Ellen Arthur Blyth is a Dublin based singer songwriter. Her unique, soulful sound blends classic artists such as Billie Holiday and Peggy Lee with contemporary hints of Katie Melua and Lana Del Ray. Honing her craft over the years Ellen is excited to unveil her debut album ‘Nine’ in 2022. Leading up to the album release is her new single ‘Young Ones’. With a seductive vocal line and jazz-infused instrumentation, the new offering is a tantalizing tease of what we can expect more of from Ellen Arthur Blyth.
“It’s less about falling in love and more about choosing to stay in love, trying to find magic and playfulness with someone in the mundane of the everyday. It’s striving to be someone’s safe place in a world that can seem overwhelming at times. Love is a choice and so it’s important how we frame it.” Ellen shares.
The track was recorded as part of her upcoming debut album ‘Nine’ in Hell Fire Studios, Dublin and produced by Alex Borwick, head engineer at the famed Grouse Lodge studios in Ireland.
The impressive sound walks a tightrope of consonance and dissonance, nostalgia and joy, resulting in a finely poised drama of soft, lilting melody and haunting wistfulness. The vocal, at once resonant, is at times achingly honest and captivates from beginning to end. With the plethora of talent behind it, ‘Nine’ does not sing like the debut album it is, but instead stands as an accomplished piece, unapologetic, stylish, and yet encapsulating the fears and aspirations of a nine-year old girl tottering about in her sister’s high heels whilst belting out numbers into her hairbrush.
ABOUT ELLEN ARTHUR BLYTH
Born in Dublin, the youngest of nine, in a house where the one who shouted loudest ate most, Ellen learned early how to sing for her supper. Dragged out of bed, dusted down, slung into a polyester frock, her early forays into musical performance consisted of pitch perfect renditions of Any Dream Will Do to family friends. But as success followed the clan, friends turned to ambassadors, heads of state, Hollywood actors and other visiting dignitaries passing through. Aged 9, she woke her father and told him she was going to be a famous singer and would buy him a racehorse. He told her to go back to bed. At 16 she made the live finals of Ireland’s ‘You’re a Star’ but lost her voice. Her early adult life was spent serenading drunk punters in a city buried in snow, before finally, she fell through a drunken crevasse. After reaching bottom, she started to climb back out and rediscover her voice.
Studying in Brighton at BIMM (British and Irish Modern Music Institute), she passed with distinction and was singled out as one to watch. For a sprinkling of years, she fronted a nine-piece until she realized she’d re-created her family. In perfect irony she landed a role in a low-budget Indie film about a young singer who comes to Brighton to find her voice. She penned the title song, won best actor at festivals in Milan and Los Angeles (Women’s Independent) and was told to pursue acting. She didn’t. Her band split up. Instead, she came home, focussed on dispelling her demons and blanketed herself in a hand-me-down, sale item of domestic obscurity, popping her head above the covers now and again to sing a song here, do a collaboration there.
Finally, nine years into recovery, she began to write her own music. And nine songs later, Ellen Arthur Blyth and ‘Nine’ were born. Her first studio album, ‘Nine’ is an infusion of pop, indie and jazz.
