Meet Tawny Ellis | Singer, songwriter, musician, sculptor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tawny Ellis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tawny, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?

I have pursued an artistic career because it gives me a reason to wake up in the morning. Although it’s very challenging because it doesn’t mean that you have a job where you punch the clock, but you are compelled to do it anyway.

I don’t believe that art should be competitive, for me, it’s not about comparing myself to others.

All logic tells you that it’s too hard, that there’s too many people trying to do the same thing but it’s really not about that, its about what you need to communicate to the world. Hopefully there’s someone that might be touched by what you are doing, and that goes for any art form that speaks to what you are feeling and what you’re communicating that might inspire someone. It’s about connection.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

I am not classically trained in any sense. I am mostly self taught. I have used my voice starting as a very small child to communicate as a singer. My poetry and stream of conscious writing are where my stories for my songs come from. I started picking up instruments a little bit later in life and now play many different instruments. It’s never too late to pick up and learn a new instrument as far as I am concerned. Sometimes an instrument can totally inspire a song by the way it sounds. You start telling a story with that new instrument and it would probably never exist if you never picked up that particular instrument.
It’s not an easy road to continue to make art the center of your life but it does fill the souls yearning, the need to express myself has never left stopped.

It starts where you just do it for yourself, and your creation might be shared with others but not necessarily so.

What sets me apart from other artists I have no idea. I just hope that I can inspire anyone to just tell their stories because I think stories are important. I think stories give the listener an opportunity to expand and share what might be going on with them and sometimes it reaches someone and gives them that aha moment.

What speaks to me, when I discover a new artist whether it’s a sculpture or a song or whatever, when something speaks to me in a way that has never happened before.

I believe that my music has that built into it because it is all very original and comes from a very honest place.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

I would definitely take a visiting friend to some of my favorite restaurants here in my Silverlake neighborhood like Bacari, or Condor for Mexican food and margaritas. I would take them down to the corner coffee shop Organico and I would take them up to Griffith Park and hike up to the observatory. Go for walks around Silverlake reservoir and take them over to Echo Park Lake as well to visit the ducks. I would probably take them to lunch at the Alcove on Hillhurst.

We would hit the farmers markets/ and flea markets that are sometimes during the week and sometimes on the weekends.

I would take them out to Topanga to check out all the fun shops and people and go down to Malibu and run in the sand and lay on the beach. If I had time, I would take them up the coast and go winetasting and my favorite thing is further up the coast to Big Sur. I find it the most beautiful place that is not too far from Los Angeles. I just wrote a song called “Edge Of The World” that is inspired by Big Sur. It will be released soon.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

I’d like to shout out to all of my friends and fans who have supported me by showing up to my shows. My close friends and confidants that I bounce ideas off of who helped give me the boost of confidence when I’m just in the early stages of creations. All of the musicians who have come in to play with me and mostly to my husband Gio Loria who supports my creative vision and believes in me. We have been working together for very many years on music and we have recently created a new album with that I can’t wait to share with everyone. I’ll drop some singles from this new album “Sweet Georgia” very soon!

Website: https://Www.tawnyellis.com

Instagram: tawny_ellis

Twitter: TAWNYELLIS

Facebook: Tawny Ellis Music

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@tawnycash?si=-chAkyo0vhPbWOw6

Other: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/tawny-ellis/210363657