerment that I’m always seeking to write into my songs. However, this time around, it all hit closer to home during the writing process”. Additionally, with the release of CAN I BE REAL? the EP features a series of upcoming US live dates and Elliot's headlining Can I Be Real Tour, which begins September 13th at Washington, DC’s Union Stage and then makes stops in major markets across the country through early October. For complete details and ticket information, visit her website. Be sure to read the full Q+A discussion below.
Ethan Ijumba:
So you're Brynn Elliott, the girl who came upon the scene in 2014, released to GPS, signed to Atlantic, and also with Chapman in terms of songwriting. So originally you were born and raised in Atlanta at the same time, you were transporting between Nashville to write and then Massachusetts to attend school, now based in Los Angeles. How has the experience of traveling and seeing so many different places, states, and cities influenced you as an artist?
Brynn Elliott:
Wow, I love that question. I think it's influenced me in so many ways. It's been really cool to see how geography shapes what kind of music is being made. So I grew up in Atlanta, where I heard Usher, who was a big deal in Atlanta, and Justin Bieber came under his wing at the time when I was a teenager in middle school and high school, so I was fascinated by pop music, and I loved that growing up. Then I went to school and started traveling to Nashville, and that's a whole other thing with country music, just like every songwriter. So, my love for pop was inspired in Atlanta, and then I think Nashville really made me a songwriter and challenged and pushed me.
EI:
With that being said. Is there any artist you grew up listening to that impacted and influenced your career as an artist and person?
BE:
Totally. So, for me, my influences are kind of, they're kind of all over the place. I loved women in pop music from listening to Kelly Clarkson and Alicia Keys and just felt like these women with these very interesting and powerful voices were inspiring me, and that's what I listened to. Then my mom took me to a park that's right out of our backyard to a Brandi Carlile show when I was 17. Brandi makes Americana music, and it's something so different from the music I was making, but I just loved her power and her performance and how she had very thoughtfully crafted this show. I didn't know at the time that I was an artist, but I remember watching her and thinking, whatever that is, I want to do my version of that. So whenever I'm playing live, I always come back to that moment, and then my dad took me on a road trip kind of at that same time and introduced me to all his favorite rock bands, prints, and all these artists that were pop and rock, and I loved this sort of idea of playing guitar and making pop music and being a pop artist but emphasizing instruments because I think instruments are so powerful.
EI:
So, within that time frame of having the opportunity to tour and meet Brandi, I know you also met and toured along with Grace Potter and Alanis Morrisette and a lot of iconic musical queens that have made a staple, not just women in music, but just music, period. Is there any advice you received from them as well that's stuck with you to make you think that this will be something to live by?
BE:
Yeah, for sure, both of those those ladies. Grace didn't necessarily say anything in particular, but she was just so free-spirited. I think it was just her energy, her spirit, she loves what she does, and I remember watching her sets and being like, I just want to enjoy it as much as Grace enjoys it. Then Alanis, I sort of blacked out when I met her. I was so excited and overwhelmed, but I do remember her saying, “Always be yourself, and that really will be your guide,” I think as I continue in the industry part of everything, I think that is the safest advice because you know when you're trying to grow your career and trying to do all this stuff it's hard. You're like, what can I do to make this continue, to connect, and I think the moments where I have come back to myself and say, “Okay, this is me”. Those are the moments that kind of keep me grounded and also keep me going.
EI:
To go along with what you mentioned before about finding and being yourself on your new single, “Letter To A Girl,” it represents and lyricizes the focus on personal identity, self-image, and just truly maintaining your roots and being connected to who you are not letting go to that person. Where exactly did you find the inspiration when composing that song specifically?
BE:
Yeah, So “Letter To A Girl” came from when I had gone on my first proper pop tour; I was opening for the boy band called Why Don't We, and they have these incredible fans, primarily teenage girls, and every night I was performing to thousands of these girls, and I was like, “okay these girls are very much here for these guys, but like what can I bring, what can I offer?” I just sort of watched them every night, and I'm like, they're me. I was that when I was a teenager, and I just saw so much of myself in them. Then I was going through this breakup right at the end of that tour, and I wanted to write a song about the things I wish I had known when I was that age, or what could I say to them that that I know now, and then I needed to hear as I was kind of going through heartbreak. Kind of coming back to that theme that I talked about a lot of my music, which is that beauty is this very expansive concept. I think we've sort of pigeonholed beauty to be how you look, and I think especially women have felt that just in terms of living up to certain beauty standards but living a beautiful life is so much more than I love makeup, but so much more than what you wear and your makeup and how it's like living a beautiful life is embracing each day and having a certain mindset. So that's the advice I want to give, and that's what I want to write, and so it's an ode to those girls for being a mirror to me, and I hope that the song means something to them too.
