Mothica is the audio / visual project of McKenzie Ellis. Like a moth, nocturnal yet drawn to the light, her lyrics balance clever wordplay doting on intimate and often dark life experiences.
Growing up in the suburbs of Oklahoma, McKenzie was a part of a classical guitar ensemble at an arts-focused public high school. At home, she would write original songs over arpeggios she learned in guitar class and uploaded her original songs and covers on YouTube. She was determined to trade the great plains for a more populated skyline. After receiving a scholarship to Pratt Institute for visual web programming, McKenzie moved to Brooklyn, New York in 2013.
Between classes, McKenzie wrote music as a form of catharsis from rigid school assignments. During the second semester, she showed a classmate some of the songs she had been making and her classmate introduced her to several electronic music producers on Soundcloud, lent her a midi keyboard, and encouraged her to buy a real microphone. Her first released on Soundcloud, ‘Starchild’ (prod. by melodrama) received 100,000 plays in 24 hours.
McKenzie learned to produce in Ableton and released an EP called Mythic in 2015. Her somber song about self-empowerment, “No One” reached No. 6 on the US Viral Spotify Charts. Soon after, she released the smash hit “Clear” with Canadian producer Pusher. The song currently sits at 14 million plays on Spotify and put her on the radar for everyone from Spotify execs to Teen Vogue. In the following couple of years, Mothica released 2 more EPs and collaborated with artists like Crywolf, Tennyson and Said The Sky.
Now, in 2019, Mothica is preparing to release her debut album ‘Blue Hour’.