Music
No one wants to admit when they have a crush on someone. Or when they’re feeling jealous.
Ellise does just that on her new EP, Bedroom Confessional.
“Each song is almost like a diary entry — things that I would just sit in my bed and write in my journal and tuck away for no one else to hear, except I’m making them all public,” Ellise says.
Why release her confessions to the world? To close a chapter of her life.
The five-song project and her 2025 album Pretty Evil are “all about one person and one situation,” Ellise says.
Related: Ellise Asks the Ultimate Breakup Question on "Kill4Me"
“Making music about a situation keeps me in that mindset for longer,” she says. Bedroom Confessional is Ellise getting in her last word — and shifting toward a new sound.
Ellise frequently released Halloween-themed EPs, making her brand synonymous with the holiday and “spooky pop”.
“I’m creating a new sound for myself that I resonate with and I don’t feel like I’m just making it because it’s what I'm supposed to be making with this branding that I’ve attached myself to,” Ellise says.
That authenticity is how Ellise defines success as an artist.
“As I get older, I feel success even from making a song that I’m like, ‘I love this and I know people are going to resonate with this,’ and I had something I wanted to say and I got it out exactly in the way I wanted to say it.”
Bedroom Confessional may be a new sound for Ellise, but it may also be her best.
“I honestly really do believe that these five songs are my best music to date. I'm really proud of myself for the sonic shift I’ve been able to make and how different this music is from music in my past,” Ellise says.
She’s also proud of the visuals and the attention to detail required to bring them to life cohesively. Each music video is part of a larger storyline.
Ellise storyboarded and planned each detail, including the EP’s cover art. The photograph, taken by Sandra Jamaleddine, shows Ellise atop a stack of mattresses reminiscent of The Princess and the Pea, one of her favorite fairytales.
“This EP feels like there’s just something bothering me, something I have to scratch at and I am noticing it,” Ellise says. “That’s why we not only did the mattresses, but we put the red wig in the mattress and we put the arm of the gimp suit in the mattress. These are the things that have been living in the back of my mind for so long at that point that I wanted to portray that visually.”
Music is the way Ellise reflects on the world around her, she says. As you listen to Bedroom Confessional, she wants you to realize you aren’t alone in feeling emotions that aren’t necessarily fun — or even emotions you don’t want to admit you’re having.
It won’t be her last release of the year, either. Ellise is already making new music.
Bedroom Confessional is out now.
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