ELLIS Announces Debut Album & Shares First Song 'Fall Apart'

Today Ellis - Hamilton, Ontario's Linnea Siggelkow - announces her breathtaking debut album, Born Again. Produced by Jake Aron (Snail Mail, Solange, Grizzly Bear) and recorded partly at Aron's Brooklyn studio, Born Again arrives as the follow-up to Ellis's debut EP The Fuzz-a self-released, self-produced effort that promptly led to a deal with Fat Possum Records. In a departure from the viscerally charged dream-pop of The Fuzz, Born Again unfolds with a mesmerizing subtlety, gracefully spotlighting Ellis's unhurried melodies, starkly confessional lyrics, and luminous vocal work. Not only does this record and its production showcase Ellis' incredible growth as a songwriter, but it also explores more complex and honest themes than her earlier work. "I grew up Christian and was quite devoted to faith up through my late teens, but I started challenging that once I got to university," says Siggelkow, the daughter of a traveling book salesman and a piano teacher. "Since then I've been trying to redefine who I am and where I stand and what I think about these things on my own, and that journey very much played into the songwriting on this record." Pre-order Born Again now, out April 3rd on Fat Possum Records, HERE.

To celebrate the announcement of Born Again, Ellis shares the album's first single. On the sweetly hazy "Fall Apart," Ellis takes on a heart-crushing vulnerability, laying bare her longtime struggle with anxiety and its impact on her most precious relationships. She says of the song: "This is really just an honest reflection of my struggle with anxiety and how I can't hide it from the people closest to me. It's about the feeling the first time someone you admire sees you in your most vulnerable state, about putting in the work to get better but still having moments of weakness. My anxiety comes over me like a tidal wave, and it feels like I am spiraling out of control. I am finding better and healthier ways to cope, to talk myself down when I can feel myself starting to fall, but it still happens sometimes even though I wish that it didn't."

Listen to the song and watch it's gorgeous music video!

Ellis is already slated to tour with Ratboys later this year, and today she announces more tour dates. All new tour dates will be on-sale this Friday, January 24th. See below to find a show near you, and get your tickets HERE.

Tracklisting

1. Pringle Creek

2. Born Again

3. Shame

4. Embarrassing

5. March 13

6. Fall Apart

7. Happy

8. Into the Trees

9. Saturn Return

10. Zhuangzi's Dream

The full-length debut from Ellis, Born Again takes place in spaces both intimate and vast, ordinary and near-mythic: warm beds and lonely church pews, restless cities and desolate forests and the furthest reaches of the cosmos. Throughout the album, those spaces serve as the backdrop to Ellis's sharply detailed and sometimes-painful experience of self-discovery, as well as the life-changing transformation echoed in the album's title.

Embedded with Ellis's untethered guitar work and elegant piano melodies, Born Again showcases the sophisticated musicality she's honed since taking up piano at age four (partly due to the influence of her mother, a piano teacher). The summer she was 12, Siggelkow saved up her babysitting money and bought her first guitar, then began writing her own songs a few years later. "Because of my anxiety, the idea of performing was always intimidating, so the songs stayed in my bedroom for a long time," she notes. Upon moving to Toronto in her early 20s, Siggelkow started playing in local bands, later making her name as a solo performer in the city's DIY scene, until she eventually adopted the moniker of Ellis (a play on her initials).

For Ellis, the making of her debut album proved to be incredibly demanding. "When the record was finished, I didn't feel how I had anticipated I would. I thought I was going to be feeling excited and fulfilled and proud of myself, but truthfully, I felt very depleted and drained and emptied out. The more I thought about why that was, the more I realized that I really did give this record all of myself, every last bit." But through that process, she slowly made her way to an unforeseen clarity-an effect she hopes might ultimately transfer onto Born Again's listeners. "I feel like I've found some sort of closure, and a better understanding of all the ways I've grown and the things I still have to work on," says Siggelkow. "I rarely sit down with any specific intention when I'm working on music, but if these songs help people to find some comfort or feel less alone in what they're going through, then that's really the greatest takeaway I could ever hope for."

Tour dates - new tour dates in BOLD

3/5 - Hamilton, ON @ Casbah

3/17- 3/21 - Austin TX @ SXSW

3/24 - Manitou Springs, CO @ Lulu's Downstairs*

3/26 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court*

3/27 - Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Fest

3/29 - Seattle, WA @ Barboza*

3/30 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios*

4/2 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of The Hill*

4/3 - Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room*

4/4 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo*

4/5 - San Diego, CA @ Che Cafe*

4/7 - Phoenix, AZ @ The Rebel Lounge*

4/9 - Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge*

4/11 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry*

4/13 - Chicago, IL @ Schubas

4/24 - Toronto, ON @ Monarch Tavern

4/25 - Montreal, QC @ Ursa

4/26 - Boston, MA @ Great Scott

4/28 - New York, NY @ Elsewhere Zone One

4/29 - Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle

4/30 - Washington, DC @ Songbyrd

5/20 - London, UK @ The Lexington

5/27 - Brussels, BE @ Witloof Bar

5/28 - Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso (Upstairs)

*supporting Ratboys

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