Check out the backstory of Ellington’s latest single, “SUN TO RISE!”

Born and raised in the Los Angeles area, Ellington is no stranger to the music scene. He was the official drummer of the acclaimed pop-rock group R5, then went on to write, record and tour with alternative band The Driver Era. Since 2009, Ellington has played more than 265 shows in over 30 countries including headlining The Greek in LA, and playing festivals such as Riptide, Made In America, Summer Sonic and more. As a part of R5, he released 2 full-length studio albums and 5 EPs, earning him a Gold Album and several Billboard 200 singles.

With over 1 million loyal combined social media followers, Ellington started gaining traction as a solo artist/producer after releasing remixes for The Driver Era and Glass Animals. For his debut project, he pulls influences from Alternative, Hip Hop, Motown and Jazz to create a new, fresh sound.

What’s the backstory of your single “SUN TO RISE!?” How was it to create during these crazy times?

“Sun To Rise!” was actually the first song I had finished for my solo project, a time where my career was in a very uncertain place as things were changing and I was feeling like I was at the bottom. But at the bottom there’s this feeling of freedom like you can do whatever you want and you have nothing to lose. I remember having the chorus in my head, parking the car and sprinting to my piano to get a solid voice memo. After a while I had the first lines which really sum up how I was feeling at the time, “I’ve been off the deep end only cuz its sweet and sometimes you don’t need a reason its the time of our lives”

Top 5 music in your Quarantine playlist right now.

I’ve been listening to a lot of SAULT, who are a “secret” collective out of London and they make some of the best music I’ve heard. A quick list of the rest would be El Michaels Affair, the last MGMT album (which I was way late on), TNGHT’s album and Big Thief.

If you were a book, what book would you be and why?

I actually purchased a book from Matt Maust, bassist of Cold War Kids (who were a super influential group for me both early on and now) whose art is very interesting, like a no rules mod podge booklet held together with duct tape and scribbled with sharpie. Probably one of the coolest things I own and I think my book would be somewhere between that and a pop-up book, maybe with a MPC style sampler instead of the buttons on books when you were a kid, you know like the ones with animal noises, but an interactive sampler instead.. you get it..