The Song She Wrote Five Weeks After Giving Birth Led to 300 Million Streams | Ella Vos

300 Million Streams Without a Major Label !

In this episode of She Creates Noise, indie-pop artist, songwriter, and producer Ella Vos shares the remarkable journey behind her breakout hit "White Noise" and the career she built independently—amassing more than 300 million streams while staying true to her creative vision.

Ella takes us from her childhood as a classically trained pianist to life on the road, the lessons she learned navigating the music business, and the unexpected success of "White Noise" during the early days of streaming. We explore how motherhood shaped her artistry, why she resisted oversharing before it became an industry expectation, and what artists lose when authenticity becomes a marketing strategy.

We also dive into the realities of sustaining a creative career: balancing motherhood and ambition, navigating burnout, protecting mental health, and building a support system that allows great work to flourish. Ella shares her unique approach to songwriting, artist development, and the creative freedom she found in fully self-producing her latest album, Rosebuds.

Whether you're an artist, songwriter, music fan, or simply someone trying to build a meaningful creative life, this conversation is an honest and inspiring look at what it takes to succeed on your own terms.

https://www.ellavos.com/

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Transcript

Songwriting Prompts Cold Open

SPEAKER_00 0:00

These are song prompts for when you're stuck. And this is a game my husband and some friends came up with one morning. They wrote some really silly prompts. And the thing is, like one is like it can only be, everything has to be arpeggio. Uh, you can only write in a different language. You have to use the chords from the number one billboard song on the day you were born.

SPEAKER_04 0:26

She creates mice. She creates the mice. She creates a powerful voice. She creates mice. She creates. She creates noise. She creates.

Why She Creates Noise Exists

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Hi, and welcome to She Creates Noise. I'm Sarah Nagurney, songwriter, producer, manager, and your host, and I'm so grateful you're here. As many of you know, She Creates Noise is about highlighting the women who shape the music industry, executives, producers, songwriters, managers, artists, and advocates who have built lasting careers in a challenging and constantly evolving landscape. We want to tell these stories to amplify these women's accomplishments and to inform and educate listeners about their journeys. This season, we have featured mentor and artist pairings, including AC Scott, who began her singing career in her 60s, alongside her mentor, the remarkable AR executive Kate Hyman, who also joined us in season one. We'll have a thoughtful mental health episode featuring top-tier industry leaders, artist manager Erica Ramon, and Kathy Olsen, founder of Hollywood and Mind, exploring the emotional realities behind the music business. Recently we sat down with the extraordinary hit songwriter Bonnie McKee, known for her work with Katy Perry, Pam Shane, who co-wrote Jeannie in a Bottle, and Lauren Christie, who co-wrote Complicated for Avril Levine. As we are nearing the end of this season, we'll be talking with Michelle Lewis, CEO of Sona, and singer-songwriter Sammy Ray, along with some more voices who continue to move the industry forward. There have been so many interesting guests, and I'm honored that so many incredible women have joined me here. I'm excited for you to hear their stories about craft, leadership, longevity, and what it really takes to build a meaningful career in music. If you'd like to know more about me and my own journey as a songwriter and producer and artist development strategist, you can always check out the trailer. Thank you for coming back. Thanks for listening. And please leave a comment or review. It really helps the algorithm recognize that these conversations matter and it helps more people then discover the show. Thanks again.

Ella Voss Joins The Show

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Today on She Creates Noise, I'm joined by Ella Voss, the acclaimed senior songwriter, independent artist whose dreamy sense pop sound and unique songwriting style have connected with millions of listeners worldwide. Since her 2016 breakout hit White Noise reached number one on Spotify's viral charts, she's been acclaimed for her dreamy soundscape and praised by the likes of Rolling Stone and Neon Gold. Ella has built an extraordinary career on her own terms, earning more than 300 million streams, selling out shows across North America and creating music that reaches far beyond genre labels. What makes Ella truly compelling is the honesty in her work. Through songs about motherhood, postpartum depression, reproductive rights, illness, heartbreak, and reinvention, she has continually turned personal experience into an art that makes others feel less alone. Now, with her fourth album, Rosebuds, her first fully self-produced release, she enters a bold new chapter centered on resilience, wisdom, and reclaiming your dreams. We'll talk about independence, artistry, motherhood, building a label, and what it really takes to create a life in music on your own terms. Please welcome Ella Voss. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Sarah. I'm excited. It's fun, yeah. I really love your music. And and uh we met recently we're uh at Grammy Week, and I met you with Michelle Fantas, actually. I just want to sort of talk a little bit about your origin story because uh I like to tell people a little bit about the women that we that I talked to just so they understand what what you did to get to where you are, and so that seems more understandable and surmountable, I guess, to up-and-coming artists.

