Kings Elliot and her sad puppies club, four bunnies and new Sad Girl anthem

If cool breezes on you only burn, the silken voice of Kings Elliot will dissipate your problems. With songs like crackling wood, melancholic yet warming, we found in the British-Swiss artist the perfect relief.

With her deep blue hair and dangling belt chains, twenty-something Kings Elliot makes quite an impression. At first sight on stage, one could think they’re about to attend an Avril Lavignesque performance. But Kings Elliot’s voice is as soft as a cloud, and her lyrics quite pluvial.

Making her debut amidst the pandemic as she was still working in a pet shop, Kings Elliot had kind of a weird start. Without any record labels, she was working on her songs in the evenings and on weekends, putting her art out and waiting to see what would happen. And what happened was a dazzling success, embodied this year by a tour with none other than Macklemore and Imagine Dragons.

“I want to ask them, why did you pick me?!” confessed the singer, still dazed by the opportunity. In Vienna and Bern at the time of our interview, and currently on tour, Kings Elliot has been captivating massive crowds with her touching and deeply personal songs.

If her discography is still short, it stands out by its coherence and unique universe, taking from Alice in Wonderland with some hints of Melanie Martinez, and melodies not dissimilar to Billie Eilish. And from this universe, one color sticks out: Blue. A color Kings Elliot considers quite magical, combining sadness and depth with an other wordly touch. “A color that puts you in some sort of fairytale” as she told us, a color that helps her escape.

In another facet of her impeccable imagery, the sad clown is a major symbol. In her singles, “‘Til I die” and “Butterfly Pen”, Kings Elliot is seen covered in tulle, her plastered blue hair circling her white foundation, with Marlene Dietrich’s downward pencil brows.

“I always had it in my mind, this sad clown. It’s always been something I feel strongly connected to. To me, it represents and embodies mental health struggles.”

For Kings Elliot, dressing as a sad clown is “bringing what’s inside to the outside”, which embodies the philosophy of her music perfectly. The metaphor gains layers in her song, “Butterfly pen”, where she sings “maybe I’m bored of the circus”, a lyric one can relate to in many different ways. Open about her mental health struggles, Kings Elliot uses music as a way to connect to others through her difficult experiences. On TikTok, her single, “‘Til I Die”, has been used by many to open up about their hardships. Close to her listeners, Kings Elliot keeps her DMs open and constantly exchanges on these topics, dreaming of what she calls “a sick puppies comfort club”. Her music has become a safe space for many, a growing community of mutual understanding and comfort. This sense of togetherness has been an incentive for Kings Elliot to keep sharing her personal experiences, as scary as it is.

The sick puppies comfort club also takes place in her own home, with the four cherished rabbits she has rescued. The main characters of many of her Tiktoks, her bunnies add to the Wonderland scene. When asked about the most difficult part of tour life, she was quick to answer: Being away from her bunnies for two long months, who have been a real support to her over the years.

Her four companions can be seen on the cover of her first EP, “Chaos In My Court”, released last year, which was just joined by a second one, “Bored Of The Circus”. The EP has just been released and already been met with incredible reviews . The first is written as a letter to her mental health, while she describes the second as a Sad Girl Summer anthem, which we never have too many of. “Butterfly Pen” describes how experiencing hurt makes you view the world differently, and renders all things, summer included, painful.

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Photographic credit goes to Kings elliot, Karolina Wielocha and JC Verona