Following the critical success of her debut album, ‘Acts of Rebellion’, Ela Minus had a decision to make: focus on getting her life back on track or on making a new album. That first record came at a time of much personal upheaval for the Brooklyn-based Colombian artist. She had to leave her home during the COVID-19 lockdown and lost her bedroom studio as a result, but at the same time she was also experiencing a “very chaotic and weird” rapid ascent.
This dichotomy, she tells NME from her bedroom, lined with synthesiser equipment and a piano, had “rocked my foundations”. “It was odd to try to make another record in the middle of not having a solid base,” the producer, vocalist and songwriter reflects. A cancelled Coachella debut and postponed tour with Caribou had also fed into her own personal dilemma: “It was confusing to feel all those things at the same time, plus the pressure of the first record’s success.”
While Minus ended up choosing to focus on her music, she also felt like she was “postponing moving on with my life and also something that I was really craving – stability”. These wide-ranging emotions inspired the demos she would go on to create in rented apartments and hotel rooms across North America and Europe. Having then spent three years toting song snippets at live shows, she thought her sophomore album, ‘DÍA’, was finally complete.
However, after some rest and re-listening, she decided the music wasn’t brutal or honest enough. “I was annoyed but knew I had to push a bit further,” she says, having realised the disconnect. “The instrumental part of the record was saying something really strongly, and the lyrics were saying something different”. Feeling that her words didn’t match the intensity of her productions, she “scrapped so much music because I would hear all these things in it: noise, insecurities and trying to get approval”.
A lengthy process of “letting all the shit come out” followed. “I just needed to get it out of my system and put it in the trash,” Minus contemplates. “I’ve never done therapy, but I imagine it’s something like that.” This private reckoning made her feel that she’d paid more attention to the production than lyrics on her first album. “It felt like time to give it some intention,” she says. Such self-reflection helped Minus to “learn so much” and she “realised the things I was singing about were inside of me”.
‘DÍA’ is a rarity in the dance world: a record that doesn’t shy away from tough subjects and personal stories. “I think we have enough dance music about dancing,“ Minus says vehemently, “I don’t need to give us more of that.” A shining example is ‘IDOLS’, particularly its “very physical” lyrics of “I took a blow, straight to the face, there was blood everywhere, when I opened my eyes”. The first song written for the album, it was inspired by a spiking incident which left her in a London hospital’s intensive care unit. “It happened at the same time as when I got signed, finished mixing my first record and started playing with bigger acts,” she recalls openly.
True to her character, Minus set about turning a negative into a positive. “A lot of things about that experience were hard, but that made it inspiring. It felt like an invitation to look over the life that I was about to start,” she reflects. “It’s so easy for us to follow the paths we are shown without even knowing if that’s what we actually want to do, just because those are the paths that have been drawn for us.” It led her to conclude that “the music industry is kind of a dark place”, yet it’s something “we choose to close our eyes to” because of her love for music.
It’s through music that Minus comes to terms with these thoughts, in particular on ‘I WANT TO BE BETTER’, which she describes as the core of the record – though it almost didn’t make it onto the album. “I thought it was very bad and embarrassing,” she recalls. However, as she kept returning to the song, she was slowly struck by its raw emotion. “There’s this anxiety and intensity, and I wanted the production to self-destruct, then rebuild into the next song, ‘ONWARDS’,” she says, describing the sequence as “redemption in the form of joy”.
As an artist who has always straddled the worlds of pop, club music and electronic experimentalism, many of the tracks on ‘DÍA’ are hook-heavy (particularly the space-shuddering ‘BROKEN’, which conjures the feeling of running down a dark alleyway) but sonically challenging. Though Minus says this balance has never been intentional. “I still try really hard to not rationalise what I’m making while I’m making it,” Minus says. “Except for when the music asks for something very specific, I try to just go with my gut.”
Her instincts have led her to frame ‘DÍA’ as a “call to action”, as Minus describes, much like how her debut was aimed to incite protest and rebellion. “It makes you want to stand up and do shit!” she declares. Though it’s not an easy listen – “It’s angry, there’s a lot going on, but it’s quick and then you wonder what happened?” – she likes that it makes the listener think. “There’s a deep catharsis to it that leaves you energised,” she says.
Having gone through so much to reach a place far beyond contentment, Minus is understandably thankful that ‘DÍA’ is finally out in the world. “It wasn’t easy,” she concludes, describing the entire process of making it as “painful”. “The first album seemed like a walk in the park, so I’m glad this one is now behind me and I can look forward to keep making records”.
‘DÍA’ is out now on Domino. Ela Minus plays Camden Roundhouse on February 6, 7 and 8, and is supporting Caribou on their UK and European tour.