Rising artist Ella Rosa just released her spicy new project, Anxious Attachment Style. The UK-born songstress blends a variety of genres together on five eclectic tracks that encourage listeners to be their own true selves around those they’re close to. After all, being a people-pleaser isn’t the most pleasing way to live life!
Ella and I sat down over Zoom to enjoy a bowl of grapes and to chat about the EP. Read below! (And if you really want to get in the vibe, serve yourself a bowl of fruit first.)
Hello Ella, good morning!
Hello!
We’re just over here eating our grapes.
Yes.
That’s just so funny!
It’s the move. It’s an early morning little snack.
It is! One of the first things I was going to ask you was, do you have a morning routine?
That’s a good question. Since I started doing music full time, I’ve been finding it kind of tricky to balance loving sleep and loving being in my room, against doing something with my day. I’m a very productive person, I will say. I outline my days, but in the mornings it’s kind of like a free-for-all. I have a night routine, but no morning routine. I know a lot of really successful people who have morning routines, and it gets their days started and in the mood to do stuff. I just need to do that at some point.
What’s your night routine, if you don’t mind me asking?
So my night routine – I wash my face, I brush my teeth, and have a little words of affirmation chill-out for like 5 minutes. I braid my hair (because I have to) and then I go back into chilling out. I try my best to not go on my phone. I’m not the biggest reader. I’ve been trying to read recently, so I have a book by my bed… then I sleep.
I feel like it’s so hard to not look at your phone before bed, but at the same time it’s supposed to be good for you if you avoid it.
I feel like my dreams get crazy when I look at TikTok. If I’m going to dream about stuff, I want it to be about something I should be dreaming about… not about something I saw on TikTok.
Your brain is still scrolling and scrolling infinitely. For me, I feel like I’m trying to start a morning routine too. I want to drink water before I drink anything sweet during the day.
Oh, that’s something I wanted to say! That has really changed my body and the way I approach the day. I have three big cups of water before I have my vitamins and stuff like that. It does a good thing for me.
All of this is great, and I feel like it’s a step towards success. I must say, the success is popping off now, because you have this new project called ‘Anxious Attachment Style.’ We’ve got a lot to talk about today! Tell me more about the title.
It doesn’t roll off the tongue, now that I’m hearing everyone say it. To me, it makes the most sense because this project was about finding myself in relation to how I’ve done life so far. It’s a lot of me realizing I’ve been clinging onto people, becoming obsessed with them, almost love-bombing them… I feel like I do that with a lot of people I know, and I’m trying to walk myself out of that a little bit. I think the songs I’ve written speak to a lot of people who also have that anxious attachment style.
Have you been on the receiving end of that, or do you think it’s something you’re guilty of personally?
I have been on the receiving end of it actually, which is why this is a really good question. I was recently on the receiving end of it, which is what made me look at the whole thing again. I was like hmm, it isn’t that nice to be on the receiving end of it. Any attachment style, there’s always negatives to it. The anxious one is really hard to get over I think.
What is one thing you’re attached to.. that isn’t necessarily… another human? It can be anything!
I’m attached to feeling… (this is a really negative thing) but I’m really attached to feeling grounded. Having a home. I feel attached to that just because I’ve moved around so much… this is why I love my room so much. I love my house and room. When I go on tour, I’m not gonna have a home. But somehow, home is where the heart is at the same time.
Definitely. I tell people that all the time – home is where the heart is! At the same time, I think it’s a good thing to feel grounded and appreciate the space you live in. It’s something really personal, it’s a space you created for yourself. There’s so many emotions in there, things that give you comfort from day to day. It’s your little place!
Having a base is also super super good. Being a nomad is great, but when you’re getting home you have something to look forward to and feel safe. This career is not that safe, so I need to feel like there’s one place where I can go and completely turn off.
And it’s always great to come home to your own shower that you don’t have to share with anyone other than maybe a roommate. You have your own kitchen and fridge where you can get your grapes in the morning. You have your utensils, your tv, your own internet. It’s something you should not take for granted, but when you have that, it’s amazing. It is a luxury, but it’s amazing to have it.
It is. It’s a luxury, but it feels nice to have some ownership of something.
And you own your art too, so aye!
Yay yes!
Anyways, I wanted you to choose your favorite song from this project and tell me the tea on it.
