Mothica

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Mothica
Mothica in a red outfit with shoulder-length hair holding a microphone on a stage
Mothica performing in 2018
Background information
Birth nameMcKenzie Ellis
Born1994 or 1995 (age 29–30)[1]
Years active2014–present
Websitemothica.com

McKenzie Ellis (born 1994 or 1995), known professionally as Mothica, is an American pop musician. She grew up in Oklahoma City and began producing music when she was 18 years old. In June 2020, a TikTok video she posted that included her song "VICES" went viral, boosting her music career.

Early life

Mothica was born McKenzie Ellis in 1994 or 1995. She grew up in Oklahoma City, and experienced depression and self-harm, turning to online communities after finding that expressing her struggles in her hometown was taboo.[1]

On January 29, 2011, Ellis attempted suicide. She has additionally experienced assault and domestic abuse.[1]

While she wrote music as a child, Ellis didn't want to be a musician by profession. She began producing music for public release when she was 18 years old.[2] She attended Harding Fine Arts Academy before receiving a scholarship from Pratt Institute for visual web programming, leading her to move to Brooklyn in 2013. In her first year at Pratt Institute, a classmate introduced her to SoundCloud and lent her a MIDI keyboard; the first song she released, titled "Starchild", was played 100,000 times in 24 hours.[3]

Stage name

Ellis adopted the name "Mothica" for her music and visual art at age 15 in reference to the tendency of moths to be attracted to light.[3]

Career

Mothica's first song, "Starchild", was played 100,000 times in 24 hours after she released it on SoundCloud. After learning to produce songs in Ableton, she released an EP titled "Mythic" in 2015. The song “No One” from the EP reached No. 6 on the U.S. Viral Spotify Charts.[3]

Mothica has no record label, publicist, or manager, and describes herself as a self-made musician. In 2020, she began promoting her music on TikTok, later attributing the success of her music career to the app after a June 2020 video of her first time listening to her song "VICES" got more than 5,000,000 views and almost 1,000,000 likes. On the social media platform, where she has more than 500,000 followers, she shares openly about her experiences with depression as well as sobriety and hair loss.[1]

In June 2020, Mothica released a song titled "VICES" which reached No. 2 on the iTunes popular music charts, surpassing "Watermelon Sugar" by Harry Styles.[1] The song also charted on the Billboard charts. In August 2020, she released a 12-song album titled "Blue Hour" which autobiographically discussed her progress toward sobriety;[4] the album also charted.[2] She subsequently released an EP titled "Forever Fifteen".[5]

Musical style

Mothica's pop music is influenced by rock and emo.[1]

Personal life

Mothica has several tattoos. Her first was a geometric cube tattooed on the back of her neck, motivated at the time by enjoyment of architecture and minimalism. She has a sleeve tattoo on her right arm that includes a flying hawk impaled by an arrow as well as the skull of a ram and a fern leaf. She has a tattoo on her back inspired by the painting Lucretia, and tattoos of her song titles "chaos", "heavy hart", "NOW", and "VICES". She also has a tattoo of three moths around a lamppost.[2]

Mothica moved to Los Angeles in 2019 for her career in music, but moved back into her parents' home in Oklahoma City due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her mother Debbie Ellis, also known as "Momica", has assisted her with the production of music videos.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f La Jeunesse, Marilyn (April 12, 2021). "Mothica Is Turning Her Trauma Into Pop Bangers". Bustle. Retrieved January 20, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ a b c Preston, Devon (September 8, 2020). "Mothica Breaks Down Her TikTok Success Story, Mental Illness and Tattoo Collecting". Inked. Retrieved January 20, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ a b c d McDonnell, Brandy (August 28, 2020). "Interview and video: Oklahoma singer-songwriter Mothica follows TikTok breakthrough with debut LP 'Blue Hour'". The Oklahoman. Archived from the original on January 22, 2022. Retrieved January 20, 2022. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; January 20, 2022 suggested (help)
  4. ^ McDonnell, Brandy (October 21, 2020). "Watch TikTok star Mothica deliver potent stripped-down version of breakout hit 'Vices'". The Oklahoman. Retrieved January 20, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Bocci, Maria (March 12, 2021). "Mothica adds her own touch of pop to Bring Me The Horizon's "Can You Feel My Heart"". EARMILK. Retrieved January 20, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mothica&oldid=1069850607"