In Conversation with Ellisa Sun

With inspirations of R&B, Soul, Jazz, and Bossa Nova, the star on the rise Ellisa Sun is back with her newest music video for her single “I’m From Here” Prior to the music video’s release, Ellisa sat down exclusively with us to discuss her growth as an artist, the story of “I’m From Here” and the community of support she has found and leaned on within her new home.

[UNPUBLISHED:] For any of our readers who might be new to your music, can you introduce yourself and describe your sound?

[ELLISA SUN:] I live in Nashville, Tennessee but I’m originally from Long Beach, California. My music is a combination of a lot of different genres that I grew up listening to, like jazz, R&B, soul, some folk, some pop… I’ve kind of got a little bit of everything. The short version of what got me started as a musician is after I moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles, I started going to a lot of open mics and just watching, and then I started to write my own songs and experiment with songwriting. I knew I had the skills to write songs but I guess I was too nervous and shy to do that in front of anyone. I didn’t really let myself entertain that idea until I was in my early twenties, even though I knew I really wanted to and that it was a childhood dream of mine to really go out and perform.

[UNPUBLISHED:] So you mentioned some shyness and fear keeping you from busting out of your shell, but what changed? What made you feel able to break out and perform?

[ELLISA SUN:] I guess a few things happened, I think. I went to UC Santa Cruz, which is a great school, and I was on a path to be a teacher. I think that was what I envisioned for myself and what other people saw for me because of my demeanor since I am a kind person and enjoy teaching. I also studied anthropology, which was really interesting to me. I also thought I could potentially go into journalism someday. I never really went to school for music at any point. I feel really lucky to have a lot of interests in many ways, which is like a really good quandry to have. 

After college though, I moved to San Francisco, which really pushed me out of my shell. One of the biggest things that really pushed me out of my comfort zone was actually my sister who really encouraged me to just try to write a song. A lot of people don’t know this, but my sister is a comedian, she is brilliant and a sketch comedy writer. She knew I could sing, even though I did it in secret, and she knew I could write because I was always journaling and writing poems and I really enjoyed that. I actually got my start writing songs as comedy and parody songs, which are so embarrassing to think about now, but I should probably bring them back as a joke sometime. The first song I really wrote was called “First World Problems” and was about problems from over ten years ago that I don’t even fully remember, but it was just like stupid, stupid things. I was able to not take myself so seriously doing that, and that was how I kinda got my feet wet and told myself I could write a song. I then went through a breakup, and that propelled that like serious songwriting.

As far as performing goes, I think that just kind of came with time. I was so nervous at my first open mic in San Francisco and my voice was so shaky. A lot of performers say there is really no cure for stage fright, it's kind of something that is always there and you just get used to it. I think of it as a good thing now to be nervous because that means you care.

[UNPUBLISHED:] That is exquisite and I would love to hear one of those comedy songs.

[ELLISA SUN:] So there were I think three of them, and “First World Problems” was my first entirely original song because I wrote the melody and the chord progression all on my own. The other two were parodies, one of them was a rewrite of my favorite things from the sound of music, which I rewrote as my favorite things in San Francisco. It probably wouldn’t even hold up now since San Francisco has changed so much. The other song I parodied was the melody of Beyonce’s song “Ego”, but I wrote it about a hangover. It was so bad. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] Hey, it’s whatever gets you started! Sometimes, you have to start bad.

[ELLISA SUN:] Yeah, and it was really bad.

[UNPUBLISHED:] So, you said that you grew up in California and then moved to Nashville. Have those two music scenes diversified your personal music journey or impacted you in any other ways?

[ELLISA SUN:] Yes! I definitely feel like moving to Nashville has taught me a lot. Not even just about music, but also about life. Living in the south has been a trip, especially in the last two years as everyone has gone through their own stuff. The music scene in Nashville is obviously a lot different and a lot more saturated than the Bay Area. It's also a lot more country-focused, which I knew before moving here but I didn’t fully understand before moving here. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely more than just country here or else I wouldn’t have stayed, it's just that a lot of the other music scenes here are really small but starting to grow more and more. I have definitely learned about how important collaboration is here, and I think Nashville is really good at both collaboration and community, and I really appreciate Nashville for that support of each other.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Within the topic of community, I read that moving to Nashville has connected you a lot with your personal identity of being Asian American and connected you with a community there. Can you speak more about that?

