Ella Powell
Photo: David Maltby Images
Ella Powell's journey to become a country-pop star has certainly been unique. Growing up in the city & surrounded by a sporting family you would think that country music would be the last path this 18-year-old girl's life would take. However, from the moment she picked up a guitar at just 6-years-old fate began to unfold. Since then Ella has gone on to carve out her own unique country-pop sound, which saw her be crowned the People's Choice Award winner at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in 2019.
Given Ella's unique upbringing Pario was exciting to chat to her to discover how this passion for country music came to be & how the desire to create has evolved over the years.
Reflecting back on how she discovered her passion for music Ella said, "Honestly, I don't really know where my musical passion has come from, but I think I was just singing around the house all the time as a toddler." Witnessing the joy that Ella got from singing her parents gave Ella a guitar & from then on she says she has "never looked back."
With her guitar in hand & taking inspiration from the likes of Kasey Chambers, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Kelsea Ballerini, & Jewel the singer-songwriter path was always the direction Ella felt she would pursue.
"I absolutely love song writing, it's one of my favourite things," explained Ella. "It's a great way to let everything out & really connect with other people as well."
When lockdowns began sweeping across the country Ella was afforded the opportunity to take some time to contemplate the direction she wanted to take her music & career, with country-pop ultimately becoming the obvious choice.
"Going into COVID I had a lot more time to sit down & reflect on where I wanted to go as an artist," Ella told Pario. "I started looking at a wider range of artists both locally & overseas which made me realise that the country-pop genre was something that I wanted to explore more. Before doing that I was loving such a wide range of genres, but I always wanted to find something very specific. Once I found country-pop I started writing more & it just clicked because I have a lot of storytelling ingrained into my songs."
Not only did the lockdown period allow Ella to define a direction for her music, it also gave her ample time to write & record new songs.
"I definitely struggled not being able to gig & perform because I've been doing it for years," recalled Ella. Instead of feeling down about that though Ella said she "channelled all of that extra time into song writing" which in turn allowed her to experience "a lot of growth within my song writing as an artist."
Ella's single, Paper Towns, was the first song to come out of that growth period, & boy did it deliver with a very personal touch in the writing. Speaking about the inspiration for the song Ella said, "I wrote Paper Town during the Sydney COVID lockdown. For me the song is about being in year 12 & being really frustrated."
As the music industry now opens back up Ella is looking forward to a bumper year in 2022 with lots of new music & live shows.
"My main goals this year are to release as much music as I can. Gigs are starting to come back now too, so I am very excited to get back into that because I absolutely love playing live."
Keep up with Ella on social media at: @EllaPowellMusic or www.EllaPowell.com
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