The Artist Explains: Ella M - 'Take Yourself Home'
Ella M talks to us about her tongue-in-cheek visuals for ‘Take Yourself Home’, which explores the themes of mean girls, moving on from forced friendships and forgiveness.
Where was the video for ‘Take Yourself Home’ filmed?
It was actually filmed on the street outside of my apartment in West Hollywood and the park scenes are in Plummer Park just down the road. We had some problems filming there though as it was a Sunday and there were a bunch of children around. Some parents weren't too keen about us filming so we had to cut it shorter than we hoped :(
How does the video connect with the song?
I wanted to relate the lyrics of feeling left out to the playground as the same problems that we used to face in pre-school/middle school (i.e. wanting to play on the swings or wanting to sit with a specific group) were just manifesting themselves into the real-life music industry just with different situations (i.e. wanting to feature of a track or get noticed by a specific label)
Do you have any behind the scenes stories you can share with us?
The scene where the mean girl bursts my bubble and I "take my rose glasses off" to realise that everyone was kind of in my life for the worst reasons. I think that was the "final straw" type moment where I just couldn't play their games anymore and I just moved on to finding better, more wholesome friends.
Could you tell us about the ideas/ themes/ imagery used?
Throughout this entire music video, I wanted to poke fun at the mean girl group as they represented such a weird moment for me that, at the time seemed very intense and all-encompassing but, now that I look back at it didn't really change me and just taught me a valuable life lesson. In terms of imagery, I have always been a big fan of dusty, light tones just from an aesthetic standpoint so we made sure that was included throughout.
What do you hope people take away from watching the video?
I hope that people just realise that there are plenty more fish in the sea with friends and if you are dying to be in a friend group that just doesn't work out, use that to create an even better, stronger bond with other people. At the end of the video when I invite the mean girls into our circle I wanted to show that life is way too short to hold grudges too, I think it's so important to just keep listening to the little guides you get in life and move on if something isn't clicking.
Interview by Karla Harris