Elle Varner Says She Was A “Nerd” & “Loser” Growing Up

Elle Varner is a 22 year old singer/songwriter/guitarist, who studied in NYU’s Clive Davis Program for music and graduated with the titles “Most Likely to get Signed” and “Most Likely to win a Grammy.” Now, she is signed to MBK/J Records and has released her debut single “Only Wanna Give It To You,” which features J. Cole. Her first CD, “Perfectly Imperfect” is set to be released soon. Elle interviewed with TheBoomBox and discussed her record deal, music, fashion style, and how much of a “nerd” she was before being signed. Peep a few excerpts:

On how she got her record deal:

“I was working in coatcheck in Santos [Party House in New York City]. Somebody heard me, I was playing guitar in my downtime. I think it was like summer, the end of summer. This kid heard me, next thing you know, he’s like, ‘I know some people.’ I was at MBK [Entertainment, former management home to Alicia Keys]. I didn’t really know what MBK was. I go in there, play a couple songs and they’re like, ‘So we want to take you to J Records.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ And the following week they took me to [J Records] and I played for the heads of the entire company. And the following week after that I got a stack of paperwork. That was like a year-and-a-half ago.”

On what she planned to do if she didn’t get a deal:

“I wanted to work either in a studio or at a label. Not having the confidence, I thought I’d get an internship at a label, I’ll get in there and then maybe one day I’ll give someone my CD and it’ll go the inside way. Instead of approaching it as an artist presenting themselves. And then also in the studio department, I was thinking maybe I’ll be an engineer, assist, work my way into that situation.”

On how she ended up working with J. Cole:

“We randomly met at school. He went to St. John’s [University] and I went to NYU. And then we bumped into each other. We were acquaintances, not like best friends or anything. We bumped into each other here at the Sony building and I was like, ‘J. Cole?’ and he was like ‘Elle?’ [I said], ‘What are you doing here?’ [He said], ‘I just got signed.’ [I said], ‘I just got signed.’ And so the first thing that came to mind was him when we wanted to put a rapper on ‘Only Wanna to Give It to You.’”

On her style inspiration:

“I don’t really have any specific style icon but I do look at women that have their own flavor and own style such as Rihanna. Even if I don’t take from their style I appreciate their being courageous and trying different things. I’m very much inspired by ‘regular’ fashion but taking it up a little step. Like I’m not a big high-fashion person, I’m not a big name person. I just like to find cute stuff that works.”

On what she was like growing up:

“I think people would be surprised to know that I was such a loser growing up. It blows my mind on a daily basis when I see people on Twitter like, ‘Man, she’s got swag.’ And I just crack up. I’m always looking at my dad like, ‘Can you believe this?’ I spent so much time with my dad and he didn’t really know how to dress a girl. He would buy me these sweatsuits, these baggy sweatsuits. He was very strict on what I wore to school. I think my fashion sense at the time no one understood. I didn’t care, I was just like, ‘I’m gonna wear what I want to wear.’ I used to come home crying to my mom like, ‘Everybody hates me. They’re so mean.’ They always told me, ‘You can’t dress,’ ‘You’re a nerd.’ I think over time I internalized that and it gave me such a drive to prove people wrong and here I am now.”

[TheBoomBox]

-@Kami2Kute