Minneapolis-Based Performer The Nunnery Releases New Album, "We Are the Stars"
June 6, 2019
On Thursday, June 6th, Minneapolis-based performer The Nunnery will take the stage at First Avenue’s 7th Street Entry for the release of the latest album, “We Are the Stars”. The Nunnery, based in Minneapolis, is one voice: Sarah Elstran, mixed and looped to create both rhythm and melody. Recently, I sat down with Elstran to talk about the album, her journey as a musician and where she’ll go next.
Elstran grew up in a big family, the seventh of eight kids, and began playing music regularly at a young age, performing as a singer/songwriter in several bands during her early teens in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It was there that a supportive community of musicians helped fuel Elstran’s journey in music. She would play with people sometimes three times her age, at local hot spots like the Acoustic Cafe and the public library. Then, when Elstran got older, she moved to Minneapolis where she began performing as part of the folk rock group, Sarah James and the Relatives.
It was a few consecutive events that led to the idea and formation behind The Nunnery. Not long after a couple of Elstran’s bandmates left to pursue music jobs in Nashville, her guitar was stolen from her car. Then, a friend gave her a reverb pedal. And what seemed at the time like setbacks turned out to be blessings in disguise. Elstran said only a few days after her guitar was stolen, she was “writing like crazy”.
“I just completely stopped writing on my guitar,” Elstran said. “All of my energy went into writing this emotive music without words – emotive in that it was melody-driven, which was completely different than what I was doing before.”
But she found she liked what she was doing. That was four, maybe five years ago now.
“It felt really good for myself too, which was different,” Elstran said. “Because I think [with] singer/songwriter stuff, you are sometimes half trying to please the average listener. Without the words and everything having to force an opinion and a concept, it was nice to let go of that and just let music be music.”
Elstran describes her music as dream pop. And it fits. Her music is equal parts mellow and energetic, with loops layered on top of one another over light beats. Elstran said the idea for and tracks that make up “We Are the Stars” developed into a bigger idea over time, as she’s lived on the road and taken in new experiences.
“It just became me experiencing all these different humans and ideas and locations – and I wanted to place that somewhere in a full project,” Elstran said. “In some of the songs I’m in space looking at the Earth and kind of admiring it and wanting to be in it… [like] being in space and landing on earth and enveloping people and humans and their personalities.”
Elstran said in some ways, “We are the Stars” – the album’s title track – is a ballad to herself.
“I think that song kind of emulates what I really want to say,” Elstran said. “It’s like my idea of containing self love and accepting it over and over again, in a way that I think people should do daily, including myself. And I think that’s what I hope that people can have – is this self-love; identifying what you enjoy and appreciating it in yourself, and giving it to others.”
So what’s next for Elstran? Just to keep making music, she said, and keep practicing self-love.
“Especially in the last two years, I just realized if I’m having a hard time with winter, or just my motivation, if I don’t start with identifying things I am good at and appreciate and work on them in the mode that I am okay with myself, I can’t just give or create healthy things around me,” Elstran said. “Yeah, I definitely think about that every day nowadays – just accepting myself and enjoying it and working on things I like and making them better.”
You can catch The Nunnery’s “We are the Stars” release show at First Avenue’s 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis on June 6th, with EHN JEY and Dreamspook. Doors open at 7:30 PM.
More information can be found on The Nunnery release show here.