Part-time astrologists and yearning for peace: a chat with Ella Jane

Photos by Sasha Gayko

By Julia Norkus

There’s more universality to the experience of being in your 20s than a lot of us think. Not everyone has it together and no, not everyone feels excited to be doing everything all the time. And talking with Ella Jane (she/her) made me feel a little less afraid of graduating next month.

Hailing from New York, Ella Jane was a musician from toddlerdom. She began playing and creating as a kid, her excitement to be an artist only growing as she discovered the ability to put words to music and create her own songs. 

I walked into the Paramount Theater dressing room where Ella and her bassist, Skyler, were sitting. I sat down with what everyone imagines an Emerson student has at all times—tarot cards, 35mm camera, a midi skirt, star clips, basically the things that would make me look like an asshole to the rest of the world. Maybe I’d mansplain Garden State to some unsuspecting victim at a dorm party or talk someone’s ear off about In Rainbows.

You could say I was nervous.

But I digress. Even though these were technically peers, there’s a pedestal that touring artists are put on that makes them feel different—from another world. 

So, to bridge the invisible gap, I opened with what my other 20-something year old friends like to do in their free time–analyze themselves through the lens of tarot.

I introduced myself and asked if the two of them wanted to pull some cards for themselves, to which they said yes. 

Ella’s card, a reversed Fortitude, was a reminder to be patient and gentle with ourselves. 
Skyler’s, a reversed Magician, a reminder to accept change and enjoy the journey.

Both could be seen as the marks of the early 20s, a time of change and exploration, of growth and exploration. And one of the many things we agreed on—burnout is a bitch.

After one year at Tufts University studying English, Ella came to the understanding that college just wasn’t for her. She went on what she referred to as “the gap year that never ended.”

“I moved to Brooklyn, and it was great to be back because I’m from New York and all my family is there,” she said. “But I think being there—I was like, whatever, 19 or 20—all my friends were either much older than me, or all my friends who were my age were in college, and I didn’t really have much of a community there that I saw often.”

Eventually, she moved out to LA to be with the people that she had been originally making music with in New York. 

“It just came down to nobody that I made music with in New York was in New York anymore.”

But being in New York, Ella described that it was a little more inspiring in the way of brooding  and yearning, and less so in sunny LA. However, there are far more musicians in LA and Ella said that this provides its own kind of inspiration. 

The creative environment box was checked. The hard part became getting it out and writing. 

“I just got out of a really huge writer’s block thing, which made me feel so horrible,” Ella said. “And then it has sort of remedied itself. So I’ve been trying to write all the time. I’ve been trying to force myself to write all the time because typically I’ll just wait for it to come to me. But then, you know, then more time goes on since I last released music.”

As Ella put it, listening to other music and learning more about production are some of the things that she’s found exciting and help pull her out of her writer’s block. Listening to Vampire Weekend, Caroline Polacheck and The Cure made the music she was writing less about fitting into a genre and more about writing things that she enjoyed. 

We talked a little more extensively about both having bangs and learning how to read tarot than we did about who inspired her to write or what she’s working on now. But maybe that wasn’t what we needed at that moment. 

Burnout sucks. Being in your 20s is scary and also sucks. But knowing you aren’t alone makes it worth it, I think that’s what I learned. 

Thank you, Ella, for being kind.

And thank you Emerson College–for what? I don’t know yet.

 I’m just saying thanks for being home for two years.