Ella Jane - This Is Not What It Looks Like! (2021) Hi-Res

Ella Jane debuts her EP "This Is Not What It Looks Like!" which features seven indie-pop songs.

Most everybody knows someone from high school who had big dreams about becoming a successful singer-songwriter. Ella Jane is what those high school dreams are made of. A girl from a community that seemed to convince her, as so many do, that “no one pursues anything creative because there’s no money in it,” now finds herself signed to a record label with her debut EP dropping today. Listening to her new EP “This is Not What it Looks Like!” clarifies that sometimes creativity wins and distinguishes what exactly makes Ella Jane stand out from the other dreamers out there.

“This is Not What it Looks Like!” is composed mostly of the prereleased singles which have already garnered Ella Jane over 650,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

When asked what differentiates her from other aspiring singer-songwriters, Ella Jane humbly admitted that she was on the track to be an English major and a music minor, so for her, lyrics are the most important part of a song. The vulnerability and the emotion she expresses in her lyrics reflect the kind of meaning that she believes makes music special.

“I was on the side of the building where there was no natural sunlight; I was facing the dumpster. I was holed up in this tiny room on Zoom calls all day,” she said, but described the moment when Jon Cohen, co-founder of the Fader Label, quoted a lyric from a SoundCloud demo of “The Sellout” as the realization that these people “really liked my music and got it — and got me.”

“It’s kind of hard to go into a room with some 30-year-old dude I’ve never met and be like: ‘Here’s my emotional trauma, let’s write about it,’ she said. “It’s been challenging but it’s been really valuable, I think.”