Ellie Barbor, who performs as “Ollela,” talks about reminiscence, loss, and on-going love along with her Tiny Desk Contest entry, “Tea Kettle Tea.”
(SOUNDBITE OF OLLELLA SONG, “TEA KETTLE TEA”)
ELLIE BARBOR: My identify is Ellie Barbor. I’m an indie-folk cellist and vocalist primarily based in Seattle that performs below the moniker Ollella.
(SOUNDBITE OF OLLELLA SONG, “TEA KETTLE TEA”)
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Ollella has been a finalist twice for NPR’s Tiny Desk contest – this yr for her music “Tea Kettle Tea.”
BARBOR: The music “Tea Kettle Tea” is about my aunt. She handed of most cancers after I was 11. She was a second mom determine to me, mainly. She was my first music trainer.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TEA KETTLE TEA”)
OLLELLA: (Singing) I keep in mind after we would draw orca whales throughout your partitions. We might race up and down the halls.
BARBOR: My aunt was a really artistic individual. She had this wall in her home that she designated for my sister and I to color on. My reminiscences of her are sometimes in her home, doing artwork initiatives, singing opera at full quantity. The identify “Tea Kettle Tea” comes from a ritual that we had, type of, in these moments of quiet.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TEA KETTLE TEA”)
OLLELLA: (Singing) On cloudy days, you got us tea, milk and honey with chamomile.
BARBOR: She would serve us in these actually cute china. At the moment, it was the fanciest factor I had ever touched (laughter). She referred to as it tea kettle tea, ‘trigger it was in a particular tea kettle with particular tea cups.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TEA KETTLE TEA”)
OLLELLA: (Singing) Due to you, I write my songs. You knew I had it in me all alongside.
BARBOR: Writing the music, it was a technique of going again via my head and grieving, basically, her loss. The lyrics are precisely what I keep in mind. They’re vignettes of life being very artistic and joyful in her home, after which there are these moments that I keep in mind of the two-year interval of her demise.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TEA KETTLE TEA”)
OLLELLA: (Singing) In some unspecified time in the future these reminiscences moved on to the hospital. At first just a few, then it was all, sterilized with alcohol. We went for walks slowly within the leaves.
BARBOR: She was extremely sensible. She was a surgeon. She was a hand surgeon, and she or he restored musicians’ means to play by doing surgical procedure on their palms. And I keep in mind noticing because the most cancers progressed, she began to type of go on these attention-grabbing psychological diatribes, or her thoughts would wander in ways in which I wasn’t used to, and I feel that was actually stark as a younger lady.
(SOUNDBITE OF OLLELLA SONG, “TEA KETTLE TEA”)
BARBOR: I feel that the instrumental parts of the music are nearly as impactful because the lyrics. There’s a cello. The cello’s my principal instrument. I used to be raised taking part in it. I began after I was 9. After which now we have an upright bass, a violin and fairly minimal percussion.
(SOUNDBITE OF OLLELLA SONG, “TEA KETTLE TEA”)
BARBOR: Not less than after I play it, the temper is catharsis and nostalgia.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TEA KETTLE TEA”)
OLLELLA: (Singing) At the moment, I assumed this simply was the best way it’s with the folks you’re keen on. They’d come round, you’d do enjoyable stuff, then they’d fly off on the wings of a dove.
BARBOR: I hope that this music helps folks grieve in their very own methods.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TEA KETTLE TEA”)
OLLELLA: (Singing) I nonetheless make tea kettle tea.
BARBOR: I feel that is what’s cool about this, is that I’ve realized how relatable this expertise is. It is made me notice that individuals are grieving on a regular basis.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TEA KETTLE TEA”)
OLLELLA: (Singing) It was your love that set me free.
BARBOR: So typically, I’ve performed the music and any individual will come as much as me afterwards with tears of their eyes, and it feels type of like a present, to have the ability to share such an intimate second with a stranger due to a bit of music.
(SOUNDBITE OF OLLELLA SONG, “TEA KETTLE TEA”)
SIMON: Tiny Desk Contest standout Ellie Barbor, who performs as Ollella. And you may see the video of her music “Tea Kettle Tea” on our web site, tinydeskcontest.npr.org, and, after all, hear it on her album, “Again Again Again.”
(SOUNDBITE OF OLLELLA SONG, “TEA KETTLE TEA”)
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content will not be in its remaining kind and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could fluctuate. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.