Learning Music Through Piano

SPEAKER_01 4:35

So before the streams and the albums and the business ventures, who were you as a young girl? What made you first feel like music was what you had to do and something you had to pursue?

SPEAKER_00 4:46

I was about five and a half when I played the piano for the first time. And I was immediately drawn to it. We went to a piano shop one day after church, and my mom gave me a beginner book at the store, and she walked away. And when she came back, I had played through the entire book. So we were like, I guess, hmm, maybe we should rent a piano and see if this is something Lauren is into us. And I was and it immediately became my best friend. Piano quickly became a place where I felt like I could express myself. I was definitely more quiet on the shy side. I had a really intense speech impediment that I did speech therapy for in kindergarten. And so around five and a half was when I was able to start being understood. And before that, I really wasn't understood except for by my my mom. Wow. So piano was an easier way to express than my voice. It pretty much became an obsession. My mom would have to drag me away from the piano at dinner time. I studied from then until I was about 25, classical piano. I went to college for piano performance. The other part of this story is that I was just obsessed with music in general and loved top music bands, loved going to shows. We grew up 30 minutes north of LA. So we went to concerts all the time.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

And so your parents were very supportive and they wanted you to experience it. That's great. Terrific.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

They were such they were big music lovers. So I was just always we were always watching live concerts on the weekends on the TV or going to shows, always listening to music in the car. You just knew it had to be what you were gonna do. I knew it had to be what I was it what I was gonna do, but I never thought I would pursue like a solo artist career. My dream was always I want to tour in bands. Like I never imagined being the front woman. I did, but I just thought like that couldn't be me because I'm more of an introvert, shy, quiet

Bands And Touring Take Over

SPEAKER_00 6:57

type. So I joined a band when I was 21 because we went out drinking that night.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

And you never had a drink before 21, of course, right? Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

We went out to the bars. I was bleeble. I remember it was such an iconic night because I was trying to keep a tally mark on my arm of all the drinks that I had. After about six or seven mark, I really lost. Oops. But I remember, you know, it was a very iconic day because I I it was my first band rehearsal. It was so different than the classical world I was used to and so much more freeing because when I would play it with the band and when we started playing shows, it there was a pressure that the way that I had for like performing the classical piano piece. I kind of quickly changed gears. I'm not gonna keep going to school for music. I'm gonna pursue this band and learn everything I can about how to make it as a band, how to book shows, get paid, get a record label deal, publishing deal, tour, do all the things. I really like dove deep into that and was in that band for seven years, just really learning everything about recording and writing and working together in a group, too, which for me being a solo pianist was also a new challenge to then share artistry with other people.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

And that's before you arrived at your El A Voss sort of direction sound, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Yeah, this was all before that, and then I got my first paid touring gig performing background vocals and keys and forms.

Motherhood And The Leap Into Solo

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Shortly after I started playing with forms, me and my husband at the time got pregnant, and I was like, well, this touring has kind of an end date on it now. And when I was about six months pregnant, it was getting very real that I was not going to be able to continue my touring gig with a newborn baby. And I knew it would always be there to come back to, but I thought, I don't know, it's very iffy, and I'm gonna have a baby. I don't know what life is gonna look like. At the same time, like I had met a producer that thought I really had a shot at writing my own music and believed in me. And I took that opportunity and was like, I'm gonna pursue this. I've never thought I had it in me to put myself out there and be vulnerable enough to be a songwriter and put my own music out, my own words. Well, it kind of felt like if I'm gonna do it, this is the best time to do it because I'm gonna be home with a baby, and what better thing to do than to write songs about it? And it also kind of felt like maybe this is the first time I know what I want to start writing about or talking about because I've had so much life experience now. This was like 2014.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

And this is when as you're beginning to develop and figure out what it is that you're about to do, which is the independent career with hundreds of millions of streams that that really put you on the map.

