Q&A: Taking Little Pieces and Making Something Beautiful, Elissa Mielke Talks EP ‘Mouse,’ Musical Backgrounds & More
THERE IS NOTHING MOUSE-LIKE ABOUT — Elissa Mielke and her latest EP, Mouse, with her transcendental vocals delivering inspirational messages that leave you wanting more. At her show, you can expect to find a choir of strangers, mice merch, and powerful folk/alternative-country ballads. The Ontario-born singer-songwriter constructs her shows around the idea of bringing local communities together by assembling strangers to be a part of her choir, making the community a part of her performance. Mielke spends her free time making clay mice by hand. She previously did so as a side hustle, but recently she’s made 100 clay mice (or, mice merch), for the viewers at her release party.
Her religious music background is a large influence in her work, but she finds inspiration from all forms of art — not just music — taking inspiration from art sculptures and films. Mielke’s music has evolved with Mouse, showcasing a more vulnerable side of herself.
Dive into the inspirations and inner world of Elissa Mielke below.
LUNA: Tell me a little bit about yourself!
MIELKE: I grew up playing instruments, like organ, trombone, piano, guitar, pipe organ, and more. My family was religious so their music was specifically church music, and I had to be sneaky about writing songs growing up. I started playing shows when I was 14; I got a fake ID and booked this venue in Toronto and got a residency at a hookah lounge. It has been a long journey. My solo project has always been the thing I love. There have been lots of times where a major label will be like, “We’re flying you to New York,” and we’re about to sign the deal and the guy who flew me in has his hand up my leg, so it has been a lot of false starts.
I'm in a kind of a cool chapter now because I just finally gave up on other people doing it for me, and was scrappy, [trying] to get grants; both of my EPs were self-produced in my own house. It finally feels like there's some momentum — I'm finally making the songs I want to make. I just want to make music until I'm an old lady.
LUNA: How are you feeling since releasing your EP Mouse?
MIELKE: Grateful — it's the first time I have other people helping me do it and sold most of the tickets for my release show. One of my favorite things has been people, especially women, messaging me and saying they connected with something on the EP. I know it's cheesy but it really is amazing to be able to hear [how] other people connected with it — it's everything. It feels like putting out music is like standing naked in the middle of the field. I'm just eager to make the next thing.
LUNA: What inspired you in the creation of Mouse? How did you come up with the title?
MIELKE: “Mouse” was my nickname when I was a kid. I felt very small and mouse-like … I was really scared to talk too much or be too much, [now] it feels like I'm undoing that. This EP is for Mouse, for my younger self, who didn’t advocate for herself and didn’t know she could make her own career happen. It sort of [is] in a way like a love letter to me and to anybody who feels like that. Mice are resourceful and scrappy, and they figure it out and take little pieces of something and make it beautiful.
LUNA: Which song would you say you enjoyed writing the most?
MIELKE: I like the idea of songs being a mantra or anthem you can hold onto. “Woman's Worth” felt the best to write because I felt really fed up when writing it. All of the songs did something to heal me or help me… They’re mostly about acknowledging something being really heavy or hard and being relentless and getting through it. “Woman’s Worth” felt very therapeutic to sing. I hope that someone else hears it and feels like they’re not alone in the world.
LUNA: What made you get into music?
MIELKE: My dad made up songs around the house. The love [of] performing came from him. My dad and I will still sing and harmonize together. There were some religious structures that made it feel like writing a song for yourself was wrong. It was also weirdly encouraged by the music my family made. I sang in a lot of choirs, and that's been a cool thing to reclaim. If there's an institution or a group that hurts you, you kind of push against it, and it’s been kind of cool to come back and remember what I loved about those experiences.
LUNA: Who’s your biggest music inspiration?
MIELKE: I feel like, in general, I really connect with singer-songwriters. Artists who are women who are writing music and singing about their lives. When I [was young, I ] only knew music that was religious, so it was never about who you were. I also love the tradition of storytelling in music. I really love Dolly Parton in so many ways. I just listened to this podcast where she talks about the origins of folk music and how it was basically journalism, and how men used to sing and play guitar and go from town to town being like, “Someone got their head cut off,” and that’s how news traveled, and they'd have printouts of the songs. When she started making music, she was taking a tradition that never had the woman’s story in it and she would write the story from the woman's point of view, and I really connected with that. I think that's all you can do if you create: tell your own story the best you can.
LUNA: Do you feel your music has evolved or changed from your last EP, Finally, to now with Mouse?
MIELKE: Some of these songs are older, some are brand new. The newer songs on this are more personal,like someone seeing you naked — a bit more vulnerable and more honest in a healthy way. I never want my songs to be like, “Oh, this is a sad song, now I will feel sad.” I always try to have a bridge at the end of the song. I hope I'll just keep developing as a writer and singer.
LUNA: I saw that you were on your first billboard for your new EP — [it was] from Amazon Music, how exciting! How did it feel to see yourself on it?
MIELKE: It's really nice for people to affirm the thing that you're doing. It's nice because it is in my hometown in Toronto, it's right by where I used to go to school. I remember just sitting in my classes and feeling really confused about whether writing music was vain and simple and having these painful things while figuring out who I was and how I could be a writer. It felt so impossible, like no one would give me a chance. I was in a hard chapter, and it's cool to have the sign where I felt that way.
LUNA: What made you interested in the alternative country genre of music? Do you ever see yourself delving into other genres?
MIELKE: I did not like the idea of being a country singer — I thought of it as being very conservative, white, and ignorant. Learning about the pioneering women in country music affected me — the story of reclaiming your story through songwriting is done really well by country music. I remember being outraged when someone said I made country music. Like any other genre, white people stole it and made it their own thing. Learning about the whitewashing of it and getting back to the roots of it and understanding the history of soul and blues, and also the church traditions, made me slowly come around to being a country singer, but it’s been a journey. I love to make different kinds of projects. I’d love to do a release that is a totally different thing. I love the idea of doing something more hardcore someday, I love the idea of collaborating with other people. I love to experiment and explore.
LUNA: Are there any upcoming projects or ideas in the music realm we can expect to hear about soon?
MIELKE: I’m working on my album currently, which is the next project. I am so excited to tour and to make choirs of people in different places, so people can sign up for that! I'm planning a European tour and a US tour so I have some tour dates that I'll announce soon. I'm excited for that — that's what I love doing most of all, playing live music for people.
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