EI:
No, it’s true words because I feel like teenage girls or just teenagers, in general, are hard to get through to listen to; they really will only listen to those they look up to or those they want to be. So I think for you to do that is a major move because there will be these girls who are listening to your music and are already influenced by you and will realize what you're trying to tell them and hear it. They're not just listening to the song, but they're going to hear where you're coming from and hear what you're saying. So I think it's a major plus for you to have that since it gives somebody to connect to.
BE:
Thank you, and I owe so much to them because some of those girls who continue to follow me are my fans, and I wasn't about to release that song. I played it at one or two smaller shows that I played later in 2019, and with the pandemic, I wrote a bunch of music, and I was just thinking about how I wouldn't put out that song that meant a lot to me, but I don't think it means it's gonna mean anything that anyone else.
EI:
Kinda like it’s not a single, but it’s your personal favorite.
BE:
Yeah, my dad calls it like it's your little darling; it means something to you but might not to other people. But then I got I started seeing these comments on my TikTok and Instagram of people, and these girls were coming for me, and they were like, where's the song? Where is “Letter To A Girl”? They knew the title and everything, and this song was meant to be. I wrote this for them, and it is theirs, and they need it. So I was like, you know what? It's 2021, let's put it out.
EI:
With that being said, do you have a specific process or method for composing your music and just writing lyrics in general? Because I know that you derive a lot of influence from literature, poetry, and essays, but for you personally, when you translate them to songwriting, it does go hand in hand. I think some people lose that connection sometimes, and I feel that how you are as a person will relate to how you are as a songwriter. But do you have a specific method or process that you put yourself to get into the zone or just to have something flow out or how does this exactly go for you?
BE:
Yeah, I think, you know, my songwriting process is different every time, but the overarching theme is I read things that I hope to inspire me. So, I will read philosophy that I like, and I'll read novels and stories that I think are interesting and often will derive song concepts and ideas from there. So, for this next project, there's a song called, Can I Be Real? I ended up titling the whole project with that question. I was thinking a lot about the EP about perception and how the internet has affected our sense of self and beauty as I've talked about, but I was also thinking about this author that I read named Søren Kierkegaard, and he's now become one of my favorite philosophers, but he has this quote where he says, “the most common form of despair, is not being who you really are.” I think what I'm seeing on social media is kind of this hope or this desire to be who we are and for others to encourage. So i'm excited to put this project out because that is what it's about, and that's my process, just kind of like drawing and making observations of myself and the world around me, connecting it to what I'm reading, and I don't know if that process will change, but it's been a consistent thing now for a long time.
EI:
So, with that being said, how would you compare the differences and similarities between your debut project to your upcoming one? Was there anything you approached differently or anything that you didn't do before that you are trying now or anything new? Or is there anything specifically that you're looking forward to doing still?
BE:
Yeah, I love this question, so I would say that the two EP’s are comparable in that when I was writing my first EP when I was in college, a lot of the songs were about how I was feeling in school and derived from what I was reading. I think the themes are very similar. I'm talking about being myself in the first EP, and you know I'm not just a textbook people pleaser. So, Might Not Like Me is about being myself and not worrying about what this particular guy in my life was saying. So, that theme has carried over to this EP. I didn't necessarily plan to write about similar things, but I think it has shown me that these messages of being real and writing from that real place are what make me an artist. And so I think it's kind of showing me and hopefully showing everyone who listens to it that this is like laying the foundation for my artistic life and career. Also, I think I did diverge sonically, and I think that's going to continue. I mean both EP’s are still very much pop songs and song craftsmanship, but I did want this more live sound element to it. I wanted real guitars, and I wanted real pianos and synths to be featured in the production. So, as I'm writing more music this year, that's continuing and growing and becoming very, very important to me. In comparison, that first EP sonically was very pop and sort of more electronic pop. So, I would say that that's probably the biggest difference in the area of growth.
EI:
So let's take it back with the first act, originally you came onto the scene in 2014 you had your EP released a couple of years later, then travel and tour around. Then 2018, you had your first debut project titled, Time Of Our Lives. During that 2014 to 2018 time period, what was it like for you to develop, learn, and grow as an artist when it came down to that and the person you want to add to it?
