Images provided by Tragic Heroine, photo by sophiadiricos on Instagram
Ellie Parr is the face behind Tragic Heroine, her debut solo project that feels like it clips onto the undertow of your ears. Her debut EP, self-titled Tragic Heroine, feels just the aesthetic she paints onto it– midnight in the woods, driving through on the bed of a pickup truck. The audience gets whisked away from the woods into the cemetery in the satisfyingly named Lucky Girl, Tell Your Fortune where the droneiness of the previous becomes clearer on these two tracks. Ellie is returning on stage in Chicago at Empty Bottle this Monday, May 11th for Free Monday. Check out the death of a rabbit’s interview below and visit her set in Chicago!
DEATH OF A RABBIT: How are you? You are currently away from home!
ELLIE: I’m great! This is my first time in California. I’m touring with Runo Plum, playing bass on her debut album tour. We’ve been busy, a lot of driving!
DOAR: Were you guys at SXSW at all?
ELLIE: Yeah, we were! We had two shows on Friday the 13th and three on Saturday.
DOAR: You’re an independent musician, right? Because Pleasure Tapes is just a distribution place for you?
ELLIE: With Pleasure Tapes, the way I understand it is that you’re releasing stuff through them but you’re still an independent artist. So there’s no contracts or expectations. You submit music to them and if they like it, you become a part of the Pleasure Tapes family.
DOAR: I also wanted to talk about your artwork, especially the differentiation between the two EPs. I feel like the first one, Tragic Heroine, is very DIY, Midwest vibes and Lucky Girl, Tell Your Fortune, is more monotone. I was curious, how do you see the projects evolving through that route?
ELLIE: This is the first time I’ve released music under my own alias. I made a moodboard of what I wanted and wanted to convey. I ended up going to my friend Joe’s studio in Albany, New York last June and on the way stopped in Fort Wayne, Indiana. My friend Sophia took photos of me in a state park there in the woods. That’s where all the pictures came from for the album cover and then the artwork of the Pleasure Tape cassettes and CDs.
[Lucky Girl, Tell Your Fortune] was a double single I released last December, and it was a film photo I actually took. I did an event last September that Empty Bottle put on at Bohemia National Cemetery and it was called Beyond the Gate. At the entrance, they had a wreath and it said “Beyond the Gate” and I felt like it came out really cool!
DOAR: How do you feel about the term “Southern Gothic?” Because it feels kind of like it’s become more of a trend as of recently. Do you feel like you lean into that or feel away from it?
ELLIE: When I was first releasing and posting stuff, everyone was like, “Oh my God, Ethel Cain!” And I didn’t listen to her but all respect, she’s sick. I’m originally from the South and grew up in the church. I don’t know, I think a big part of the aesthetic I was going for was just like ethereal nature. And I was like, okay, what can I do that’s more ethereal than wearing a flowy white dress and being out in the woods? I don’t think it’s like an overused trend necessarily and I think it resonates with a lot of people. I think I’m a little bit biased because I think it’s just a cool look in general, but it wasn’t like this was exactly what I was going for also.
DOAR: Do you ever get the Ethel Cain reference and are like, “That’s not me!”
ELLIE: People will say that and honestly like respect, I made you think of Ethel Cain, maybe I’m doing something right.
DOAR: I always just wonder in general how musicians feel about comparisons because it’s an honor but at the same time it’s like, “I’m me! I’m different!”
ELLIE: Like sonically, I don’t think that my music really sounds much like Ethel Cain, maybe a little bit droney and some soft vocals. But I think it’s something else that I’ve made it into. I think just maybe the visual aesthetic is similar.
DOAR: I also want to talk about your sound – how would you describe your sound in three words? I know you reference Her New Knife and Julia’s War, but your music doesn’t feel as constrained to that as one would think, in my opinion.
ELLIE: I always have a hard time putting my stuff into a genre!
DOAR: It’s hard these days! So many sub-genres and buzzwords.
ELLIE: Exactly! At its core, it’s slowcore, shoegazey, and a little bit of noise rock.
DOAR: I’m curious how those inspirations take hold of you.
ELLIE: Absolutely. I’m very much inspired by a lot of stuff Julia’s War puts out. They’re one of my biggest inspirations, just in the way that they use feedback, noise, and making your guitar and amp make really abrasive, cool noises. But also going into some beautiful, melodic pocket and I think a lot of our newer stuff, as we’re writing more, is kind of shifting in more of the direction of some of those other Julia’s War releases. I think I take a lot of inspiration because that’s the kind of music that makes me want to make music.
DOAR: Do you have any non-musical inspirations?
ELLIE: I think one driving factor is that I spent twenty years of my life not playing music. I only just started playing bass guitar about three years ago. I spent all this time in my life not doing anything creative because I don’t really have any other creative outlets. But I feel like since I’ve gotten into music, I’ve found more and more ways to get my creative energy out. It drives me crazy, having a bunch of thoughts in my head in general and not knowing how to convey them, because it’s like twenty years of pent up emotion. And then it comes flowing out of me in a way that I can’t really stop.
DOAR: Do you feel like you haven’t hit a writer’s block then?
ELLIE: Currently in one right now. A lot of what the first EP was about was going through a lot of life changes and learning how to cope and romanticize it in a way that helps you move forward. And now that it’s like a year and a half later I’m chilling and don’t really have those things to worry about. I don’t feel capable of writing happy music but I can’t just keep writing like breakup songs, you know?
DOAR: How much do you identify with this project?
ELLIE: I resonate with it in a way that I really haven’t with a lot of other things in my life. I feel like even if I tried to make another solo project it would feel like a side project of Tragic Heroine. I feel like the vulnerability that I’ve shared in this project feels like the most me that I can get. Because all the EP that was released last summer and the double single that came out, all the parts except for the drums I wrote. Since moving to Chicago last summer and forming a band, the new stuff that we’re writing, everyone’s pitching in!
DOAR: How is it transitioning from that to a group setting?
ELLIE: Really helpful, especially because of my writer’s block. In some way, I have imposter syndrome about being a musician because I spent so much of my life not doing it. I feel like I hit a point when I’m writing and doing things with my own music where I need some sort of feedback. And I think just having other people who bring other things to the table, it’s really valuable, especially if you’re going through writer’s block.
DOAR: What’s the best thing that’s happened thus far with being in a group?
ELLIE: I don’t know! Because it is I guess still technically my solo project, I’m like the band leader. So I’ll tell my bandmates kind of how to play parts and whatnot. But I came to them with a song in late November and I just had the guitar, lyrics, and vocals, but other than that I just went to practice and played it and it turned into my favorite song.
DOAR: What medium do you want to explore next within the music project?
ELLIE: We currently don’t have any merch other than physical media and I do like to mend and do embroidery. So I would love to do some personalized kind of merch on clothes that I think are cool! And also I’m taking a lot of photos on tour and whenever I get home for the first time I will develop them myself. I also feel like screen printing would really cool, but I don’t have the means to do that at the moment.
I’m slowly writing, taking photos, conceptualizing, but still have writer’s block. This tour is really nice because it’s like a little break and another way for me to get music bug out.
DOAR: death of a rabbit likes to focus on lyricism and poetry — I was wondering, what’s a lyric that you’ve listened to lately that you really enjoyed, or what’s a lyric that you wish you’d written?
ELLIE: A song I wish I wrote, sonically and a little bit lyric wise, is “Medicine Bottle” by Red House Painters. Also lyrically, “Among the Wildflowers” by The Hotelier. Lastly, “Punch and Judy” by Elliot Smith!
Check out Tragic Heroine’s discography by clicking the picture below!
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