DIY to DA: Ela Minus Breaks Through

DIY to D A: Ela Minus Breaks Through The electronic artist and producer tells Rolling Stone about her new album, D A, and how shes forged a career outside the mainstream.

By

Bryan Parys

February 3, 2025

Image courtesy of Olisiegen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ela Minus (Gabriel Jimeno BM '13) released her debut album, acts of rebellion, during a global pandemic. The electronic artist, producer, and drummer was tasked with promoting an album released by an independent label in the middle of a music industry that was suddenly unable to rely on traditional promotional strategies.

Ela Minus

Image courtesy of Olisiegen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In an interview at the time, she told us that pursuing your art requires total devotion, and that doesn't change because there's a pandemic going on. Her perseverance and wisdom guided her through an intense few years to the release of her new album, D A, which has been met with widespread critical acclaim. Pitchfork awarded the album a 7.9 (for context, Taylor Swifts The Tortured Poets Department got a 6.6), and she also sat for her first Rolling Stone interview.

The album can feel like a sweaty underground club at one moment and like an icy breath of winter air the next with its deft balance of ambient soundscapes and all-out four-on-the-floor beats. You can hear elements of early Bj rk as well as Swedish cult legends the Knife, but her influences run far beyond electronic music, as she cites fellow Berklee alumni Adrianne Lenker BM '12 (Big Thief) and Nick Hakim BM '13 as influences.

The Colombian native also told Rolling Stone about how her roots in punk, studying with jazz luminary Terri Lyne Carrington, and majoring in electronic production and design at Berklee combined to create a sound that was uniquely her own, and importantly, on her own terms. She knew that going in an independent direction came at the expense of resources, but thats actually something she embraced. I didn't have any budget [for my early work], but I also didn't want one. I was trying to make electronic music from a perspective of the life of a jazz or punk band, where each synthesizer was like its own band member, she said in the interview.

I've realized that the type of music I make isn't really mainstream, yet I still have a career.

- Ela Minus

Her uncompromising approach to making art is a case study in how going a more DIY route doesnt have to come at the expense of career sustainability. For one, she frequently built her own synthesizers using the skills she learned at Berklee. Earlier in her career this led to a job at Critter & Guitari, where she helped designed one of the companys flagship synths, the Organelle.

I've realized that the type of music I make isn't really mainstream, yet I still have a career, she said. I think people notice that, and it's inspiring a lot of young people, especially in Latin American countries.

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