Early morning sun streams through the window on a bright Friday as Ellie Dixon logs onto our Zoom call. Spring is in full swing, and whilst the rest of the world awakens to a much-needed Easter break, Ellie’s spending her weekend in a Glasgow hotel room ahead of playing Celtic Park Stadium to 60,000 football fans tomorrow. “Jesus, don’t remind me,” she laughs nervously, though her excitement shines through any apprehension. The invitation came after Ellie recreated an acoustic rendition of Jota on the Wing, a popular Celtics song, which went viral on her TikTok account. An ode to the Portuguese player’s talent, the track has now amassed over 855K views, proving Ellie can turn any song into a dreamy melody.
Categorising Ellie Dixon as a singer/songwriter wouldn’t be entirely accurate. Whilst her lyrical wordplay and whimsical vocals are part of her signature trademark, she also produces, mixes, directs and conceptualises her own work. “I’ll come up with a beat or a backing or a baseline and loop it in my production software, then maybe start writing, or maybe I’ll come up with a guitar line. I like how many options it gives me. I think it’s incredible that you can make any sounds you want.”
Making songs in her bedroom at 14 years old, Ellie eventually decided to take the more conventional route, heading to university when she left school to study Maths. Unsure of how to work the strings of the music industry, she carried on coming up with new material alongside her coursework, testing it out in local bars and venues to smaller, more intimate crowds.
Her playful, pun-filled lyricism and inventive loops sparked a connection with listeners who craved escapism after a long day. Finding humour in what would otherwise be serious topics, Ellie played the types of songs she wanted to hear – songs where artists don’t take themselves too seriously.
Moving back home after three years of studying, Ellie worked hard, honing in on her craft with the aim of finally breaking into the music business full-time, but she only got six months in before lockdown hit.
Discovering a relatively new app called TikTok, she finally caved and set up an account. “I was making lots of short, funny videos of just stupid stuff – me and my leopard print dressing gown just being an idiot,” she says. At first, Ellie struggled to get to grips with the platform, but after some digging and a few content tweaks, she started hitting the right pockets. “I immersed myself in the platform, looking at what other people were enjoying and then figuring out where I fit into it – that was when it started working.”
Breaking down harmonies of classic songs such as ABBA’s Dancing Queen (which earned her 6.1 million views) and writing original verses to 90s pop hits like Toxic by Britney Spears, Ellie watched her fan base grow. Her humorous videos offered an insight into the unorthodox instruments she created sounds with, using pen pots as tambourines and mugs as drum bases.
Finding her niche audience, she released her next EP, Crikey! That’s My Psyche. “The credit for the EP name goes to my mum,” she laughs. “We’d brainstorm ideas when we went dog walking every morning, and she just absolutely nailed it with that one!”
Exploring the complexity of mental health, the five-track EP sees Ellie navigate varying mental states through a collection of curated characters. Space Out verbalises feelings of disconnection throughout the pandemic, complete with an inflatable space suit, because why not? Sucker takes us back to Ellie’s teenage crush and CEO of Watching Television challenges hustle culture, accompanied by a hilarious video filmed in her flat. “Literally, my manager came around, and I bulk-bought cardboard boxes, and we were taping them together. I got so stroppy because it was really difficult,” she laughs. “It was all my friends in the lift scene, and none of them had done choreography before, but honestly, credit to them because they were patient!”
The self-written, self-produced, self-mixed and self-marketed EP attracted the attention of Decca Records, and in March 2022, she dug out her inflatable space suit, ran in slow motion through Kings Cross, and signed the giant scroll with a larger-than-life crayon. “Someone at the label actually used a curtain pole to make the scroll and then wound it up,” she recalls. “We jammed a Sharpie into the end of the crayon so I could actually write with it! It was just so fun.”
With her exceptional talent, a record deal and a rocketing fan base, Ellie was on an upwards trajectory. What she didn’t see coming was the online trolling that accompanies a fast-growing audience.
