“Mother Mother” is a newly released track from Swedish-born and London-based singer/songwriter Ellie Madeland.
The inspiration for “Mother Mother” was ignited by Ellie finding a collection of letters between her as a child and her mum, written after her parents announced their divorce. The vocals were recorded in 2021, during the Covid-19 lockdown, from a house in the Swedish countryside. “Mother Mother” documents Ellie’s sense of loss, bewilderment and desperation as a child, having lost her sense of safety. It also documents her general journey with depression, anxiety and lack of tools to deal with intense emotions during other times in her life. However, the song casts aside any notions of harboured bitterness. The song instead focuses on letting these trapped emotions go through a cathartic release – and in the end the hurt gets washed away.
As influences go, Ellie cites the brutalism of Joy Division, The Cure and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds as her go-to artists. GW confesses his fascination with the quiet melancholy of Nick Drake, alongside his love of contemporary adventurers like Sufjan Stevens, Bibio, Fennesz and Sparklehorse.
Some further background: Ellie Madeland is a singer-songwriter from a small village in Småland, Sweden. Demonstrating a passion for creativity from an early age, her father taught her how to play guitar, piano and how to write songs.
After graduating from a Film and Music program in Sweden, Ellie moved to London in 2015 to continue studying (this time Acting and Directing), and explore the UK music scene.
Between 2018 and 2019, Ellie became the singer of synth-pop duo Island Empire. Following the release of Island Empire’s album “Olympian” in early 2020, the Covid-19 lockdown forced a live music and band-related hiatus.
Ellie began to explore the potential for recording and releasing her own songs. In 2019, she began a long-distance writing & production partnership with UK-based producer and multi-instrumentalist, Gentle William.
Gentle William has worked with The Whiskey Priest, novelist/songwriter Sophie MackIntosh, and the Brighton-based collective Junkboy (whose latest album was described by Mojo Magazine as a “moment of calm in our turbulent world…”).
As for Ellie’s and Gentle Williams collaboration, it’s like Brian Eno once said – “Things come out of nothing… the tiniest seed in the right situation turns into the most beautiful forest…”.
And it was just that – instrumental ideas that had sat on GW’s laptop for several years, amounting to nothing, suddenly developed into fully-formed songs when Ellie heard them and demoed melodies. Perhaps not an unusual MO for collaboration in itself – but given that Ellie and GW have still never actually met nor had a proper conversation in real life, there is a certain peculiarity about their approach to writing music.