White Noise Meets Streaming Era

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Yeah, but I had just no idea that I had written a handful of songs, and one of them was really special. We worked on it for about a year, and I wrote it when my son was five weeks old, and it took just going through the whole first year of being a mom and starting a new music career. I just spent a lot of time writing and collecting material. But I had this one song, it was really special, and everyone knew it was special, but no one really knew why it was special. It was just like, oh, maybe it's the sound, maybe it's like the melody, maybe it's the lyrics that are so metaphorical, but yet I feel like they're really vulnerable. A year later, we did we prepped to put it out. It's gonna be my first song, starting to collect all the assets. And the producer I worked with was like a week before, he was like, you know, you've never explained what this song is about, actually. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, I think maybe on purpose. I haven't shared with anybody. And I shared that night, I shared like this is about the struggle of being a new mom. That's what I was feeling when I wrote these words, and got feeling suffocated by the pressure. And in hindsight, I think that's why that song was so special because it had the emotion, but wasn't like if you read the lyrics, you don't know what it's about. You can gather the feeling, it's really more of like a state of being or an emotion about being, you know, a suffocating anxiety and breaking through that and finding freedom.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

What did you learn during that that many artists today maybe miss? I mean, you you had all seven years of experience having a band, and then you kind of by being a mom, you kind of found this new avenue that you didn't even realize was gonna happen. And then all of a sudden, that's when your biggest success occurred because it was something so authentic, maybe, you know, about your writing about your experience.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

It was so authentic, and it I was really terrified to put it out, even though I knew like no one's gonna know. I'm I'm not gonna tell them. And I think that is one of the interesting things. It was definitely a different time in the music industry, is when it came out in 2016, height of streaming, there was no buildup. I didn't promote the song, I didn't tell people what it's about. I didn't have to lay out all of the content pieces so that people would be interested. Those were the days, huh? Those were the days. The song genuinely just connected with people without the story behind it, without the artist behind it. And I feel like that's so rare now, like to connect with a song and not know about the artist or the meaning of the song. I just think it's so special because I've never had a moment like that again. Like ever since then, every time I put out a song, I tell everyone what it's about, all the details, all the BTS, everything. And this wasn't that at all. I put out a cryptic note that still didn't explain what it was about. Because I was terrified. I also thought the industry would reject me because I had just turned 30, I was married, and now I had a baby. So I thought I am not the ideal pop star. I'm aging out in for pop stars, and I'm I'm taken and I'm a mom. So everything was shrouded in mystery as I started. And people, you know, just assumed I was younger than I was. They didn't know I was a mom. They didn't know I was married. It wasn't until the song went viral, which was not, which was like a month later, and I was talking to Roleid Stone on the phone, and I was so nervous that I was like, this is what this song is about. It's about new motherhood. I'm not gonna shy away from it, basically. So that was the first time it was out in the open. And it it was kind of amazing because I was surprised at how well people responded to it and supported it. You know, I was getting calls from getting emails from all the labels, like wanting to set up meetings and know more about this, and no one seemed scared.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

You really trailblazed in a lot of ways at that time.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

It was hard to find someone to follow who was doing it as a new mom. And it seemed like I had all seen it more of like you get established first and then you can have a child, not the other way around.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Now your music has explored since then postpartum depression, reproductive right, illness, divorce, and reinvention.

Vulnerability, Privacy And Oversharing

SPEAKER_01 14:45

How do you decide when a deeply personal experience becomes a song instead of something to keep private?

