Three years ago, I sat down with singer/songwriter Brynn Elliott to talk about her track “Beautiful Things,” which was inspired by her grief journey following the recent passing of her father. Since we last spoke, Brynn Elliott has relocated to Nashville, gotten married, and even adopted a dog. Over the past few years, she has experienced both love and loss, and this is reflected in her music. With her latest single “On My Own,” she delves into themes of forging your own path, and carrying on despite it all.
“On My Own” showcases an alt-pop sound, a bit of a new sonic space for Elliott. Ever present is her authenticity and vulnerable lyricism, easing listeners into a new sound. We reconnected to speak about the new release, but to also dive into this current chapter of her life: her grief journey, her relocation to Nashville, and this new era of her artistry.
Brigid Young: The last time we spoke was in 2022, and so much has happened since then! Your new single “On My Own” comes out this Friday, what emotions are you experiencing leading up to this release?
Brynn Elliott: I’m really excited for this song to be out. I feel like it’s maybe a bit different from what I’ve done in the past. It’s very emotional, and it feels pretty raw. It’s me in my rawest form, in music.
BY: Could you tell me a bit about how the song came together? What did the creative process look like?
BE: I ended up writing this song a couple years ago and didn’t really think anything of it. I kind of challenged myself to write a bunch of songs all by myself, alone in a room. I sent them around to different friends to get feedback, really just as an exercise in growing as a songwriter and learning as a songwriter. My friend, Cason Cooley, a producer here in Nashville, was like, we should work on these. Last year I moved from LA to Nashville, and once I got here, Cason and I started working on it. The lyrics kind of changed and it sort of formed once we were in the room producing it, the essence of it was always there. It’s just a song about needing to chart your own new path in life, which I think is a common experience.
BY: I wanted to talk a bit about the lyric “I will breathe on my own,” as to me it sounds like sort of an affirmation, which I think is really powerful. What does that lyric mean to you, and what did it look like to reach the point where you felt that you could breathe on your own?
BE: It is kind of that affirmation, almost acceptance. I think there’s this old adage that says life moves on, or life goes on. Like, there’s one thing about life, it goes on. I think whenever you’ve been through anything challenging, or even painful, there comes that moment in the grief cycle of like: okay, I’m here, and I’m going to just keep going. Especially in that bridge moment, I wanted to have this feeling of: I’m going to be okay. I’m going to breathe.
BY: Absolutely. You mentioned your relocation to Nashville, I was curious what that transition was like for you, especially coming from LA. What was that like?
BE: In a lot of ways, coming to Nashville felt like coming home. I grew up in Atlanta, which is just three hours south of here, my mom is still in Atlanta. It was much more of a transition, for me, going out to LA. Los Angeles feels like an entirely different planet. Coming back to Nashville is just kind of back to myself. I think you can even hear that in the lyrics of this song. At the end I say, I’m going to hold onto who I am. I think it kind of marks the transition in my life where I circled back, even locationally, where I’m from. My grandmother and my whole dad’s side of the family grew up in Kentucky, two hours away from here. I feel like that sort of ownership of my life and my story that I maybe haven’t had in the past.
BY: Like you said, it comes through in the music for sure. How do you feel that environment and your surroundings impact you creatively?
BE: I think it’s huge. I think being able to be comfortable, especially when you’re maybe a songwriter like myself, I really want to be very honest. Really authentic to where I’m at, what I’m feeling. I think when you’re in an environment that lends itself to that, I think better songs are made. I really feel that in Nashville. I feel that in the music community here. I love everyone that I work with in LA, LA is amazing for a lot of different reasons, but what I love about Nashville is… it’s just that everyone feels like a friend. Everyone is rooting for each other here, and that feels really, really good.
BY: That’s so cool to have a community like that. With all of these shifts you’ve gone through in these past handful of years, do you feel that your relationship with songwriting has evolved?
BE: I think in some ways, I view songwriting much more as a creative, like a craft. I think I always knew that concept, but I think I really, especially as I’ve been writing more on my own, I really have enjoyed the poetry of it all, and how songs can be very expansive. I think the one thing about this song that I like is that the lyrics, for me, are pretty general. They describe sort of general feelings, but that’s very intentional. I think in the past I’ve done more very specific, I’ve had a very specific message in mind that I wanted to say which was fun. I think in this new kind of song I’m trying to just release some of the control over what the narrative is, and just sort of feel. To me, that feels like an evolution of craft.
BY: It widens the scope for people who can resonate to the songs, as well, lyrically focusing on feelings. When it comes to songwriting currently, what are you inspired by?
BE: I think I’m always inspired by books I’m reading, literature I’m reading. That’s pretty much a constant from the very first song I wrote to now. I’m just really inspired by words that other people have written, and whether that’s something I take verbatim, or make it my own, or do a casual nod to someone in literature, or just a particular story sparks an idea for a feeling or an experience that I want to put into a song. I always go to the books.
BY: Are you reading anything good right now?
BE: I’m midway through Remarkably Bright Creatures, which is a newer book. I have a joke that I read a lot of dead people, I love Jane Austen. British women, classics. But I’m trying to branch out and read more modern stuff. This one, this novel is really beautiful, and it deals with a lot of grief, which has been a theme for me, and nature. It’s about an octopus and this older woman, and her story. I think that’s inspiring me to think a lot about nature, I have a dog, we adopted her a few years ago, so that’s been kind of a new thing in my life. I don’t know if a song will come out of that, but yeah.
