Welcome to the Song Saloon. I'm your host and resident singer songwriter Jordan Smith Reynolds. This is the 17th episode if you can believe it. I hope you've enjoyed getting to know these incredible artists. And today we have singer songwriter Elthia. Elthia creates indie pop music that leaves her listeners marveling at her wordplay and vibing to her ethereal, dreamy style. She enhances her artistic image by creating wearable art pieces using dripping candles. demitasse spoons.
Did I say that right?
Yeah.
demitasse spoons and skeletal claws all featured in her music videos in October, 2020. Elthia's debut Single, I love you, but you make me cry. Went viral, generating millions of streams and creating a fan base, eager for her following releases. Welcome Elthia!
Hi. Thank you so much for having me on the show.
Yeah, thanks for coming on again. actually one of the first artists that I ever interviewed. and then the song came out. Several months later. So we, we did the interview I think in January, and so since some time has passed, I thought we'd meet again and kind of give an updated version of what's going on and, and talk about the song a bit. First of all, what is demitasse? 'cause I don't know what that means.
It's like tiny spoons. So it's like, so what I did is so the demitasse spoons are for my song, Little Delights. So what I decided to do is, because I'm a classical guitarist, I really wanted to, in my artwork create all of these pieces that draw attention to my right hand because for a classical guitar I have to have my right hand nails much longer than my left hand nails. So I wanted to create some art pieces that were specifically for my right hand. So for I love You Beat Make me cry.
I made these rings that were like dripping candles and so for little delights. I took these little like spoons that were kind of like meant for stirring tea, these little dita spoons. And I created like some chains for them. And so for omen, I made another piece that was like these kinds of like skeletal claws I made out of clay. so I've just continued making these pieces for all of my. Releases so far actually, except for wildfire. I did something different for wildfire.
I actually, I wanted to, I'm still in the process of doing it actually. I really wanted to create some video content by making like miniatures. So I wanted to make a miniature of a cabin where the song wildfire takes place. And so I took a bunch of cardboard that was in my house and I made this little this little cabin. And so I'm gonna be creating some video content with that. But, uh, yeah, I don't know. I just really like to create all of these art pieces that go alongside all of my releases.
I love that so much. I think it's, it adds so much to. To the art too, to the music. It makes it mean so much more. So I think that's really cool. And wildfire is what we're talking about today. Could you give that a little introduction before we go to the live performance?
Yes, absolutely. So my song Wildfire is my fourth release. It was inspired by a dream I had of a little girl who was sitting on the floor of a cabin and she was looking outside and there was a wildfire blazing outside. And she was singing the line, I Am Broken Down Without You. And I kind of pictured that she was waiting for her mother to rescue her and that the rest of them, that the, the two of them would spend the rest of their day, of their days just like. Searching for each other.
that's what the song is about. It documents their journeys as they're looking for each other and just hoping that they will reconnect. So yeah, I hope you enjoy it.
All right. That was awesome. Thank you so much. I especially love how much you incorporate guitar with your background in classical guitar playing. And wildfire is really fun because it, it shows that so well, it showcases it.
Thanks so much. Yeah, I had a lot of fun, like making the guitar arrangement for it as well. In the recording I did, uh, a lot of like, these little kind of like guitar stick moments with harmonics. And I did some like little decorat like decorative moments where I really wanted to make the guitar sound like a harp. So I like went really, really close to the bridge and I played really, really high up on the guitar to kind of mimic that like harp, like brassy kind of feeling.
So yeah, I had a lot of fun doing that. And in the recording we did a lot of, I, I produced it with my boyfriend Charlie. And we went around our apartment and we found a lot of, like, sounds that we could incorporate into it. So for the percussion, like we banged our fists on my desk, the,
Huh.
like, we did that on my desk. He played a little bit of piano, but we sampled ourselves like closing doors and doing things like that. So yeah, we just like, Incorporated a lot of found sound percussion that we could do. We lit a match right in front of the microphone that is right in the first chorus.
When it says like, burn through the night, there's this little lighting match sound and so we just kind of wanted to incorporate a bunch of like beautiful details that we could find around our house. So yeah.
That's really
Thanks.