SPEAKER_00 14:51

It's harder because writing music is such a therapy tool for myself. Writing is how I process things through that process. But there's been times that I feel like I have been maybe too open or too vulnerable. There's been moments where I'm like, well, maybe I didn't mean to like share what that was about. Like, but I was at the time kind of really pressured to do that because that's what vulnerability looked like to other people. And high sight doesn't also make sense because I didn't have to do that with white miners. But every so after that, it was like, put out the statement, put out what it's about. It's about such a deep personal thing. People need to know how deep and personal it is. After a while, it really did wear me down and it felt like like I put too much of my personal life out there for sure. And I think the years after that, right, you know, as I wrote and let my career develop, I think I started to I've definitely been more conscious of just sharing what this is about. Is it does it benefit the song or does it take away from for the listener?

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Social media is it's takes a lot of time, it's it's challenging, and it's also you have to kind of decide what you want to share.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

I definitely overshare. I've deleted a lot of things. It's fun to be vulnerable, you know, like when you first open it up and like people respond to it so well, you're like the dictive. Like, let me, I can tell you everything. And then you start to tell people too much, and people that are close to you feel a little anxious about that. They don't want everyone exposed, they don't they don't want everyone to know what they know necessarily. So there's a lot to learn and navigate. What does being a vulnerable artist look like and how is it manageable?

SPEAKER_01 16:35

I mean, a lot of women artists are told they have to choose motherhood or momentum in their career, family, or ambition. And as we're discussing, you've challenged that narrative. What do you want younger women to know about building both a life and a career in today's marketplace?

Patience Over Burnout

SPEAKER_00 16:51

I think being patient with yourself and setting accurate expectations for yourself and what you can accomplish and can do, because burnout is very real. You can't measure and no one should measure their artistry and their career against any other person, whether you're a mother or not, because everyone's path is different. It takes different experiences to find their process. Like if you're you're an artist right now and you want to become a mother, I think just knowing like things are gonna take up different space will feel different.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Space is different, time is different, things go slower. It takes longer to accomplish stuff. I feel like I have a lot, a lot more patience with myself now and like getting songs to really feel strong and powerful and like the best I can do. It just takes time, it takes time because I don't have endless hours to hack away at it. Not giving up on ideas too quickly, being okay with letting stuff sit in unfinished state. That's really the way to do it. It's like, and and you you can't let that uh those unfinished things, they can't discourage you. You have to see it all as stepping stone.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

I'm a mom, and I have to say I'm obviously older. Was not an easy thought to have a kid and be an artist. So by the time I had a kid, I pretty much stopped being an artist, but it just wasn't, you know, I wasn't famous enough to get the support that I maybe would have known or needed. So it was kind of like a either-or. And I stayed in the music business, I just stopped being a recording artist. It sounds like you're helping make it easier for everyone to do everything.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

I think also, I mean, the industry is just so different. Touring looks different, touring with a baby was or with a toddler was doable. It was, you know, we made it work. And now I feel like so many moms tour and they tour open, like bringing their families, and there's a lot more resources to as a new mom to learn how like how do you do it, how do you how do you bring a baby on a tour? There's so many different avenues for success in music as being uh a songwriter, writing for other artists as well as yourself. There's so many different careers in music. Part of the reason I started focusing on starting a record label was because I had a newborn baby, and it felt like this is not the time for me to go inward into my artistry and write something really deep. And it felt like a little bit more manageable to be on like more of a creative overview admin sort of situation while I had a newborn.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

And just so the listeners know, you you actually have an 11-year-old son and you also have a daughter who is held.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

See, this is 11 months today.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

So you're you're you started, we'll we'll get into that. You've kind of started on yet another chapter here.

Artist Development Through Authentic Branding

SPEAKER_01 19:47

You know, in a world that pressures artists to fit neatly into categories, now that you're in artist development, how do you help other artists discover who they really are instead of who the market wants them to be?

