After just recently graduating from Harvard University, Brynn Elliott is ready to face on her next challenge and dedicate herself to pursuing a music career.
Having released songs while attending Harvard, the artist was able to manage juggling the two things she is passionate about. Her EP is set to drop sometime later this year.
The Knockturnal: Was there ever a moment where you doubted going to school in order to focus on singing?
Brynn Elliott: I never really did. I really thought that school was a way I could be present in my songwriting. For me they were really two sides of the same coin. I was pretty determined to finish my four years. I got really lucky in knowing I was an artist going into school. It was something I had discovered about myself before, so when I was a freshman, I was like, “okay… I’m going to build a bank of song ideas over the next four years that I want to have with me for the rest of my life.” And so, I really set out to do that in college. For me there was never a moment where I felt like it would be a better decision to not to be in school because it really fueled me creatively.
The Knockturnal: What drew you to study philosophy?
Brynn Elliott: I always have been fascinated with ideas and questions. Kind of asking deeper questions about life. I wrote my first song when I was sixteen about someone who was very close to me who passed away, and I think when I realized I was a songwriter, I realized I wanted to deal with the deeper things of what it means to be human. And then I realized that there’s a whole subject that you can study that’s just about that! I started taking philosophy classes my freshman year and immediately fell in love.
The Knockturnal: How difficult was it to navigate both school and your singing career?
Brynn Elliott: It was definitely very difficult! I performed and toured a lot during college. It was kinda the main thing that I did. And I would send in papers, submit papers online for my classes right before getting on stage or right after to meet the midnight deadline. It felt a lot like scrambling and making it up as I went along, but in many ways it was the most amazing thing because I was doing these two things; school and music, but they felt like two sides of the same thing. They were feeding into each other and fueling each other, so even though I was very sleep deprived, I was very inspired.
Brynn Elliott: Yeah I think for me there’s been little moments throughout my life that have sorta been that moment for me. When I wrote my first song, it was kinda like the proverbial moment. I was sitting down trying to try to understand how to take the SAT, and I had a book that was apparently going to tell me how to do it. And I was like “Screw that! I need to write something right now.” I had been dealing with this woman who had passed away, she was a close family friend, her name was Marie. She was an artist and she studied English in college, and she was just so inspiring to me. I was like “I have to write a song right now!” and it was the first song. That moment I was like “Okay, something is happening and I don’t really know what it is.” And I think the other moments really happened when I started playing song live. And those were the moments where I realized that not only do I wanna be a songwriter, but I wanna perform. The moment, being able to share something with an audience and to kind of walk through a moment in time with them, and share whatever I have with them and them being able to give so much more back to me, I realized I want to do that the rest of my life.
The Knockturnal: With pop, a lot of people have the preconceived notion that it’s more mainstream, and holds less powerful lyrics. I found your lyrics very meaningful. Is there a reason you choose to write pop music?
Brynn Elliott: I think I made a really conscious decision to write pop music my sophomore year of college when I wrote my single “Might Not Like Me.” I think what that experience was for me was when I realized that pop music was so music like philosophy. When I was writing that song I was in this class that was dealing with feminist philosophy, women in philosophy- in the 1600’s London. And we talked about how these women overcame the constraints of their time. I was also going through a breakup and experiencing all this stuff. Reading feminist philosophy and also experiencing feminism in my daily life led me to write this song that was about a universal idea. So for me I realized that philosophy and songwriting and pop songwriting specifically we’re trying to get universal human ideas in a very simple put together way. In a way that can communicate to anybody in any phase of time, whether it is in the 1600’s or in 2018. So for me, pop music posed the challenge of writing a song that everyone could feel. And all the genres are like that but I think pop music does that especially. It’s definitely that genre that drives me most.
The Knockturnal: Many artists change their name or come up with a pseudonym/ anagram in order to stand out a little more. Did you ever consider doing so?
Brynn Elliott: You know it’s funny it actually was. I was talking to one of my friends one time and she was like “You should just go by just ‘Elliott!’ So just my last name, which sounds super mysterious and super cool. And for a second I entertained the thought, and then I realized a week later that you know what I’m Brynn Elliott! That’s just who I am and it’s so funny how it just isn’t the same. I felt like with ‘Elliot’ I would take on a persona that wasn’t myself. And one of the things I’m really passionate about is the idea of being yourself. So I felt with picking on a pseudonym would actually cause me to create a new persona and I’m just ‘Brynn Elliott’ and that’s who I wanna be. I also do think it is very cool if you have an acronym or something that speaks to you.
