Daily Discovery: “bored&blind” is ella jane’s Indie-Pop Banger on Adolescent Infatuation

Singing to her purple hairbrush in her freshman dorm room, ella jane captures that coming-of-age feeling once again with her newest track, “bored&blind.” 

Despite being such a newcomer in the music scene, jane has already racked up millions of streams and continues to pave her own way through authentic, catchy and relatable tracks. 

“bored&blind,” jane admits, reflects her adolescent wallowing when it came to infatuation and unbalanced relationships. “I was 16 and pining over people who didn’t really know or care that I existed. I also did nothing about it, and just let myself sulk. I actually wrote it while at an arts camp in Manhattan, the summer before my sophomore year of high school.”

Even though the song is three years old, her lyrics don’t reflect that juvenile melodrama that would be expected of someone in high school. Instead, she writes with a witty youthful charm that is wholly authentic, a result of her approach when it comes to songwriting. jane writes her best stuff when she doesn’t focus much on what she should be doing but focuses on giving herself the space to play with narrative and perspective.

“I find it difficult to follow through with a song if I’ve placed too many restraints on what I can and can’t do,” she adds. 

In the same way, jane isn’t fussed over conveying a specific message with her songs, it’s more about sharing her own experiences and allowing her audience to find common ground alongside her.

“Quite frankly, there’s no real message to the song. It’s just the way I was feeling at the time I wrote it. I think sometimes you have to let a song do just that—speak for itself. I hate when things are contrived or curated to have this specific message just for the sake of having a message. It’s just more interesting when the takeaway comes about authentically.”

Pulling from modern influences like HAIM, Lorde, Phoebe Bridgers and Maggie Rogers, it’s no wonder that jane’s music prioritizes personal experiences and approachable songs with a relatable peg. 

Alongside producer Mike Irish and an idea stemming from a simple voice memo that builds to a fully indie-pop crescendo, “bored&blind” is a fitting and impressive continuation to jane’s budding career.