BY: I did want to speak a bit about your grief journey, as when we spoke in 2022 it was fairly soon after your father had passed away, and again, I am so sorry for your loss.
BE: Thank you.
BY: Grief is an eternal thing, always evolving and progressing. When it comes to your grief journey, what role do you feel grief has in your work currently?
BE: I think immediately after, when we last spoke, it took much more of a role because it was right where I was. I am who I am in whatever moment, and I think I’ve been able to… not heal in the sense that all the grief is gone, but I think I’m kind of starting to find more confidence in myself. I think when you lose a parent, who you’re close to, there’s a real disorientation. I think a lot of my journey has been finding who I am, and I think that’s what I’ve been wanting to put into my music, is just where I’m at now. It might not be a song explicitly about grief, but that’s also maybe part of it as well. It’s kind of being more present to the moment.
BY: In these past few years, you’ve experienced both love and loss. I was curious about your perspective on the idea that love and grief are two sides of the same coin, do you feel they go hand in hand? And do you feel like that manifests itself in your work, or in your life?
BE: Yeah, I heard this quote, I think it may have been Andrew Garfield, I don’t know if he was quoting someone else but it’s some interview with like, Jimmy Fallon. He was talking about his mom and how grief is sort of a testament to the love that you had with the person that you’ve lost. I think that’s just the most true thing. I also think… My personal experience with grief has caused me to want to love more. Like, the people in my life, and I got married a couple years after my dad passed away. Even just having a family of my own now, it just gives me so much perspective about what my dad must have been going through when he was raising my brother and me, and recognizing all of the love that I had there. So yeah, I think they absolutely go hand in hand, and sometimes that’s hard. It feels like love should just be rose and no thorns, but I think I’m learning they’re more integrated and that’s a good thing.
BY: I think I know the quote you’re referencing, or maybe it was a different one, but I really resonate with the quote “grief is love with nowhere to go.” It really is a testament to the love you’re able to experience, and really how complex the human experience is when it comes to those emotions. On a similar subject, I wanted to ask about “Shiny Happy People,” and how you feel grief impacted your relationship with faith. That is something I feel that a lot of people can relate to, what did it look like for you?
BE: Grief has had a huge impact on my faith. Faith is a big part of my life, I grew up in the kind of environment where Jesus was talked about as a Christian, kind of like, it’s all good now because Jesus did what Jesus did, and we should just feel joy and nothing else. That just seemed… when I actually looked at the story of Jesus, it seemed like not at all what they [said]. This is a very intense story. I think Christianity has a lot to say about death and grief and that this is the reality of our life. It’s okay to cry. In the song, I use that example in the gospels of Jesus literally weeping for his friend. The gospel author thought it was relevant enough to put it right there in the story. I think my faith has evolved to certainly having moments of joy, that’s part of it, hope is a huge part of it. But also, being really okay and comfortable in the space of sadness. Because Jesus was very sad.
BY: It’s so important to be able to accept and acknowledge that. How did it feel to see people resonate with that song? I feel like it must have been so powerful to affirm people in that way, in the way that you found affirmation in being able to sit in the sadness and embrace it.
BE: It’s an amazing feeling for anyone to resonate with anything that I write, but particularly on that topic, that was extremely profound. I definitely got to hear about a lot of people’s stories of grief, which I was very grateful that they would share with me. Allowing yourself to grieve also kind of allows yourself to hope. I think honesty breeds honesty. It was really exciting for me and empowering to see, to hear those stories and it took a lot of people in my own life, before I wrote the song, who told me in a dark moment: it’s okay to cry. It doesn’t mean that you’re any less of a believer or a person of faith, and so I really hope that this song would be like giving that gift back to whoever needed to hear it.
BY: The music video was so powerful, too. I don’t know if it’s because I was also raised religious, but the narrative story really resonated with me. That last scene where she finally lets out a tear was so impactful. Could you share a bit about what went into the music video?
BE: Yes, that is probably one of my favorite music videos that I’ve ever done. Mostly because I got to work with some of my best friends on it. The director, Aaron Craig is a dear friend, and his wife, Brynn Elliott Watkins. She shares my same name, it’s funny. The three of us worked on the creative concepts of that. When I explained what I wanted the video to look and feel like, they were able to take it to another level, I love that they were able to really capture what it feels like to be in this very religious space and have all this communal pressure on you to be a certain way, look a certain way, act a certain way. Lillian, the actress, she was just so good at being able to show that kind of tension in the moments where she was letting out all of her anger or sadness. I was super inspired by what she brought to the song. At the end, yeah, just having that very simple moment of grief, which I think grief often is. It’s not these dramatic moments, it’s these simple moments of just like: Jesus wept. I’m crying. That was a ramble on just how much I love that video, and the people who made it.
BY: I thought it accompanied the lyrical narrative really well. To wrap up, you’re in this new chapter of your artistry, what intentions and energy are you bringing to this new era?
BE: That’s a great question. I think just sort of a presence, trying to be present with where I’m at in my life. Whether that means writing a song or not writing a song, I’m not trying to make any kind of intense plans. I think I’m trying to let things come and not force it. I think that’s the beauty of art, that yes, you can wake up everyday and say ‘I’m going to write songs from 9-5,’ but you can also let inspiration come and go. So, yeah, I’m just trying to be open to whatever is in front of me.
Listen to “On My Own” here!
