Bailee Zelis

At only 19 years of age, indie rock artist, Bailee Zelis, is breaking into the music industry with the release of her first EP, TV.

Photograph by: Bre Cura

For many artists, the release of new solo music is a principle point in a career; one you plan for months and anticipate for the day to come. However, Zelis is a little different than the norm.

Zelis never gave herself a set time or day to publish her music for public consumption. She states, “I kind of released it spontaneously. I felt like I kept putting it off until one night I just sat down and was like ‘okay, I'm just going to release it.’” Since that simple night, Zelis has been slowly working her way up the solo music ladder.

As a young child, Zelis always seemed to have an interest in music. “When I was younger, I was like super into Shania Twain. I would run around my house naked singing Shania Twain and that is what I would do for fun,” she says.

Fast forward to high school where she began actively learning guitar and joined the School of Rock program in New Jersey, Zelis started down the path of a serious musician. It was not until after about three years as a bassist and vocalist for a former band called Static Drift, did Zelis decided to try her hand at a solo career.

Rapidly, this March she began the process of writing. “When I write songs, I usually write them super quickly. I’ll write it all within a half hour or an hour,” she says.

According to Zelis, the lyrics to the two songs on her EP were finished within just a few days of each other. “For me, if I spend too much time on songs they don’t turn out as well and they just

get too complicated. I like to keep it super simple,” she states.

With an admiration for impassioned artists such as Snail Mail, Soccer Mommy, and Best Coast, Zelis aspires to keep her music bare, uncomplicated and true to self. “I really like (Best Coast) just because I admire their simplicity and that (lead vocalist Bethany Cosentino) says whatever she feels. I admire the honesty and that she says whatever comes to her mind...I know a lot of artists who are super insecure about their lyrics because they think, ‘oh, it sounds stupid’. For me, if it’s honest then it’s not stupid,” says Zelis.

Photograph by: Bre Cura

Forthright with her lyrics, Zelis expresses the honesty she practices in song writing with her tracks Baby and TV; which both happen to be about the same breakup. She says, “I feel like when I try to write songs that aren’t about my personal life they never turn out good and I don’t feel as connected to them.”

For Zelis, songwriting is not a process that can be done whenever she wants it done. There has to be a heightened sense of feeling in the moment. She says, “I’m only good at writing songs when I’m super emotional. If I’m doing fine, I can’t write anything.” She continues, “When I’m going through something super emotional I need some way to get it out. That is the best way; just to write a song.”

To help explain the sentiment of her two released tracks, Zelis broke down some of the stick-out lyrics on her EP.

Ironically, the title track to her EP, TV was the second song Zelis wrote. Actually, the title of the tune never had a name until the night of the release. “I didn't have a name for TV until I typed it into the streaming website. I was just pissed and was like ‘I’m just going to write TV’. And that’s how that happened,” she says.

The opening line to the track TV states, ‘a year ago my best friend told me if we ever broke up she wouldn’t believe in love.’ Zelis states, “That’s kind of the ‘looking back’ aspect of the song. When it goes into the chorus, it kind of tells you the symptoms of heartbreak, everything I’m feeling very literally.”

Those lyrics are as follows: ‘I’m so tired of being sad. I just want to be your best friend. I’m so tired of being mad. Just let me hold you when I say goodbye to you. I’m so tired but I can’t sleep when you’re not holding me or in my dreams. I’m so hungry but I can’t eat. I feel so sad.’

When it comes to the track Baby, Zelis actually displays a rare side of herself; anger. “Baby is definitely more angry… after the breakup, most of my emotions were super sad. I was only ever angry for maybe like a day and I was like, ‘okay, I have to write a song because I’m angry.’ So I wrote that.”

She continues,“That was actually more difficult to write. It didn’t come to me as naturally. I wrote all the lyrics first and it took me about an hour to write the guitar part for the versus.” Although there was that initial struggle, Zelis was able to map out a majority of the track Baby at a friend's dorm room in Boston.

Unlike her other track, TV, where she exposes her emotions quite literally, Zelis wanted to instead create an analogy with her lyrics to Baby. She explains, “It’s very metaphorical. ‘You’re just a baby and I’m too young to be a mother’. It’s basically all the things that pissed me off about the relationship.”

Photograph by: Bre Cura

Despite all the anger Zelis unleashed in the production of this specific track, she claims it’s a song that can be taken in one of two ways. “Depending on how you’re listening to it; you can be really sad and listen to it or really angry and listen to it and it works both ways.”

Since the EP’s release this July 31st, Zelis has been shocked at the amount of attention it’s receiving. She says, “In the beginning, a lot of people took it really well. I didn’t expect to get a lot of feedback and a lot of people listening to it.” With around 850 streams on Spotify, including about 90 monthly listeners, Zelis is putting up a fair fight as she evolves into the solo artist she desires to be. She states, “I’m trying to figure out ways to get people to listen to my

music.”

Bailee Zelis’s new EP can be purchased through iTunes along with streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. You can also follow her Instagram page @baileezelis.

(Original Article Found at Unclearmagazine.com)