Name: Ella Ion
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Nationality: Australian
Current release: Ella Ion's new singles “Blue Black Crows” and "Mess In Your Eyes // Vultures" are out via Our Golden Friend.  
Recommendation for Adelaide, Australia: The Scenic Hotel plus a kangaroo schnitzel and a pet nat on the balcony while the sun goes down.
Things that I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: I got really into herbalism at one stage and ended up studying it for 4 years! I know a lot of Latin names for medicinal plants and their chemical constituents and how to make all matter of remedies out of them. I do still get a bit nerdy about that lol.
I’ve been through phases of having too many interests to the point where I don’t know what to do with myself and my time. Turns out simplifying my passions has been the best thing for my creativity in music which is what I’ve decided to centre my life around - no more distractions. I really do just love art, good people, nature and food.  

If you enjoyed this Ella Ion interview and would like to stay up to date with her music and live dates, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and bandcamp.



Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in writing lyrics or poetry? How and when did you start writing?

Music has always themed the significant and mundane parts of my day, from as early as I can remember.

My mum would sing to me and my sister every night as she tucked us in, my dad would awaken us with a silly song in the morning, and he’d proceed to tell comedically improvised stories along to whatever was playing on the classical radio station as we drove to school.

I think this fostered a deep sense in me that music and creativity are as necessary and basic as anything else we motion through in our lives. It’s this sense that landed me into writing music from the age of around 14, just naturally, without thinking about the reason but as a part of playfulness and exploration.

I still write in this way, the guitar is a toy I pick up in some sort of automatic gesture as I walk past it, which just happens to be a vessel for emotional release and creation.

Entering new worlds and escapism through music and literature have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to writing?

Writing for me, like for many artists, is less a choice and more a necessity - a place where all the emotions I can’t process find their form.

I’m a deeply sensitive person, affected by the people and environments around me, and I feel I have too much going on in my internal world to express colloquially.

Songwriting gives me a space to shape those thoughts and emotions, and in doing so, I hope to create something that resonates with others who share that same complex inner world.

What were some of the artists and albums which inspired you early on purely on the strength of their lyrics? What moves you in the lyrics of other artists?

Sufjan Stevens, Nick Cave, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Prince Billy, Jeff Buckley, Leonard Cohen, Sharon Van Etten.

I think the connecting theme with all these lyricists is their ability to be both poetic and frank at the same time. They aren’t afraid to expose the strangest parts of their minds for the purpose of the art.

[Read our Bonnie Prince Billy interview]

Have there been song lyrics which actually made you change (aspects of) your life? If so, what do you think, leant them that power?

“This whole world is dying / Don't it seem like a good time for swimming /
Before all the water disappears”.

This line from “Donut Seam” by Adrianne Lenker shifts my perspective every time I hear it. There is so much pain and sadness in the world, and sometimes the state of our environment and humanity as a whole feels so hopeless.



I think this line is so special because it acknowledges that the hopelessness doesn’t need to take over, we can and should still dream, enjoy and relish in the beautiful and simple pleasures that life offers us in these confounding times.

I think to me, it acts as a reminder to reclaim joy as a protest to darkness.

It is sometimes said that “music begins where words end.” What do you make of that?

This is why art—whether music, performance, or any creative act, is so powerful. It exists beyond the boundaries of ordinary, socially accepted behavior.

Often, conversation can’t hold everything we feel or think, but music opens a space without limits—a place where we’re allowed to speak the unspeakable and step into a truer, sometimes more dramatic version of ourselves.

I have always considered many forms of music to be a form of poetry as well. Where do you personally see similarities? What can music express which may be out of reach for poetry?

I have played a few poetry and music hybrid events in Adelaide, namely Folk ‘n’ Words and Rewind Poetry. I’m always so awestruck when I see the poets stand up and share their heartfelt musings without music and melody, I think it’s incredibly brave. I’ve been inspired to start working some spoken word into my writing following these experiences.

I think music, however, holds some power in its ability to rouse so much emotion and movement in the spirit without any words at all. Being able to combine these art forms creates such a compelling medium.

The relationship between words and music has always intrigued me. How do you see it? In how far can music take you to places with your writing you would possibly not have visited without it?

When I speak about my love for music, I often come back to this fun fact: some people have a genetic predisposition to experience goosebumps when they hear music, while others don’t. It doesn’t mean the latter enjoy it any less, but it points to something innate—something biological—that triggers a physical response we scarcely understand.

