El’s amazing musical and life journey started at five years old, listening to vinyl records given to her by her mum’s friends and falling in love with the likes of Patti Smith, Beatles, Tracy Chapman, Pink Floyd, Musical Youth and 80s pop.
Aged 9 she went along to her brother’s band rehearsal at Oxford’s Jericho Tavern and was immediately spotted as a singer, invited to learn one of their songs and sing a gig. From that day she got hooked on singing and performing. Her and her brother started recording music in a friend’s analogue studio, and by age 12 she started writing songs. A big turning point was discovering dance music. “Null of the lines” was the tune that hooked Ellie into Jungle and at her first rave at age 14 she was immersed in Jungle, Drum’n’Bass, Ragga and Reggae.
She describes herself as ‘the usual crazy teen’ – at 15 her family moved to France but she hated it and ran away back to Oxford, where she lived in a coach and travelled to raves. By 17 she was homeless and living in a caravan when a friend set up the Catweazle Club and she was taken under their wing, given a guitar and encouraged to learn it. She worked random jobs, sofa surfed, raved a lot, learned to DJ, and when she met Croissant Neuf family she literally joined the travelling circus, touring Glastonbury and more!
El became part of Afro-Celt outfit Baka Beyond, recording two albums and touring with them all over the world; the band becoming like a family to her. In 2005 she had her first son and after 2 years of being a single mum Ellie met Kate Garrett, who really influenced and nurtured her solo career. She was devastated when Kate died of breast cancer at 37 but found a way to continue to explore her musical journey and keep Kate’s encouragement alive. El eventually found Townhouse Studios in Shepherd’s Bush to record her music; she joined and performed with the Confidential Collective featuring MC/Rapper Riz Ahmed, and with the Country Gents wrote ‘See No Evil’ which was later remixed by Crazy P. In 2009 she got married and had twins, meaning a break from gigging and writing music until they went to nursery. In 2013 her EP ‘See the World’ was released and her solo career continued, supporting artists like Ethan Ash, Emily Maguire, and George Ezra.
Another great break included her songs being sent to the legendary Amy Wadge who at the time was working with Ed Sheeran – loving the songs, Amy invited her to spend three months recording with her. Finally Ellie’s debut album “This Time Around” was released in 2016 but life was taking its toll - exhausted, dealing with troubles at home and trying to raise a young family, Ellie struggled with a nervous breakdown and had to put music on the back burner for six years. She’d fallen out of love with music, never thinking she would write or tour again.
Dance music proved pivotal once more and was the thing that got her back on her feet, especially liquid drum’n’bass which reminded her of her youth. She discovered artists like Etherwood and Degs as inspiration for drum’n’bass singing and songwriting.
In autumn 2021 she by chance found out about the Hospital Records ‘Women in Drum and Bass’ event and turned up with some of her CDs “just in case”. “The vibe was amazing! It was like a light switched on and me and I was 18 again, back in love with life and dance music“. El met Slim and Silv from #remarQabl and felt she’d met instant friends. “I haven’t stopped buzzing since then and I’m really looking forward to the next chapter of this musical journey and excited for what the future will bring; making music again but this time with fresh sounds, merging soulful folky vocals with drum’n’bass and working with people and a label I believe in.”

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