SPEAKER_00 19:58

I think it all starts with looking inward and picking up what are those things that cune you to music as a child. What were you listening to? What excited you in those formative times? Because usually if you reconnect with that and you connect with your inspirations and why you want to do this, it can give you so much information about who you can, how to brand yourself. Like, for example, the artist by sign, like one of her major influences, some of her like childhood heroes is like Pippy Longstocking, the nanny, Queen.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

That's quite a diverse group.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Really diverse, but these were childhood heroes, and it's like I see how it comes through in the song she's writing and the character that she presents. So it's like bring those elements in. What element of Pippy Longstocking do you want to be part of your brand? What element of like queen do you want to be part of your brand? These are things that inspired you and make you unique. And then it's not forced, it's not, well, I aspire to be this when really you're that. And that is special. That is unique, that is what no one else is doing. What you maybe aspire to, it might be really inspiring, but maybe it's just a copying of something you've seen work, define what makes you unique and bring that into your brand. That's how you stand out, that's how you really define yourself.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Authenticity, basically. Be your be authentic.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

And a lot of that is like it's a lot of deep reflection. And so when I was doing when I was being developed as an artist, my collaborator would, you know, he really pushed me to go through, you know, like I love Joni Mitchell and was like, okay, we'll start reading Joni Mitchell lyrics and learn more, dig deeper into. What makes that compelling to you? What do you pull out of that? And then how can you infuse that into your own work? Questions like now with a lot of artists that I work with, I like to give them a worksheet that has a bunch of questions. And there's the two these artist development things.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

I was reading that about you. You had some interesting song prompts that you were giving.

Song Prompts To Break Writer’s Block

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Should I just should I read a couple that I saw, or you wanted to tell us other everything has to be in arpeggio?

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Oh, okay. So for reference, these are song prompts for when you're stuck. And this is a game my husband and some friends came up with one morning and they wrote some really silly prompts. And the thing is, like one is like it can only be everything has to be arpeggio. Uh you can only write in a different language. You have to use the chords from the number one billboard song on the day you were born. Funny stuff like that. Just to like have a start.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Yeah, write in another language on that one. How does how does someone do that if they don't speak another language? That's that's fun. Google Translate and then retranslate it.

Developing Mia Nikolai’s Next Phase

SPEAKER_01 23:13

So remind us all what's the name of the artist that you've been working with.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Mia Nikolai.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

She's she looked cool. I looked her up a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

She'd be very cool. She's got David Bowie S blondie, cool glam rock vibe happening. I can't wait to put the music out that we made together. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

And and where is that project at right now?

SPEAKER_00 23:34

So one of our big goals with her last year was to get her established, get her ET out, and find a great manager. So she's working with a manager now, and she just brought on. And so we're just moving into that next phase.

Self-Producing Rosebuds

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Now you also put out your own record, Rosebuds, which was your first fully self-produced album. What did producing yourself unlock creatively and what did it demand emotionally?

SPEAKER_00 24:01

I pushed myself. I realized my limitations. I did co-produce a lot of the songs with other artists and producers, but this was my first like executive produced, and I made all the demos, I followed through the sonics. I wrote a lot of the songs lyrically on my own. I really led the whole vision of it. And that was the first time I had really gotten the opportunity to do that. I really enjoyed it. I did, but I feel like it'll be a long time before I do it again. It's hard not to have someone else to be like, no, yes, no, yes, and it's hard hard to do that with your song.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

But you were always co-producing anyway, I'm sure, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:46

I wasn't at the beginning. I was really actually blocked out of that pro part of the process, which was frustrating. But it wasn't until I made Super Glue, my third album that I was co-producing. But really that was a whole learning experience of how to produce, because I was learning from Tommy my husband as we made super glue together. I really learned like what how you know how to finish something and make it sound finished.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

And super glue is also the name of your of

Launching Superglue Records

SPEAKER_01 25:19

your label, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Superglue is the name of my label. Um yeah, super glue is an idea, is a DIY. I love what Mia actually discovered about the super glue records and name. She was like, Oh, because so super glue records, our logo is a disco ball. I didn't really know why I was using a disco ball. It was my 10-year-old's idea. He was like, I think he drew it and he was like, a disco ball would be cool. That's what the drawing is. It's like me and him drawing it. And then Mia was like, Oh, is it because it takes super glue to make a disco ball? And I was like, Yes, that is exactly was not thought about, but yes, that's exactly why.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Admint, it's funny. That's took someone else from the outside figuring out what you had always meant. So it's it's different though, for you to be more of a mentor now. That's kind of a whole nother executive and mentor, and it's like a whole nother.