Yeah. What is the, there's like this consistent percussion
Oh, that's us. We were hitting our, um, Charlie and I went camping last year and we bought this like little camping mattress and he has it set up in his office. And so we so that, yeah, so what we do, what we did for that moment was we took some drumsticks and we hit the mattress with it.
Oh.
That was a, that was like the drumsticks on the mattress.
Amazing. I love hearing that, the production process was so involved too. And I'm a big fan of just things around the house, making it into like production sounds. I think that's super
Yeah, we had a lot of fun making it.
because we had started doing this demo process in January, and I think at the time you were thinking about releasing pretty soon was it mostly production elements that, that you wanted to, to really dive in and, and make, feel as strong as possible for releasing, uh, what, what do you
Yeah. absolutely. I think that as I continued to create, I had all of these other ideas that I wanted to incorporate, and I think that in my production, I really like to let. A song, sit for a minute and decide really what it needs and do a lot of experimentation before, kind of like moving forward. Um, especially because I think each of the sections are pretty different as well. So I did a lot of like guitar arranging and we had a lot of fun just like seeing what we could find.
So that's why I think it took like a little bit longer than expected as we just, like, we're continuing to experiment. So, yeah.
Great. And do you, and Charlie, do you do the, the mixing and mastering for it as
Charlie, did the production and he did the mix, and then I had a different mastering engineer.
great. with Wildfire, you mentioned this story came from a dream you had. let's get into that a little bit more too. I haven't written much. from, from a dream before, but I think that that has happened in the past with a lot of famous songwriters and I'd, I'd love to hear about your process there.
Yeah, well I really liked the. Uh, idea of the album Folklore by Taylor Swift. I haven't actually listened to it because, I read in this book called Steal Like an Artist, where the author Austin Cleon talks about this one artist that like listened to a band when he was younger and then he wrote a bunch of songs of like what he thought that Ben's new album was going to be like. And so when I heard. About Taylor Swift's folklore.
I was like, it would be really interesting to just write a bunch of like ghost stories and like folk tales and things like that, and then just set them to music. And so what I did was I wrote down 14 titles that I thought sounded really interesting. And then I've been writing to each of them and creating different stories. And so I've written about half of them. And so I've released a couple so far. So. Wildfire is one, and omen is also another one.
So those two will belong on this project eventually. And so yeah, that's kind of like the concept for the project, but wildfire did come from this dream that I had of this little girl that was just sitting on the floor and she was looking outside and she was just singing, I'm Broken Down Without You. And that's where the melody came from as well.
I came from this dream which I, I don't know that a lot of people like hear melodies and dreams, but I. I started to like sing to myself before I went to bed around that time. And then I would wake up and think about these melodies. And I think that writing melodies can be a really challenging part of songwriting, like writing something that is catchy, yet unique. So when I think that having heard something in a dream relieved a lot of the pressure.
And so I really enjoyed doing that when that it doesn't happen as often anymore. But, uh, I think like around that time it was happening pretty often and I really liked the melody that came out that, so, um, I really wanted to incorporate that into the song. So,
Cool. And I love the thought of it being a, a practice. As well. Like it wasn't just, oh, boom, a dream happened And you got a melody. It was, you were, you were kind of practicing for that to happen. I love seeing that behind
yeah,
for it. So if you're wanting your inspired songwriting dreams, uh, that's some good advice. Sing to yourself if we're going to
yeah. Try it. It works out. I should try again. Yeah.
Yeah. I, I would love to do that. It really does relieve the pressure And something else that I think relieves the pressure from a songwriting standpoint. Is that you can pursue just what's interesting to you, right? Like, I think we always feel so tied to like, Oh. we have to be authentic and honest and we have to it has to be something from a raw experience. And, and then you get songwriters that go and make their lives awful because they wanna have something to write about and
Yeah. I've never been a person that believed that or encouraged that. I think a lot of, I think people feel that way, but I think of it like the way the authors write fiction and nonfiction. It's like, you know, you can write either one of them. It's like your song doesn't have to be, I. An actual, particular experience that you've had. You can write something and then use your real feelings.
