Ornella

You've described the Bags EP as a reflection of modern life in a screen-filled society. Looking back at the writing process, what personal experiences pushed you to explore these themes so deeply?

When I began recording Bags I'd just moved out of home to live completely on my own for the first time. This new experience led to many realisations about who I was as a person and how quickly I could fall into bad habits, like staying up until 2am with my eyes glued to a screen or procrastinating the simplest of tasks more than I ever had before. These fun insights, along with the fact that none of the mainstream pop music I was listening to seemed to cover this topic, made me want to write something that truly represented the effects of the digital world we live in, so I could always look back at my debut EP as a work of complete honesty.

Across the three songs, there seems to be a journey from recognising unhealthy habits, to confronting internal struggles, to questioning identity itself. Did you consciously approach the EP as a narrative, or did that story reveal itself over time?

When I began writing these songs, I had no idea where the process would take me. At the time of the first recording session with my producer Dan Glasgow I had a somewhat completed version of Fall To Your Knees and a few vague ideas for the other tracks, but once I began fleshing out the lyrics, I ended up diving deeper into my personal fears and failures than I ever expected.

I guess the loss of identity began much earlier than I'd realised and living on my own was the catalyst for exploring it further, with some verses diving into my own fear of abandonment from the past severing of friendships, or the FYP-induced panic that can leave you anxious and depressed all because you couldn't stop scrolling.

'Bags' tackles social media addiction with humour and self-awareness, while 'Edge Of A Cliff' feels more introspective and anxious. How did your emotional state evolve between writing those songs, and what did each one help you process?

Bags helped me understand that I like to use social media as a procrastination device. The way that I can put off a task until the last second has become a special talent and unfortunately for me, not something I can put on a resume. Using it as a distraction from real life events during times of stress and anxiety is not a healthy coping mechanism but an easy one to fall back on, so I think I approached the topic of digital dependency with a humorous tone because that's my go-to response in a lot of stressful situations.

This feeling spiralled further in Edge Of A Cliff where the opening line about free falling down a cliff only to be laughed at was my way of creating the anxious landscape associated with overthinking. I remember learning that people are grounded in either the past, present or future, and that the way a person perceives time can have a huge impact on their psyche. This song just emphasised the fact that I've always been too focused on my past, replaying things over and over again, wondering what I could've done differently. Bags was the surface level realisation stage of the problem, and Edge Of A Cliff flung me towards the deeper, darker root of the issue.

'Fall To Your Knees' may be your most vulnerable release to date. The line 'Would you like to know how I came to be a pessimistic peach?' immediately sets a reflective tone. What conversations were you having with yourself when this song began to take shape?

At the time of recording the first ever voice note for Fall To Your Knees it was 2020 and we'd just been through a COVID lockdown, so I think it wasn't all that difficult for me to access those fragile emotions. The lockdowns happened just months after I'd released my first ever single Golden Boy, which left me unmoored and doubtful of the career I'd just started, so when I rediscovered the rough draft from all those years ago it was easy to build on that foundational layer of self-doubt and hopelessness.

I've always asked questions in my songs; in fact, it's a bit of an Ornella-ism at this point. Maybe it's an attempt to seem deeper than I am or keep the listeners engaged, but not knowing where my future will lead me has always been a topic I come back to and this song helped me finally see that I can't know where I'm going if I'm not living my life for me, instead trying to abide by other's expectations of me.

A major theme of 'Fall To Your Knees' is the fear of losing your sense of self by constantly trying to please others. In an era where we're encouraged to curate our lives online, how do you personally navigate the tension between authenticity and expectation?

Authenticity is a word that is thrown around a lot in the music scene. I feel like this EP helped me understand that complete authenticity doesn't really exist online, because at the end of the day everyone is just posting a highlight reel. Your high school friend got married! Your cousin is expecting a baby! And you're about to lose your mind if you see another post like this! It's so easy to compare yourself and get tangled in the expectations of others, even if you're aware of the fact that every person is following their own path in life. So that's why the music itself needs to be authentic, because the digital landscape doesn't always feel like it is.

On top of that, I can find it hard to enjoy posting content knowing that it's the main avenue for promoting my brand and how I want to present my music to the world. It's a never-ending cycle of "I need to post this at the perfect time with the perfect caption" or "it's not that deep, just click post." The digital burnout is all too real when there's that extra layer of pressure added to the mix.

The EP concludes with an emotional, plea-filled outro that feels both unresolved and hopeful. As the final moments of this trilogy, what do those closing lyrics represent to you now, and where do they leave Ornella as both a songwriter and a person?

This EP was created from a time of major self-doubt but now that it's finished, it's left me with a belief in myself as a songwriter. The person who scrolls endlessly can coincide with the person who makes her dreams come true. Bags became a Wonderland of sorts, helping me to tell a tale of a young woman falling down a never-ending rabbit hole, caged in by devices and consumed by madness. Despite this, the final outro leaves me with a sense of optimism for the future, because even if no one is there to catch me when I fall, I'll still have myself—even if I must go find her.