[ELLISA SUN:] So moving here, I would definitely say I was surrounded by Asian people in the Bay Area and LA. I grew up seeing a lot of Asian people, and it's just something you kind of get used to and you forget how important that is. I was so confused moving here and just like “where’s all the Asian people?” I felt like more of an outsider than I ever have before, and I think that being kind of racially ambiguous I am used to that in a lot of ways, but moving here was another level of culture shock. 

When COVID hit and all the anti-Asian racism came through in the media, it forced me and a lot of my Asian friends to look at that and use our voices to process it, which became really important to me. I then got involved with a nonprofit called API Middle Tennessee, and they do really great work in amplifying API businesses and talking about issues facing the community. In terms of music and community, the API community and all of the different communities in Nashville have that sense of having each other's back. It’s been really nice to have that support here, and it's what brought me to really look at my own identity. I’ve also faced some racism moving here that I didn’t face living in California. The racism here towards me has been a little bit more in your face, but also a lot of the really violent things that have happened have been in California and New York. I guess nowhere is truly better or safer than any other space, but it has been really nice having a community and a space in Nashville to support each other that I didn’t necessarily have in California.

[UNPUBLISHED:] I cannot imagine the struggles you have faced, especially within the last two years. I’m really glad you’ve had a community of people to support each other and support you, and that also brings us to the fantastic “I’m From Here” It’s clearly a deeply personal song about a lot of experiences growing up and living as an Asian American person. What was the process of creating this song like for you, and was the writing process different?

[ELLISA SUN:] The actual writing and song process really didn’t take very long for me to write it. Sometimes that seems to be some of the best songs I have written are like that, this one was written probably over the course of a day or two. I had an incident happen that really forced me to write “I’m From Here” which was that a friend of mine said an off-handed comment about Chinese people and it was just very shocking. I had never experienced something like that from a friend and felt like a weird betrayal, so it was obviously a very personal thing that sparked me writing “I’m From Here” and it was I think just the combination of that and just having moved to Nashville and feeling like I didn’t belong there. It’s funny because I wrote it and I didn’t really think anything of it. I was just like “eh, that's a song I wrote”. I shared it with one of my good friends and he told me it was really good, even though I was being my own biggest critic. 

As far as production goes, I honestly sat on the song for over a year because of COVID and not having any motivation to sit down and release anything. I actually played it at an API processing space that we had on zoom right after the Atlanta shootings. It was so intense of a period of time, but I played the song to open up the space and it solidified it for me that I wanted to officially share the song with the world and put it out. That was when I started scheming about arrangements and instrumentation, and then I got some folks together and recorded it and that's history!

[UNPUBLISHED:] So, I am really lucky and have seen the music video. It was beautiful! I am so excited for it to be released. What are you feeling as you’re getting ready to release the video, and what impacts did you have on creating it?

[ELLISA SUN:] That video was such a fun day. I feel really grateful to have met the director Oceanna. She really let me, like, have my space and almost co-direct in a lot of ways. She was very open to my ideas and that was really cool. I definitely had a lot more ideas originally for the video that I wanted to explore, but I ended up going with a few storylines that I had in my head. 

In terms of how I’m feeling about it, I’m really excited about releasing it. I was lucky to have a pretty big group of people from the API Tennessee group be featured in the video, and so I interviewed some of them and there’s an extended version that will be coming out the week after the music video including those interviews. I’m so excited to get to share their stories, and I just really wanted to paint the picture of what it feels like to just feel out of place, especially like in the south, where whiteness is just a part of country music and the music industry as a whole. I think there’s a struggle and a lack of diversity, especially in the music community, so I just wanted to show what that feels like in a couple different little stories and within my interviews with friends.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Yeah! I also just want to say, I fully laughed at people in the music video being cast as “Karens” I was so moved by the video and then I opened the description and just saw “Karen #1” and “Karen #4” and I couldn’t help but bust out laughing.

[ELLISA SUN:] I love it. Those are such great friends of mine that really truly ride or dies. There was no weirdness and they really held the space and were just like “yeah, I’ll be obnoxious as shit!” for takes but also were so respectful of it all. It was so nice.

[UNPUBLISHED:] So while you were creating that video, were there any moments that were hard to get through?