It's kind of like, you know, yeah, you can talk about your breakup or you can talk about your breakup in a world of dragons and fairies, and that is something that I would read instead. So do you know what I'm saying? It's kind of like you can use your real feelings, but make them in a fantasy world, and I really enjoy that idea. So I would prefer fiction instead of nonfiction.
So I don't really subscribe to the idea that everything has to be a hundred percent authentic in order for it to be, in order for it to exist at all.
Yeah, I think that really is the, the criteria is it has to be interesting to you. And if it's, I mean, if it's, if you're just doing something 'cause you feel like you should, you're not gonna get a great result. And also talking about that, like I heard a songwriter talking about, I think it was Bridget Kearney who's in Lake Street Dive. Um, Bridget Kearney was talking about how if the lie tells a truth better than the truth, like go with the lie as you're writing, you know,
Oh, that's interesting
which I thought was kind of fun. yeah, it's like you were saying, you know, if you had a real experience and then you bring in dragons and kind of like a, you know, more fantasy element to it that makes it fun for you to write. That's what's important.
I wrote, I love you, but you make me cry about an onion. So I mean, it's like, you know, it was a fun songwriting challenge, but like of course I've felt those feelings before and I think that like that was the thing that I incorporated into the song. And I think that like that is the most important part, is that it is. Something that like you can draw some experience from, but it doesn't have to be a concrete, actual experience. This did happen to me.
I think it can just kind of exist and you can, you as the artist get to create whatever reality you want.
Yeah, and what I think is so interesting about wild. Fire in that case is like, you don't have that personal experience of being, you know, in a, I imagine in a burning
I don't,
right. Okay. So,
that.
yeah. But I can tell you're extremely connected to the song while you sing it.
Yeah. I really wanted, so the song is about a mother and daughter being separated after a wildfire, crosses their home. And so really the. The storyline is that like the mother is gone and the daughter's at home. The wildfire comes, the daughter leaves the home, and then the two of them are like searching for each other. The mother eventually comes back to the home and sees she's not there, and so the mother is waiting for the daughter at the cabin and the daughter's out looking for her mother.
So the two of them are just like always. Missing each other in a way. And they are always questioning whether the other person's dead and they're just not sure. So it's they both take different approaches to like finding each other, but it's a lot about like grief and it's about not receiving closure when something happens, especially like a sudden death of a person, whether or not that person is alive. It's kind of like the continuous heartbreak of questioning as well as.
Like the sudden grief, the lack of closure, and the hope that the person that you love is still out there. So I wanted to incorporate all of these feelings and this connection between this mother and daughter that I imagined.
Yeah, and those are all things that. Everyone has experienced. So I think that's why people can relate so strongly to, to a story like
Thank you. That means a lot to, to your thought. Thank you so much.
yeah, of course. Um, the, the lack of closure I think is really interesting in the song too. cause it just ends with the "I'm broken down. I'm broken down.
Yeah. the thing is like, I, I really liked this, this quote about songwriting. Um, I think it's a quote from Taylor Swift and it was, Songwriting is like putting a picture frame around a feeling I once had, and I really like that in particular, that idea that it's like a picture frame, it's a moment. It doesn't have to, it doesn't take place at the very beginning of a story, and it doesn't take place at the very end of a story.
Like the thing is, you know, in this story of wildfire, it's like they are still looking for each other. It's not that they eventually find each other or don't find each other, it's that it is really just a picture frame of this moment of where they're like, I am broken down without you.
And so do you have songs like this that are coming out that are more kind of, uh, writing Taylor Swift's folklore album? Elthia version
I do have a couple. So I have, um, so there's 14 songs and so, um, I have another song called Dusk that is one of them. And then I have another song called The Mirror that is one of them. So they all exist in pieces so far. Um, there's a couple that are done, but eventually the whole project will come out and I'm really excited for it and I really want to do my best to create a world. For each of them. I think of these songs as different character pieces.
I think of a lot of my songs as like all of these different character pieces, and I am the storyteller.
Yeah. And this, this record you're coming out with, are these all kind of based on that, that idea of writing from the perspective of kind of like folk songs and things, or did you have other Yes, it is. That's
Yeah. They all kind of take place in this particular magical world where, uh, there's like these kind of ghost stories and unexplained events and things like that, and some of them are much more like, I have some sweeter love songs in there, and then I have some like, Really heavy mythological stuff in there, uh, because I really just love the idea of creating this world where all of these songs can exist and it's between the worlds of fantasy and reality.
