gglum, the moniker of London-born songwriter Ella Smoker, has shared her second single for Secretly Canadian, the industrial, riotous ‘Easy Fun.’ Of the new single, Smoker says “‘Easy Fun’ is every night out I’ve had since I was a teenager mushed into one. It’s meant to be silly and tongue in cheek since most of my songs tend to be quite gloomy in topic. I made this one with Karma Kid over a year ago and we just wanted to experiment with getting me out of my comfort zone and trying something a little different.”
Watch the Finnegan Travers directed visual below.
WATCH THE “EASY FUN” VIDEO
Last month, gglum announced her signing to Secretly Canadian with the instantly catchy “SPLAT!”, which was praised by The FADER, who named it a ‘Song You Need in Your Life’ Stereogum, and Paste Magazine who called it “a dashing, noisy fit of emo-inspired garage rock with tints of TRL-obsessed pop hooks.”
The 21-year old Ella Smoker first broke out with 2020’s viral pandemic-era hit “Why Don’t I Care.” Inspired by the likes of Alex G, Phil Elverum and Adrianne Lenker, gglum’s music positions Smoker as an artist who can wield atmospheric disturbance at her fingertips, crafting soundscapes that allow her to reconcile with a tumultuous coming-of-age. With flickers of electronica, dream pop and discordant garage-punk, her acoustic guitar becomes a sturdy ally, the base of a versatile, lo-fi sound that manages to feel simultaneously escapist and immersive.
Raised on everything from rockabilly and soul to MTV-era emo, she was drawn to music that offered a sense of safety, a feeling of being held within the layers of detailed instrumentation. But when she tried to write herself, she wasn’t quite sure how to conjure this sense of comfort, to make music that could adequately deal with the issues bothering her subconscious at night.
“At the time I was 17, going out all the time, bunking school, feeling really rubbish about myself,” she says. “I think that’s what helped with writing a song I liked for the first time — I just started being honest. It was basically just me pouring my misery into a song, and that’s why I called myself gglum. At the time, I was just being all angsty teenager.”
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