Singled Out: Elliott Ernst's She Should Have Been

Los Angeles-based alternative rock artist and producer Elliott Ernst just released his new single "She Should Have Been" and to celebrate we asked him to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

"She Should Of Been" is one of those songs that took years to fully become what it was supposed to be. The earliest seed of it goes back to when I was seventeen. I had this line, this feeling that stuck with me, and over time the song went through different demos and different versions before I really understood what I wanted it to say. I've been writing since I was fourteen, so sometimes I'll come back to an idea years later and realize I finally have the perspective to finish what the younger me started.

The song is really about watching someone you knew begin to change and wondering whether they even realize where their choices are taking them. It's a little accusatory, but it also comes from a place of caring about that person. When I sing, "What are you living for? What are you dying for?" I'm not trying to ask some abstract philosophical question. I'm talking directly to someone, asking: are these really your choices? Are you becoming who you meant to be, or are you letting outside influences turn you into someone else? There are still flashes of the person I remember, which somehow makes it more frustrating.

What makes the song especially meaningful to me is that it became a full record years later. I brought it to Stevie Knight in Topanga Canyon, California, and that's where it finally clicked. There's something strange but satisfying about taking an idea that started when I was a teenager and finally hearing it come out of the speakers as a finished record years later. It feels like completing a thought my younger self couldn't quite finish.

That's ultimately what "She Should Of Been" represents for me. It's about another person changing, but also indirectly about me too, about time, perspective, and change. You can write something at seventeen, carry it with you for years, and eventually realize why you wrote it in the first place. Sometimes the meaning of a song catches up with you long after the first lyric does.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here

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