“I had a load of backlash on TikTok from an unpleasant corner of the internet, just like a 20-second TikTok of someone bullying me basically. It took a massive toll on my confidence, and I sort of detracted online. I feel like you could see my content was getting smaller and quieter.”
Deciding to take a week away, Ellie packed her bags and shut off from the outside world, booking an AirBnB in the Cotswolds where she could refocus and start writing again. “I basically just let myself be a bit angry… I just sort of went, ‘no, screw you, I don’t deserve this, I’m a nice person, I’ve done nothing wrong, I sang in my bedroom, leave me alone!’ I needed to empower myself again and give myself some energy, and out of that came Swing, which was my first track with Decca.”
Reflecting on the negativity, Ellie remains surprisingly calm, choosing empathy over anger these days. “There’s just a lot of people hurting,” she says. “But if you focus on what you don’t like and violently tell people about it… it just feels like it can’t be nice for your little heart!”
For her next single, Big Lizard Energy, Ellie headed back to the costume shop, ready to don a Jurassic Park-style dinosaur outfit for the video. “It wasn’t high-end, I’ll tell you that! It’s no Gucci!” she laughs.
On the surface, Big Lizard Energy might seem a bit bizarre, but delving deeper into the back story, Ellie explains it’s about imagining yourself as something physically bigger than your worries – cue the gigantic dinosaur! “One of the big things with anxiety is that the proportion of things gets distorted,” she says. “That one worry can just take over you and your life, and then a couple of days later, you’re not even thinking about it anymore.”
During a time when things were rapidly changing, Ellie started overthinking. Tiny concerns would become all-consuming, and when it got to that point, logic and reason couldn’t pull her from the anxiety spirals she was creating. The visual representation of being bigger than her problems became a coping mechanism, turning to humour when nothing else seemed to work. “I was just trying anything I could to recenter or distract myself. It kind of wrote itself as soon as I started thinking about this idea of big me, tiny problems and getting a bit of perspective.”
Whilst it may look like Ellie’s nailed her anxiety, she points out that her mental health is still a work in progress. “Honestly, I had a panic attack the other day because I couldn’t find my passport. It’s always going to be there, but it’s learning to work with it.” Since its release, Big Lizard Energy has garnered praise from multiple fans, with many applying the theory to their own anxiety battles.
Shifting the gears in her latest single, Dopamine, Ellie revealed a more pared-back and stripped-down track that offers a glimpse into her more personal thoughts – it’s open, honest and reflective, flipping everything she’s released until now on its head. “My mum is always like ‘Ellie, can you write a slow song? It’d be really nice’, and I’m going, ‘nahhhh’,” she smiles.
Arriving home from a whirlwind European tour in which she slept just 14 hours in three days, Ellie sat down and just started talking, trying to put her feelings into words. The opening lyric – ‘I need to slow down sometimes’ is a hard-hitting reminder that having too much of a good thing can lead to burning out. “It’s like hustle culture, isn’t it? It’s like, rise and grind, and it’s not good. People are downloading meditation apps to become more productive at work, and it’s just like ‘you’ve missed the whole point’!”
Taking the time to understand how social media impacts the brain, Ellie stumbled upon a video that explains how excessive use can affect our dopamine levels. Sudden dopamine hits get released when we consume social media, leading our brains to crave unachievable levels. This inspired raw lyrics such as, ‘I’m drowning in dopamine / so much I’m starting to struggle to feel.’ It feels like a more melancholic direction, but the rich, complex strings layered over the top create a beautiful warmth to the track that remains true to Ellie’s original style.
As our chat wraps up, I realise we’ve been talking for the best part of an hour – but Ellie doesn’t seem to mind. Fuelled by her ambition to brighten someone’s day with catchy lyrics and infectious loops, Ellie Dixon has navigated her way through the music industry with a bold determination, and she’s just getting started.
Ellie’s new single, Dopamine, is out now.
Photo Abeiku Arthur
Stylist Sian Odonnell
Hair Laura Chadwick
Makeup Cristine Dupuys
Photo Assistant Kiera Sharp