For me, writing is about chasing that connection. Melodies and rhythms guide me toward what I want to say, and shape the energy with which I want it to be received.

What are areas/themes/topics that you keep returning to in your lyrics?

Self-awareness is a big one.

I find I learn so much about myself and how I function intellectually/emotionally when I start improvising lyrics - there is so much golden truth in them that can be mined long after they’ve already left my mouth.

On the basis of a piece off your most recent release, tell me about how the lyrics grew into their final form and what points of consideration were.

The lyrics for “Mess In Your Eyes” were developed over a long period—from 2020 right up until the day before recording in July. I never anticipated releasing this song; for the past five years, it didn’t have a second verse.

When I was deciding on material for the double single with Vultures, I revisited it as a possibility. Knowing I wanted the song to be a dedication to a close friend, I had her at the forefront of my mind as I rewrote the verse multiple times in that last-minute sitting.

Unlike my usual process of completing lyrics start to finish the day I write a song, this required careful thought for my friend and how the words would resonate with her. I wanted the lyrics to feel both honest and encouraging—a balance that would speak directly to her heart and acknowledge the nuances of her story.

Do you tend to start writing with what will be the first line of the finished lyrics? The chorus? At a random point? What are the words that set the process in motion?

Writing doesn’t usually run in a mechanical way for me. It’s different every time, and I never interrupt myself when a particular process is taking shape in order to fit a formula.

I do often find myself playing around on guitar and then landing on something and thinking “Oh, this feels like something new I could explore”, which then leads to cracking out the phone notes and finding some poetry or journal entries that I can turn into accompanying melody, or just improvising something and taking voice notes.

Now that I think of it, a lot of my songs actually do have the first line I’ve written as the first line of the finished song - it tends to act as the anchor point that informs the mood/narrative for the rest of the lyrics.

I'd love to know how you think the meaning or effect of an individual song is enhanced, clarified or possibly contradicted by the EPs, or albums it is part of. Does the song, for example, need to be consistent with the larger whole?

I am such an advocate for albums. I love to revisit records I adore and know by heart how one song flows into the next and the one after that.

Some of my favourite songs are just sitting somewhere in an album tracklist waiting to be found and I feel like so many people who know the artist have missed out on them. I think this is less on the artist to release more singles etc., but more reflective on the way listening culture has developed.

We need to get back to buying CDs, vinyl, downloads and get away from this one-song per artist playlist culture. Often the album contextualises the song, or makes it stick out and shine, unveiling an artists’ creative diversity and full spectrum of influence.

When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words? What's your perspective in this regard of singing someone else's songs versus your own?

I think about this a lot, because I notice myself returning to the same word-sounds and phrases across different songs.

I believe it’s partly because of how they feel in my jaw and resonate in my mouth. Certain shapes just sound more evocative when I sing them. Sometimes performing someone else’s song feels unnatural, not because of the melody or range, but because of the diction—the way the words were constructed for a different mouth.

Every voice has its own anatomy, its own palette, and that influences phrasing in subtle but significant ways. I think that’s what shapes an artist’s lyrical tendencies and creates their unique fingerprint.

I would love to know a little about the feedback you've received from listeners or critics about what they thought some of your songs are about – have there been “misunderstandings” or did you perhaps even gain new “insights?”

Funny you ask, my good friend Ricky Albeck has joined my band recently and has been playing a bunch of shows with me this past couple of months. He was learning my lyrics by ear to harmonise, and these were the lyrics he had written down in his phone.

I pissed myself when I read them because when we were singing together they all sounded perfectly matched to mine and now I’m hoping this isn’t what everyone is hearing hahahaha.

Original lyrics: You stirred the pot babe / Taste it all you need / I kept pouring it out in the sink / Like I’d eaten my share / You kept ripping clumps out my hair.

Ricky’s version: You stand apart babe / Take it all, you need / I kept pourin it out in the sink  / Like I did in my shed / You can’t whip it  / Close to my head / And times i find myself / Holdin onto my own hair

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing song lyrics or poetry is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

There are people out there to whom making a great cup of coffee is a meticulous, spiritual and emotional experience.

Anyone who is passionate about something is in pursuit of some sort of flow state of creativity and searching for the perfect balance, whether it be flavours, sounds, materials, soil components.

The thing I’ve always found cool about music and its purpose, though, is that it tends to be the soundtrack to someone’s alternate passions/flow state activities. It’s a part of most people’s daily life, even if in a passive way.

I suppose music makes the more ‘mundane’ tasks less mundane.