ella jane's "AUGUST IS A FEVER" Will Give You Chills
ELLA JANE IS ON FIRE. STREAM HER LATEST RELEASE, “AUGUST IS A FEVER,” AND READ OUR INTERVIEW BELOW !!
HOW IS “AUGUST” DIFFERENT FROM YOUR PREVIOUS RELEASES?
Not to pull out the pretentious word “sonically”, but sonically, it feels very different from my previous releases. This song is exactly where I want to be in terms of sound—it just feels a little riskier—which I think is a good thing.
YOU HAVE A PRODUCERS CREDIT ON THE SONG. WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO GET TO WORK ON THE TRACK?
I did a little bit more production work on this one than I did on the other two demos. In the past, when I was working with producers, I was always hesitant to ask for a producer’s credit. The final product was always a little different than I had initially imagined. For this one, I was a lot more hands on. I wanted the song to sound like the demo that I had made, but I also wanted to work with someone so that it didn’t sound like I made it from my laptop. It’s been cool to get to see my ideas through from the very start to the very end. It’s exciting to hear a song in my head and then figure out how to get it there.
WHAT IS “AUGUST” ABOUT?
It’s an identity crisis bottled up in a song. It’s this feeling of being trapped where you are, but also feeling comfortable in a situation and scared to leave. I wrote it the summer before my senior year of high school. I was so ready to graduate. I think that if I had known about the whole pandemic situation, I would have been a little more grateful for the year ahead. But at that point I was like, “I need to get out of here.” My school was super small and I had been with the same kids since kindergarten, but I loved my friends and I liked our little routine of going from parking lot to parking lot. We had a playlist that we listened to everyday and we would drive on highways and go to Starbucks drive-thrus and sit at each other's houses. I just wished there was a way that some version of myself could stay in my hometown with my best friends and then at the same time another version of myself could go out and experience new things.
DO YOU REMEMBER WHERE YOU WERE WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED WRITING THE SONG?
The song came after a good Gracie Abrams Instagram stalk. Initially, it was a song about how no one I liked ever liked me back. The first lines were “I’m sitting in the dark again/hoping that you need a friend,” and I was like, “God Ella shut up. Just write about what you did today.” Then it became, “I’m sitting in the parking lot/for the second time today.” The song turned into a song about me being bored, but also really happy at the same time. I was in a much better spot in my life. I finally felt more comfortable with myself and had a really solid group of friends. Junior year was a really rough time for me mentally and being in a new position was weird. I was writing all of my college essays while living a small-town kind of summer. I had the “august is a fever” line floating around in my head for a while, and it all just kind of came together.
WAS IT WEIRD FOR YOU TO FINISH THE SONG WHILE YOU WERE AT COLLEGE?
The song was such a long process. I started it over a year ago. When you’ve been working on a song for so long it’s hard to look at it objectively. Ending it now, it’s been weird for me to put it back into context. I’ve finally gotten to the stage that I wanted to be at when I first wrote it. I’m a little bit more grown up and independent, but everything still feels uncertain, which is how I was feeling when I first wrote the song.
NOW THAT YOU’RE AT SCHOOL AND IN THIS NEW ENVIRONMENT, HOW ARE YOUR FRIENDS REACTING TO YOUR MUSIC?
They’re actually in this song. One of the songs that I had put on my reference playlist for this song was “Cheers (Drink To That)” by Rhianna. There’s this one part in the song where a bunch of drunk people at a bar or a concert are screaming the words to the last chorus. I wanted the ending of my song to sound like that—like a Friday night. I had my school friends record the last chorus in my dorm room super later at night. I’m in a single, so my dorm room is tiny. We all crowded around my microphone and started screaming it. There’s a sample at the end and it’s my friend Alex. He says, “oh my god I can’t wait for this song to be out.” It’s fun to have my friends be a part of the song. I didn’t want the song to end in a way where it felt like I was talking bad about my past. I also asked some of my friends from home and internet friends to join in on that last chorus, which was a really nice way to tie together those two different parts of my life.
KEEPING ON THAT HAPPY JOYFUL NOTE, YOU’VE HAD A LOT TO CELEBRATE. “NOTHING ELSE I COULD DO” JUST HIT 1 MILLION STREAMS, “THE CITY” JUST HIT TWO MILLION, AND YOU’RE RELEASING A NEW SONG!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO CELEBRATE?
At my school there’s this cannon. The tradition is to paint the cannon. On the night of the 11th, my friends and I are going to get a bunch of spray paint and stake out the cannon. It’s shameless self-promotion. I also really want to get a tiny tattoo of a key. In all of my songs I talk about cars and keys. I’m also holding a key on the cover of “The City.” I wanted to get something that will still hold meaning to me in the future, but also has meaning to me now. So hopefully, by the time “August” is out I’ll have a little tattoo. That would help celebrate this release as well.
HOW SHOULD LISTENERS CELEBRATE THE RELEASE OF “AUGUST IS A FEVER?”
Listeners should drive around their towns, sit in different parking lots, and listen with their friends. I think also what’s good about this one is that you don’t have to be in a small town to relate to it. I think anyone that’s been in high school or college can relate to feeling trapped. It’s a little scarier for me to be putting this one out because it feels a little riskier musically, but I just hope that people like it.
“AUGUST IS A FEVER” BY ELLA JANE IS OUT NOW. YOU CAN FIND THE SONG ON STREAMING SERVICES LIKE SPOTIFY AND APPLE MUSIC. GO LISTEN AND MAKE SURE TO SUBSCRIBE TO TWENTY MINUTES LATER FOR MORE INTERVIEWS LIKE THIS ONE.