Mentorship, Delegation And Creative Focus

SPEAKER_00 26:22

I'm really learning my limitations with it. I also this process, I've now have my own mentor for the first time. He's amazing. He's an AR, he was a billboard writer for many years, and he encouraging me that my creative, my Elva Voss career of putting music out is not over. And it never was over, but he was like, I be mindful of how far you move out of creative focus. And that and that was like my big takeaway from starting the label last year and what all that involved of me. And realized I am just a creative person. I have endless creative ideas. I just need to be in creative situations all the time. That's where I thrive. Doing the other side of stuff was like I was able to do it, I know how to do it. It wasn't necessarily bringing me joy. I've learned how to outsource and delegate. And I've met so many amazing people that I'm starting to work with now, so it's not all on me.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

So what are you delegating? Are you delegating creatively or like social media or what kind of stuff?

SPEAKER_00 27:32

Social media, project management, sync pitching, ad marketing. These are things I'm working towards. But kind of what I'm learning and realizing through this process, I've always been an independent artist. I've never had a record label. It kind of makes sense for me as an artist to now have a record label to support other artists, but my project as well. For the first time in a while, I'm feeling like, oh, maybe I am gonna be supported enough to put out another record. Because I was feeling like after my last record, it was just all on me on the creative and the release aspect of everything.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Trying to figure out what's a sustainable. What does a sustainable career look like in 2026? How do you do all that stuff and how do you earn money from it and have it work in your life with your children? I mean, this is it's a lot. You have a lot on your plate.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

I I'm learning, I'm trying to figure out what I can take off my plate. And you know, that's hard because I want to do everything. I want to more so than wanting to do everything I want to do. The things I'm doing, I want to do them exceptionally. And if you want to do something exceptionally, you have to have super focus on it. I'm figuring out how I can feel like I have the support and the comfort to be super hyper focused on my next project.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

I was interested, I mean, for lots of reasons, we had a nice chat a few weeks ago, but also being a young mom, you are the first young

Support Systems And Mental Health

SPEAKER_01 29:02

mom. I've interviewed people who had kids, but there were kids who were older. Having an infant really is and doing all the things you do. That's that's a lot. That is, you know, having a label and developing talent and stuff, that's impressive.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

I'm really not doing it a lot. That's the part I I really hope people see, especially other moms. You can't do it by yourself. You really can't. I definitely like there's things I just don't do so that I can do this. And that's part of it. And I still live close to my parents. My parents are here, they help out. I'm really lucky to be in a place in my life where I can hire part-time help with baby. We're running our studios from our house. We have a busy lifestyle. We're both operating at really high levels, doing really intense work. And we really couldn't do it without support. And I think that's so important to have that visibility because when I was starting out, I couldn't afford help. I could, I didn't have the support I have this time around. And I found my own way of doing it and making it work through that to be able to do what I'm doing now. There's no way I could do it if I was in that same situation. Yeah. And like I just don't want anyone to ever think like, oh, and you make it look so easy doing it all. Like, well, I'm not doing it alone. I'm really dependent on quite a few people to be able to live this lifestyle.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

And it and it's great that you have that support system also that's important. And that that kind of brings me to other thoughts. She creates noise, we're really celebrating women, helping women. I'm talking more professionally, not so much being uh nannies, but who are the women personally or professionally who helped shape your confidence and how can you pass that sort of experience on to other women who who, you know, know that there are women out there that will be supportive.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

For me, it's just living by example. I mostly work with women, I mostly hire women. If I need to hire someone for any sort of job, it's mostly a woman. It's often women who want to become mothers, and we end up talking about it and like what that looks like, and they get that insight of how it is possible. Currently, I have a mentee, a young high school grad who's been working with me for a year and a half almost, and that's been really fulfilling. And she's helpful to me, and I'm helpful to her. It's really a symbiotic relationship. I try to share on social media about my family life and dynamic and what that looks like. And oftentimes, like I do end up working with other women artists or songwriters who are like, you know, I didn't ever see this as a possibility for me, but through watching you do it in your career, I feel like it's attainable, and that's everything that's such a huge win to be someone else's example of like this is a possibility, and my life is not gonna end up their heads.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Great. I wish I had had a second kid, but at least I had one. I mean, it's amazing that you can have two children and do all this that you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

