Elle Varner

“One of my dream collaborations is to work with Sade. I would love to work with Andre 3000, Miguel.”

“One of my biggest musical influences is definitely Ella Fitzgerald as a vocalist.”

“It was not cool to be that fun, bubbly kid, so I would just go off on my own and sing and make up songs, and that's how I think I developed into the kind of artist and writer that I am.”

“One of my favorite dishes is this alfredo I make, and I make the sauce from scratch. I love making everything from scratch.”

“Everything in my house was either free or under 40 bucks, and people come to my house and can't believe that I picked up everything on the street or in a thrift shop.”

“As a young girl, I remember singing CeCe Penniston's 'Don't Walk Away.' It was like my jam.”

“I'm an around-the-way girl. I'm a singer, songwriter. I'm about positivity and spreading a good message and telling the people's story.”

“I was really heavy growing up, so it was never feeling like the pretty girl, never being popular.”

“I love all things crafty. I love to make jewelry. I love to cut up old clothes and turn them into something new. I love projects like transforming a busted table into a shiny new table. I'm really into restoration and little side projects.”

“As soon as I could speak, I was singing. Before I could even speak full words, I would make up ones to sing and I have it on tape, too.”

“I took lessons for about everything you could imagine - gymnastics to karate to flute and piano. My mom always definitely kept me in some kind of class or program, but for guitar, I kinda gave up on then kinda just taught myself. Same thing with piano. I've never been good with following lessons.”

“I think that's my gift in this world is to put experience into music.”