[ELLISA SUN:] Well it was all shot in one day and I think it was a very adrenaline-filled day, so I was so, like, focused that I wasn’t really letting myself feel anything in the moment. The day after I was definitely exhausted emotionally. It was all really cathartic though, especially the part where I was interviewing my friends and getting to hear their stories. I asked them all the same three questions. The first was “what does being American mean to you?’ since that's always a loaded question in general, the second was “have you ever been asked where are you really from?” because so many people do that here, and then finally how that made them feel. I got a lot of little stories from them and processing that with my friends was hard. Some of my friends are a lot more Asian-looking than me and they have stories that are a lot more aggressive than some of mine. One of my friends told me about a woman following him and his wife around in a store just repeatedly asking where they are from, just a random stranger that wouldn’t leave them alone. It definitely felt cathartic to just share that space with them, and I can’t speak for them but I definitely hope they feel the same way.

In terms of the brunch scene, that was a little awkward, but like I said earlier they never made it awkward… I’m just so used to making sure everyone is okay as a people pleaser so that was exhausting. Working with Lily was also a bit hard since she’s four, but her parents were fantastically patient with her. I had never worked with a kid on a video before, and I was not prepared for how hard it was getting her to act, but we definitely got some great shots. We definitely bribed her a bit with some toys, but it worked out!

[UNPUBLISHED:] You’ve also had some music featured on a variety of major shows and projects, do any of those moments in particular stick out to you or feel like a turning point in your music career?

[ELLISA SUN:] I get so excited with every placement, like that's the dream, but they’re so unpredictable. I try so hard not to care about that, but it's so validating when it happens. It's so hard being an artist and balancing who you're doing it for and not getting caught up in what other people think. My first placement was actually a movie called Can You Keep A Secret?, which is a fun to watch and silly romcom…. the people in it are very hot…. and there's a scene where they are fighting in a cafe and my song is just playing in the background. That was so cool! It was a big step, every single one is, and hopefully I'll get some more placements with the new songs I am working on in my new project. It's always an exciting opportunity to get placed.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Does that mean there’s more you’re working on for everyone to get excited about?

[ELLISA SUN:] Yeah! I’m working on an EP. It’ll be six songs and I’ve been working on it for almost a year now and doing it very DIY. Music is expensive, it doesn’t have to be but it can be, so I've been doing this EP slowly with friends. I’m maybe halfway through it, I want to say it’ll be released in 2023. That’s kind of the goal in my head now. I’m really excited about it! The musicians in Nashville are obviously some of the best, the songs are really good and the people I’ve got on some of it are so talented. The music for me feels next level compared to what I’ve done in the past.

[UNPUBLISHED:] As you continue to grow and evolve as an artist, I’m curious - is there anything you wish you had been told when you were starting your music journey?

[ELLISA SUN:] Oh, that's a good question. Maybe to enjoy the process, which I was told and didn't listen to. I remember getting coffee with one of my friends when I just started writing songs, and I think we all take ourselves too seriously, so I was just freaking out and asking “how do you do this?” and he just told me to calm down. So yeah, you just need to relax. You never know what is going to happen. If you’re trying to make your career in music, you never know what you actually will end up making money from, it may be a random jingle! Definitely just try to enjoy the process.

I would also say to not be afraid of sticking up for yourself. That's something I still struggle with today, especially as a woman in a very male-dominated industry. Just speak your mind about a sound, production, gig, anything. Express your needs and your opinions because the men are doing that a lot anyway, so we should do it too. I’m still learning how to do that, it’s a daily struggle.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Is there anything you’d like the readers to know? Whether it's about you, your music, what you had for lunch today, the name of your cat, anything you want!

[ELLISA SUN:] Oh! My cat’s name is Sarabi, like the mom in the Lion King. Other things I want people to know, and this goes more in line with the last question, but always tell your story. This is something I’m always still learning, but being really vulnerable and raw about your honest story is something that can be really scary but is also so important and can really help not just artists but everybody heal and process. I think it’s really important, especially in the last two years. I want all of us to acknowledge what we just went through. It feels like we all just are like “go go go!” and, like, being open about where you’re at, in art and in life, is so important. 

You can watch the powerful extended cut music video for “I’m From Here” on YouTube or stream the song on Apple Music or Spotify. Also be sure to follow Ellisa Sun on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook so you don’t miss anything on her music journey!