An Interview with Ella & Sienna

Ella and Sienna Winners of Groundwater KIX Start

Country music lovers!

Team Play MPE is honoured to have partnered with Groundwater KIX Start 2022! The winners Ella & Sienna were awarded with International music promotion distribution for their new single – out now!

“It’s Not Me, It’s You” was written by Ella & Sienna in collaboration with Phil Barton. It was recorded at none other than The Music Cellar with Rod McCormack. 

Our very own David G. sat down to have a candid conversation with the singer-songwriter sisters from the Adelaide Hills (South Australia). They talk about winning KIX Start, and all of the exciting things the incredibly talented duo have coming up this summer. 

“It’s Not Me, It’s You” dropped on all major streaming platforms this past Friday June 30th and is now available in Player!*

*If you’re a tastemaker and do not yet have access, reach out to us here.

Without further ado, here’s the conversation!

On co-writing “It’s Not Me, It’s You” with Phil Barton 

“We wrote the song with Phil Barton over Zoom. It was our first co-write so we didn’t really know what to expect going into it, especially not being in person. But when we met Phil we instantly had a connection and we had an idea and it just kind of flowed. It was great working with that other person who has kind of a different perspective and really knows his stuff. So it worked really well and Phil’s just a great guy, so it was a really fun process.” – Sienna 

On recording “It’s Not Me, It’s You” with Rod McCormack at The Music Cellar 

“The studio was incredible. Our first impression, we walked in and there’s all of the plaques on the wall of Casey Chambers, Becky Cole and Gina Jeffries and all of these massive Aussie Country names. And you just felt like you were in such a sacred space… We were so excited to work with Rod and we had this song. I think bringing our songs to the studio is our favourite part of the process because we have this thing that we have created and we are so proud of it… And then you work with a producer and with all of their experience and knowledge the song just becomes huge and better than we could have imagined.” – Ella  

Recent Accolades: 
  • Winners of MOST POPULAR COUNTRY ARTIST in the South Australian Music Awards 2022
  • Winners of the GROUNDWATER KIX START and NQ’s ROCKIN COUNTRY REBOOT competitions 2022 
  • Top 24 Finalist in THE VOICE AUSTRALIA – Season 11 (2022) 
  • Finalist in the Folk Alliance Australian YOUTH FOLK ARTIST OF THE YEAR 2022 and 2021 
  • 2nd place in both the Battle of the Young Stars and Best of the Buskers competitions at the TAMWORTH Country Music Festival 
  • Semi-Finalist in the International Songwriting Competition 2020 

ELLA & SIENNA have most recently featured as the COUNTRYTOWN and KIX COUNTRY Centre Stage Artist, following the release of their DEBUT EP ‘Seven Ways to Say You’re Fine’, which was produced by multi-award winning producer MATT FELL in Tasmania. A number of singles from the EP, including ‘Next to Mine’, ‘Saved’ and ‘Don’t Call Me’ enjoyed major support from Country Radio including KIX and ABC COUNTRY, success on the COUNTRYTOWN HOT 50, AMRAP and other charts, and hit major editorial playlists on APPLE MUSIC, SPOTIFY and YOUTUBE MUSIC. The music video for single ‘Saved’ was added to high-rotation on CMT (Country Music Television). Recent single, ‘The City in July’ hit Spotify’s NEW MUSIC FRIDAY playlist and has received over 10k streams.