Biography

I started writing songs under the moniker "Ely" in mid 2016. My first song, "Like it's 1975" took off and was put on Spotifys "Fresh Finds" playlist and to this day, it's been on thousands of playlists, including corporate ones for Nike and the song was even featured on Star Talk Radio with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. After dealing with some personal issues, I moved away and Ely seemed to be a project that had run it's course. I didn't know if I'd ever come back to it because of the personal history that it contained. But for Christmas 2022, I decided to write my wife some songs that were both for her, and also reflective of our time in California. Thus, "Love Songs From California" was born. I really hope you enjoy these songs. Electronic music was and is a joy to create, but when I was first learning guitar, the songs of Bob Dylan, Noah Gunderson, Gregory Alan Isakov and Marcus Mumford were among my deepest influences and I wanted to write songs from that place of minimal production, stripped back instrumentals and pure honesty and vulnerability from just a voice and a guitar.