“This EP is so personal and so important to me. It’s the first batch of music I’ve released in a long time that I can say represents who I am and what I sound like live and just the way I really look at the world,” she says. “For a long time I think I was creating music from a place of, ‘Okay, these are the marching orders I’ve been told. This is what I feel like I need to do sonically to be successful in the lines I was living in. I just don’t think music needs to be created from that place.”

Further cementing her move away from a Nashville-influenced contemporary country sound, love myself was made in Brooklyn, NY alongside her co-producer Doug Schadt, who is primarily known for applying his skills to some of the tracks that turned one of Ell’s current artistic influences, Maggie Rogers, into a breakout artist. In addition, this is the first time that Ell has co-produced one of her projects, giving her more control over its direction.

“Working with Doug has been such an eye-opening experience in the best way. He’s never afraid to chase a certain direction, which has been so inspiring to me because I think I created a lot in containers where you are looking far more at the clock than you are really trying to chase what a song needs and what a whim of your creativity wants to explore,” she says. “It’s been so incredible being able to work with him. He knows the depth of where I want to go with this project. He seemed like the perfect person to ask to record this record.”

Ell is presently touring with the Queen of Country herself, Shania Twain, performing as her lead guitarist. This is also a full-circle moment for the singer-songwriter, as Twain is one of her idols who inspired her to pursue music. 

“It’s been such a cool experience being able to work hands-on with an idol of mine. She was the reason I started singing when I was 8 years old. I remember my mom bought this plastic microphone from the dollar store, so I could sing Shania Twain songs in the mirror. I wanted to be her,” she says. “Now, fast forward years later, I am singing those songs with her, on stage, three feet away from her. It’s truly a reminder that you can make anything happen if you truly believe in yourself enough. I know they say never meet your idols, but Shania is definitely the exception to this rule.”

As a singer/songwriter, advocate and philanthropist with a substantial online platform, Ell is no stranger to being in the public eye. While being so open and vulnerable with fans is now second nature to her, it took her some time before reaching that point. 

“It is challenging and it is beautiful. It is hard and it is easy sometimes,” she says. “I discovered really early on when I started to share my story of being a survivor when I was a little girl, of just the power that music has or that even anybody with a platform has. The fact that I can write a song that can inspire somebody on the other side of the world, is wild to my brain. (…) It has been the leading cause for me to be like, ‘Okay, if I become vulnerable and I share my journey and my stories of what I’m going through in my life, it can actually have a positive impact on other people.’” 

“Being vulnerable is so scary,” she continues. “People can definitely take that vulnerability, that delicate part that you share with them, and try to crush it. But if anything, it just gives me more courage to just dig deeper and to peel off more layers. When we are authentic with ourselves as human beings, that’s what connects us to each other.” Striving to continue showing up as her authentic, unfiltered self, Ell shares one last piece of wisdom.

“I think it’s a really important time for all of us, specifically women, to listen to the messages we’re telling ourselves in our heads, and know that we are in control of those messages at the end of the day.”