Yeah. Fantasy does seem to be a pretty important piece of, of your music that you've released. mentioning that you have a song called Oman that came out and you had this, uh, choose your own adventure
Yes.
Let's talk about that for a second.
Oh, I love that. I'm so happy you mentioned that because I really loved that game. So, um, I, I loved this game on YouTube called Haircut by a creator named, uh, Neil Riga. And so he made the potter puppet pals like, A bunch of years ago, but he, he made some other videos, but he made this one called Haircut and it was a Choose Your Own Adventure game.
And I was like, I bet a choose your own adventure game would work really well nowadays on like TikTok or Instagram because with all the short form video and where you can click on a comment and go to the next video, I was like, I bet this could work pretty well. Um, so I made the omen choose your Own Adventure Game. So it starts and you see. A figure in the woods and they urge you to follow. And so you can choose, follow or run away.
And so if you choose follow, it's like, you know, it takes you to this layer of monsters and you can fight them or you can make peace. And, you know, if you run away from the monster, then it's like, you know, oh, you find this necklace, do you take it? Do you leave it? And so like I have all of these kind of like fantastical elements in it. I had a couple friends play some characters and uh, I had a lot of fun like creating it. And I, I also, uh, I had a lot of.
Fun. each of the video series are like, it ends up being four videos, whatever path you take. So there are, I think, eight different endings. And so, each one of them has like a points category at the end of all of your achievements. And so I had a lot of fun like writing those things. And, uh, yeah, I really, I, I loved the omen game. That was my marketing for that song and uh, I had a great time.
I really loved just like creating that that's kind of the fantasy world that I really want all of my work to exist in. Like that is really it.
That's really cool. do you have plans with wildfire like social media plans around that? What, what does that look like?
I think so far a lot of my wildfire plans revolve around the miniatures that I'm making, so we'll see what I come up with. But that is pretty much like what I've been doing right now. I've been doing a lot of, uh, like. Costuming for my next release, which will be Medusa, which is also very mythological and fantastical. And so, I've been like creating all of these costumes and I've been doing a lot of sewing and designing and so yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
But I definitely like have been spending, I think a, a good chunk of my time just creating the work to make this video happen. So wildfire I think will have some really fun, uh, social media. Some videos where I like showcase some miniatures and I was thinking of maybe lighting one of my miniatures on fire. I'm unsure, but we'll, we'll see how, we'll see what, what, what I come up with. But uh, yeah, that's kind of what I got going on so far.
Yeah. Super exciting. And with Medusa coming up, you mentioned that should be around October. Uh, we were talking about this a little bit and you were showing me a piece of, of the costume you're working on for, for Medusa and it's amazing. So I would love to di dive into that a bit.
totally. So I'll show you here. I have like, I have a dress that's almost done that I'll just show you. This is what I work on almost every day. so I've created this piece. It's a dress. That, um, I've sewn, I've hand sewn all of these pieces onto, so it looks like this. basically it's like all of these little pieces that I've sewn onto this dress. So this will be in the music video.
I still have to do the top of it, but like I, this is a, like a vegan vinyl snake skin, and it's dark green for my hair. I designed this piece, so I don't know that you can see, but this is like a Medusa head. So here's the head and like, here's all the hair.
So, in a lot of Greek architecture, there is a particular design called a palmette which looks kind of like a palm, but I felt that when you turned it upside down, that it looked like a medusa head, like a head with a lot of hair coming out of it with the snakes. And so that's kind of what this is representative of is like this shape. and Medusa is one of three. Gorgon. So I have the shape right here, and then I have two others at the bottom.
I don't know if you can see the head and like the hair coming out. So that's kind of like, like this is one head, here's the other one, here's the other one. So that's the design that I'm working on. So I am gonna spend the rest of the week working. That's my big project for the rest of the week, is to finish that. Um, but the other costume that I'm doing is, um, so the concept for the Medusa Music video is that I'm a giant snake woman, uh, a half woman, half snake, and I am terrorizing campers.
