Bands In Portrait: Ellisa Sun sets on the Bay
At the end of 2017, Ellisa Sun was looking for her next challenge. "My band and I got to play the Great American Music Hall, we got to play the Independent, we got to play the Rickshaw Stop; my three favorite venues," she says on a windy morning outside Peet's Coffee on Fillmore. "I was at a point where I could stay, and we could keep doing this, but that did not feel right." She was yearning to do something more significant — but back then, she did not know quite what that something was. Ellisa grew up in Southern [...]
Ellisa Sun gives the Bay Area ‘Just a Little More’
(photo: JJ Casas) Up until recently, Ellisa Sun's base of operations was right here in the Bay Area. That was until she and her partner, percussionist Ken Michienzi, decided to purchase a recreational vehicle. They left the conventions of a residential address behind in favor of a life on the road touring. It's a romantic gesture, unmooring oneself and setting sail. That sentimentality that courses through Sun's life bleeds out into her work as a singer-songwriter. She sometimes presents as this idyllic spirit, sometimes as the infinitely downtrodden. However, she is always — always — passionate. Her new EP, Just a Little [...]