That’s really hard. I would say, my favorite is either “y u?” or “Ruin My Lyf.” I would say “y u?” I love it sonically, the sounds are the best. Lyrically, I’d say “Ruin My Lyf” because it’s theatrical, it’s very drum and bass-y. It’s funny because I’m talking about when you get in a relationship and you’re like “oh my gosh, you’re the best” and then you have this double thought that this person could completely ruin my life. That’s why I wrote that. I was in the middle of a relationship thinking it was going so well, and then I had complete doubt, intrusive thoughts and impostor syndrome thinking this person was gonna ruin my life.
Honestly, I hate when I meet people and I have those thoughts. I’m obviously gonna talk to these people and tell them what’s up. I’m gonna spill my heart out to them, but I’m also like… what if they use it against me?
No literally.
It’s so scary.
What did Brené Brown say? It was like, keep your front soft and your back hard, or your spine hard. I like that, because sometimes I’m like, is there anyone I can trust? But I think having a solid friend group is key. To make a long story short, “Ruin My Lyf” is my favorite because I think it’s funny, but it’s also dark.
It’s relatable too! Come on. I feel like everybody’s had those thoughts at some point you know?
100%. I hope so because if not, I’m crazy
No, I have them all the time.
OK good
I was going to mention, the drum and bass vibes on this project are pretttttty heavy… and I love it.
that’s what I kind of wanted and the next project I do also is going to be similar I think I’m finding my gap I’m finding my like sound and I’m realizing that I love drum and bass I always have since I was a kid and I just didn’t know that I could make music like
And then you brought in this hyperpop element as well so it’s like…
We might as well just put everything in!
Yeah, pour a little bit of this in, pour a little bit of that… you know some sugar, some spice, and everything nice… and then you got.. not The Powerpuff Girls… but a project from Ella Rosa!
Haha yeah!
Tell me some of your favorite stories from when you were putting all of this together! I know there had to be a moment where you were like, you know what? I’m living the life right now.
Yeah, I think “Ruin My Lyf” was what really changed it for me. I remember going into the session, and it was with someone who’s now like a really close friend of mine. (Doc, he produced it) and my friend Nikki was there with me. She was managing him at the time, and she was kinda helping me write almost, but she isn’t a writer. (Now she is, because she’s getting publishing from this.) She wrote the pre-chorus right there with me. It was so interesting because I was like wow, these people are like my really close friends and they’re all really creative and can do it just off the bat. That was a really cool story for me.
And then, I liked having my hand in “y u?”. I had a lot of like, production influence in that one. It kind of turned my mind around, and I started being like, “OK! Maybe I can start producing my own stuff.” I was doing all the songs, and then I listened to all of them back, and I was like… wait, these all sound like in the similar vein. I should put this in a project. That’s kind of how it came together. It wasn’t me being like, “I want to do a project like this.” It just kind of happened, you know?
Of course, it was just organic.
Exactly, it was basically like that. I’m like super happy that I had collaborators on it that could actually like… fulfill what I wanted.
That’s the dream.
(We both started singing “What Dreams Are Made Of,” because it only made sense.)
Oh man, I love my queen Hilary Duff. But anyways, what is one giant message that you’re trying to convey with this project?
I’m trying to tell people to embrace what you got. I feel like a lot of my life, I’ve been trying to put down or ignore the fact that I’m like… an anxious person slash like a little bit… not needy per se, but maybe like a little bit more like attached to some people if I really like them and I was trying to push that away but like there’s people for people and like you will find someone who appreciates that or you will find a group of people who appreciate that so like don’t settle for people who don’t accept you for who you are and I kind of wanna like make it almost tongue in cheek funny that like having an anxious attachment style is totally fine. It’s all good yeah.
I’m really glad that you’re putting like a human aspect to this.
I mean it’s like an electronic sounding project, so it’s hard to kind of like sound wise it sounds almost like you know robotic there’s a lot of singing in it but I just I wanted to like attach something that people can relate to and I thought that was that was it.
Honestly, when listening to it I felt like everything flowed together very naturally. I think it can also be a metaphor for life, like hey, you will find your flock.
And it may not be like… bubble gum pop that works for most people, but I just think it’s cool and I think a lot of people will think it’s cool.
Of course, and that’s all that matters!
Ella Rosa’s manifestation from our chat: “This year, I’d love to go on a support tour. I’d love to support a big female artist. I really like RAYE right now, she’s killing it, and she seems like a really cool person too. I also want to start writing for more artists.”