And so I really wanted to have, These 3D printed scales on the snake tail that I have, I have this like 20 foot long snake tail that's out of, that's made outta fabric. And I really wanted to have actual physical scales. And so I got these scales online and they're just like, so cool. Yeah. There we go. Yeah. it's just like, they're so cool. So I'm gonna get some bigger ones. Uh, they're gonna be like three inch scales, but I'm gonna put these, I'm gonna throw these all into the tail.
So I've been, I've been making quite a few of these costumes and so that's another one that I have. Um, And then there's the last one that I have, which was designed to look like a seas snake. Um, there's the most venomous snake in the world, I believe is the blue sea crate, which is a seas snake. And so, it's striped black and blue, and I'm gonna show you what my costume is. Okay? So, I made this like leggings and shirt that, uh, are striped like blue and black like this.
So I got a sewing machine and I learned how to sew so that I could make this. And so I have them like this. And yeah. So those are the three costumes I have for Medusa.
So cool. And you know what I think is amazing about this too, is it's this extremely specific level of detail for things that make it more meaningful that like, will go over 99.99% of people's heads, right? Like they won't see these little tiny details. But I think in art, this is like a general rule that I found, is that like they will feel it, like they may not understand fully what these little details mean.
But the fact that you put in this effort and that you believe so strongly in it, and all these things mean so much to you like that, that becomes something that people feel.
yeah, well I think that, you know, I think I really notice and appreciate when artists create everything, when they make the visuals, when they make the costumes, when they make, when they make the show happen. It's like I can see the world that they've created and so like that is really. The thing that I wanna do.
And you know, I think that a big reason of why I create the costumes and why I create the miniatures and the pieces and the jewelry is really just 'cause like, this is the world that I'm creating and like, I just want to express it in the best way that I can. And so, you know, like when I write songs, it's like I have all of these. Ideas and visuals and, uh, dreams for it. And it's like I see stories and the best way that I can showcase that is through the songs, but also the visuals.
And so I want to bring that to life as best I can. And so I've just had a lot of, I've just had really the best time just creating and showcasing. And I think it means a lot to me when I hear from people that are really excited about all the pieces. And so, uh, yeah, it makes me really, really happy. I think that, uh, I love, I think my favorite artists are the people that really, really take care in creating a cinematic universe for their art.
And it's just like, I can really tell when an artist is so incredibly not passionate. It's almost not even the right word, but it's like when they are just so dedicated to the world they've created. And they're living in it. It's like I can live in it for that space too. It's like when I go to someone's show and they've created a universe for everybody to live in, it's like I can tell exactly where we are right now, and it means a lot to me as a listener to hear that.
So I think as a performer, it's like I want to continue to do that as well.
Yeah, that's really cool. I think, um, People that are listening, even if they're not super well, like trained in music, can tell instinctively between like good and great to some extent. Right? Um, but what I'm hearing from you too is that the world building element is really what's, what makes a difference for you in seeing an artist. And I think that, um, bringing in fantasy again, like world building is a huge part of fantasy.
That is a really cool way to, to look at your music and your art form as this collective world. I think you're doing an amazing job of it and it's, it's super fun to, to see little pieces and for you to say things like they're, um, with the Medusa dress, just like the, um, you said it was like the three different gorgons, which I'm like not super familiar with, but I think that's so cool that you've incorporated all of that.
thank you. Yeah, so the gorgons were the three women with snakes for hair. And so Medusa was one of them. So that's why I had like these three heads with the snakes coming out of it so that, you know, when you flip them upside down, they look like the Greek palmettes and then when you turn them over they look like the gorgons. And so, I really love to just like design all of these pieces and then just watch it come to life.
I think, you know, I had the concept for Medusa about six years ago and so has seeing them come to life before me makes me really excited. It's like, you know, everything that I do is for the younger version of myself. And I love doing that.
Awesome. yeah, thank you so much for this. I love, uh, wildfire. It's, I'm so excited that it's out and people can listen to it and I'm definitely looking forward to Medusa coming out in October.
Thanks so much. Oh, I'm so excited. Thank you so much again for having me on the show. I'm so, so, so grateful to be here.
Yes, thank you. Thank you so much. All right. I'll see you next time.
Sounds good. Bye.
Bye.