BE:
So, at that time, I was writing. I had just gotten to Boston in 2014, and previously, I had just been writing songs with my guitar; that was my only sort of framework for writing songs. So the sound was girl singer-songwriter-esque; it was very folky. I thought it would be my lane because I loved Jewel, and I loved her philosophical mind, and I thought maybe that's where I wanted to go. Then I had a session with a guy named Nathan Chapman in Nashville, probably around 2016, and he sat me down. He said, "I've listened to your music and you're very philosophical, I can tell you think when you're writing in your words, and then he said what if we wrote like a dumb pop song today?" I was like, “Well, I don't want to write a dumb pop song, but I did just go through a breakup, so some kind of breakup anthem would speak to me." I think, secretly, I always really wanted to write pop music, but I thought I just wrote traditional songs on my guitar. But, the smartest music or this genre has changed the world, and it's technically pop, and it is some of the smartest music. And I think I realized that this day because that was the day I wrote “Might Not Like Me,” and I sang it, and it just changed my life. It was like, this feels so good with my voice, I love singing this. and I love this anthem aspect to it. After that, I was like, this is all I want to do now. I can't imagine myself doing anything else, pop music is so fun to make to simplify these big ideas in these universal human experiences, and try to communicate them in a pop song is a really hard intellectual task.
EI:
To follow that, from 2018 to 2021, you had kind of a three-year hiatus for yourself because we didn’t hear anything from you musically for a couple of years. But between that time was there any reason behind the delay of everything? And with that being said, how was it for you when you had that break?
BE:
So it's funny because I came off the road in 2019 with Why Don’t We, and then I just had more tours and more tours popping up, and there wasn't a lot of time or space for me to write. I was trying hard, and “Might Not Like Me” was on the radio, but I was just kind of pulled in all these different directions. So there came this point kind at the end of 2019 or fall where I was like, okay, I just need to go into the studio and just not to see anyone. I had met this girl named Michelle Buzz, who is a songwriter here in L.A., and she was the one who introduced me to a community of songwriters in L.A., and I remember having a meeting with my record label, and I said, “hey I just wanna go and write, cause I had I need songs, and I haven't written a whole project since college," and they were very supportive. So it took me like two months to write an EP. So, at the end of 2019, we had these songs chosen, but then we had to go finish them. So that was the beginning of 2020. I was finishing up these songs and I started hearing about this virus, China was experiencing this thing and I was like oh wow, that's it was terrible and then all of a sudden the world just started turning upside down...So I had this EP, but I can't imagine myself trying to do music videos in the summer and just can't imagine trying to promote this right now. I'm not in any mental state in the world isn’t like anyone, I believe my message of authenticity in beauty is important, but I don't think it was important last year because we were just going through so much and so I was like, I don't think it's time. I knew I had this video idea for “Tell Me I'm Pretty”, which was going to be the first song we released, we were able to make the video very safely in August of last year, and I was just like, I think this is a 2021 thing, and my team was supportive of that, and I had some personal things going, with family, health, and I lost my Grandpa in September, and it just was like one thing after the other, and I was like, I can't, I can't, I can't. It's like I'm writing a whole project about being real, and me being real at this moment, I’m unable to promote. So you have no idea how exciting it was to put out a song at the beginning of this year because as much as I decision to not, it was really sad for me; it was another thing that was hard just not feeling I could put out this music, but I'm grateful to be on the other side of that now.
EI:
So now, with everything in your career as a songwriter and an artist, everything is going forward. What are the plans you have now set for 2021? Because you released “Letter To A Girl,” and now we’ve gotten Can I Be Real? Is there anything else we can expect from you coming in the future?
BE:
Yes, there's new music coming and then the EP and all this stuff this year, and I don't plan on stopping releasing music for the rest of the year. So I'm just going for it and have a lot to say. Then, I'm hoping as folks continue to get vaccinated and the shows start happening, I'm going to be out there as soon as I possibly can; one of my goals pre-pandemic was to go on my own, my first headline tour, and we're planning that right now.
EI:
This past year was a big check-up on everybody to be like, okay, you still got it like this or that, but it all worked out. Everyone had a better turnout and learned something about themselves. Maybe some more than others, maybe not at all, but I think everyone has learned something from their 2020/2021.
BE:
Yeah, I love that, and I think back to your question about me not releasing for a while, I did write a whole project about seeking what is true and what is real and as a recovering people pleaser, I spent a year basically by myself, and I think I am more myself or I feel a freedom to be more myself than I ever have and it was really exciting to me. There's kind of some freaky cool timing of being able to release the EP kind of at the tail end of a year of isolation, and I do hope that people hear this project and they're like, yes, like I can be real because we just went through the realist thing that humans can go through. I'm just passionate and excited, and I hope that post-pandemic people feel like they can be their full selves in their lives, and I think it's going to be magical.