The Knockturnal: Your song “Time of Our Lives” is about graduating and the experiences you had throughout college. What was it like listening to that with your family and friends?
Brynn Elliott: Oh my gosh! Thursday was just crazy, having the song out and my close friends knew the song. They would walk around where commencement was happening singing the words and it was crazy. I had other friends from my classes come up to me and say “I’ll listen to this song and it will always make me think of graduation.” I literally broke down in tears several times that day. Just about how much of a blessing it was for me to be able to release a song that I wrote about our experience at college and to be able to give that to my friends and my classmates is the best thing ever.
The Knockturnal: You recently signed to Atlantic Records and Big Yellow Dog Records! Congrats! Do you have any artist you look up to from these labels?
Brynn Elliott: Yes! So many, too many to name! It’s really funny because last summer I was on tour with Switchfoot and Lifehouse, I was opening for them and it was kinda the summer where I was trying to get at the heart of who I was and I had embraced writing pop music and being a pop artist. The whole summer I was just thinking of two artist in particular; Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars. There are elements in both of these artists that I just so resonate with. Being able to sign with Atlantic Records, where both Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars are part of the roster is just so humbling and I can’t even begin to explain how crazy-insane that is for me! I’m humbled and grateful to be a part of both Atlantic Records and Big Yellow Records, who have Meghan Trainor and powerful women in pop music. I can’t even begin to tell you how it is to work with them and to embark on this next phase, it’s great.
The Knockturnal: Aside or from the label who’s your biggest musical inspiration?
Brynn Elliott: There’s so many! Going back to what we were talking about with those moments, I remember being seventeen years old and my mom took me to a Brandi Carlile concert that was really close to our house in Atlanta. I remember watching her and being like “whatever she’s going, I wanna somehow be close to that, I wanna be a part of that.” If I could only pick one, I think Brandi Carlile is one of the most incredible artists that has meant so much to me and I’ve been able to meet her and open for her, she’s become a kind of mentor and I think her songwriting and the way she approaches her life and her craft is endlessly inspiring to me.
The Knockturnal: Can you give some insight as to what your EP holds in store?
Brynn Elliott: Yeah I’m so excited to release it! It’s a collection of songs that speaks to my experience in school and college and they’re all songs I wrote in the midst of being a college student. I’m exciting because it’s like a continuation of “Time of our Lives” and that’s what I’m most excited about. Right now I’m thinking about the last four years of my life and seeing all my friends and what we went through, I’m excited to release songs that speak to that.
The Knockturnal: What do you do when you getting writer’s block?
Brynn Elliott: It’s funny because I really only have writer’s block when I’m writing papers. I think for songs I just have to sit down in a very quiet room and think “Brynn, what do you wanna say? Or what is really on heart?” Sometimes it works and sometimes I’m sitting in a room for many hours!
The Knockturnal: Favorite song at the moment?
Brynn Elliott: I’m actually obsessed with this song called Furious by Jade Bird. It’s very different than what I’m writing right now but i think that’s why i like it.
The Knockturnal: Favorite food?
Brynn Elliott: Cake!
The Knockturnal: Favorite movie?
Brynn Elliott: This is really obscure and I wish I had a more culturally relevant movie but there’s this movie called “Babette’s Feast” and I barely remember what happens in the movie. I think this woman inherits all of this money and then she makes an amazing, incredible feast for the whole village. But, the closing line of the movie is “An artist is never poor”, and that’s just something that I carry with me day to day. The privilege of being an artist is that we get to experience beauty. So that’s my favorite movie because of that line, even though I don’t remember anything other than that line.
The Knockturnal: Favorite thing to do with your friends?
Brynn Elliott: So many things! I think it’s cooking. We spend time in the kitchen, we had a little one in our dorm. I’m not a really good cook, but some of my other friends are and being able to do that together is a really fun experience.
The Knockturnal: Most frequently used emoji?
Brynn Elliott: That’s really hard because I use like all of them! But, the sunflower emoji. I use that quite a bit.
The Knockturnal: Do you have a staple piece of clothing that you love wearing?
Brynn Elliott: I am obsessed with jackets. Cool leathers jackets are my favorite. I have one that I really like. And jean jackets! Any kind of jackets… blazers, that’s my vibe.
The Knockturnal: First concert?
Brynn Elliott: Keith Urban. When I was in seventh grade.
The Knockturnal: If you could tour anywhere, where would it be?
Brynn Elliott: I would love to tour in either Europe or Asia. I really wanna go to Asia. I’ve never been and I think it would be one of the most incredible experiences to be able to experience a place that I’ve never been to.