I mean, they're 10 they're 10 years apart. So my son is a really helpful, he's insanely helpful, best big brother ever. And it's great for me too, because the first with my with my son, my first, I was 28. I didn't know who I was or who I wanted to be, even I didn't know what I was doing. So it was everything was stressful. I had anxiety, I had been untreated for depression, and then I had postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety. And it took me getting sick to getting diagnosed with cancer and going through treatment and being sick for a year to realize I need to depend on other people. I and I need a lot more support. I need to take care of my mental health, I need to ask for help. I can't do everything by myself. I went in to this being very much an island, thinking I can figure it out myself. And through that, I was like, actually, I'd rather maybe I'm still on the island, but I'm gonna invite everyone here to what I'm doing. And so it's nice to get to do it this time with a baby again and to have the clarity of like this phase is gonna go by so quickly. So even though it's hard, I'm enjoying every second of it. And I don't have the anxiety because I just feel like it's it's all gonna be fine. I think just doing it one time when you do it a second time with a newborn, it's just like you just don't have that same anxiety that you know what to expect. So I'm really getting to enjoy at this point. I mean, enjoy this phase of baby hood.

SPEAKER_01 33:49

And a little girl, no less.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

That's and a little girl, and she's also the best baby. She's just like she makes it easy.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

When you say she comes to meetings with you or whatever you were saying then?

SPEAKER_00 33:59

Oh, yeah. I only have five hours of a setter every four days a week, which is uh plenty of time for me. I use that time mostly for like being alone in the studio and creating and doing something where it needs my full attention. So I am often taking work calls with her in the my morning hours. And uh, she's great.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

You've gone through so many interesting chapters. Thank you for sharing so much of your life and experience. And and we as I said, we hadn't really spoken to a young mother, so it's it's very refreshing and cool the way you're handling

Reinvention Without Touring

SPEAKER_01 34:37

everything. When you look ahead, what feels the most exciting about the next version of Elavos slash Lauren Salomone? What's what's going to be happening?

SPEAKER_00 34:47

I've been producing and writing with other artists, and so those songs that I've worked on are starting to come out. And that's exciting to have to hear my work in a different way, and people see me in a different light and see what I'm capable of. Um it's not to be less of a in a box. I guess that's always like my driving force is like you're not gonna put me in a box, you're not gonna tell me what I can or can't do. I'm constantly reinventing it. Like I love surprises in people, I'm excited to see it as well.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

And your own stuff, I imagine, other than working with people.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

And then on my own stuff, I'm figuring out what it looks like and what I really want to do. And you know, I'm not interested in touring at this point right now. And so looking at like what does putting music out look like for me at this stage of my life? What other purpose does it serve than just to be an artistic expression? So that's where I'm at right now, just kind of delving into that.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

More of you doing your own music and not going on the road with family, which is probably a lot easier. You know, I'd like to play a song, uh something that you wanna want people to hear.

Featured Song And Closing Credits

SPEAKER_01 36:03

So we're gonna play a little bit of Ela Voss's super blue, and I'm gonna go back to the Cut.

Sponsor Thanks And Team Credits

SPEAKER_01 37:20

I'd like to thank today's sponsor, Herd City, the premier audio post-production company servicing the advertising, motion picture, and television industries right here in NYC. I'd also like to thank Antello, aka Ecto Ann, for singing the She Creates Noise theme that I wrote. Thanks for listening to She Creates Noise. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe, rate, and share. I want to thank the team here: Blair Rhinely, Yelena Stevanovich, Emily Wilson, and the Master of Engineering and Grammy winning Cooper Anderson. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_06 37:54

She creates noise, she creates noise, we can avoid. She creates noise, she creates noise, she creates noise, we avoid.

Listener Shoutout And Subscribe Ask

SPEAKER_01 38:31

For example, we have a comment from Tessie Schultz in Berlin, Germany. Brilliant episode with Karen Viesy. Thanks a lot. Inspiring and great insight. All the best from Berlin. Now we really appreciate those things because it helps the algorithm. And we read everything. So please comment, send a review, and we will really appreciate it. And the podcast will do better and get to more people. Thanks a lot.