McKenzie Ashton Ellis (born March 12, 1995), known professionally as Mothica, is an American singer. She grew up in Oklahoma City and began producing music when she was 18 years old. Since 2015, she has produced a dozen albums and singles distributed across several online musical streaming platforms such as on Spotify, SoundCloud and Bandcamp. In June 2020, a TikTok video she posted that included her song "VICES" went viral, providing greater notability as a musician and singer.
Early life Mothica was born McKenzie Ellis on March 12, 1995. She grew up in Oklahoma City. Having experienced depression and engaged in self-harm, she turned to online communities after finding that expressing her struggles in her hometown was taboo.
Ellis has been a victim of assault and domestic abuse. On January 29, 2011, she attempted suicide.
Although she wrote music as a child, Ellis did not want to be a musician by profession. She began producing music for public release when she was 18 years old. She attended Harding Fine Arts Academy before receiving a scholarship from Pratt Institute for visual web programming, leading her to move to Brooklyn in 2013. In her first year at Pratt Institute, a classmate introduced her to SoundCloud and lent her a MIDI keyboard.
Stage name Ellis adopted the name "Mothica" for her music and visual art at age 15 in reference to the tendency of moths to be attracted to light.
Career
Mothica's first song, "Starchild", was played 100,000 times in 24 hours after she released it on SoundCloud. After learning to produce songs in Ableton, she released an EP titled Mythic in 2015. The song “No One” from the EP reached No. 6 on the U.S. Viral Spotify Charts.
Mothica has no record label, publicist, or manager, and describes herself as a self-made musician. In 2020, she began promoting her music on TikTok, later attributing the success of her music career to the app. She has more than 500,000 followers on TikTok where she shares openly about her experiences with depression as well as sobriety and hair loss.
In June 2020, Mothica released a song titled "VICES" which reached No. 2 on the iTunes popular music charts, surpassing "Watermelon Sugar" by Harry Styles. The song also charted on the Billboard charts and received more than 5,000,000 views and almost 1,000,000 likes. In August 2020, she released a 12-song album titled "Blue Hour" which autobiographically discussed her progress toward sobriety; the album also charted. She subsequently released an EP titled "Forever Fifteen" in March 2021. In July 2022, she released her second studio album, "Nocturnal".
In 2021, she and DeathbyRomy were featured by Ellise on the track "Soul Sucker pt 2".
In November 2022, Mothica was featured on Scene Queen's song "The Rapture (But it's Pink)".
In March 2024, Mothica announced that her third album Kissing Death would be released in August 2024.
Musical style Mothica's pop music is influenced by rock and emo. Mothica has technically described her earliest songs such as in the Mythic EP as "bummer pop" and dream pop.
Personal life Ellis has numerous tattoos, not limited to the following: Her first was a geometric cube tattooed on the back of her neck, motivated at the time by enjoyment of architecture and minimalism. She has a sleeve tattoo on her right arm that includes a flying hawk impaled by an arrow as well as the skull of a ram and a fern leaf. She has a tattoo on her back inspired by the painting Lucretia, and tattoos of her song titles: "oblivion", "chaos", "heavy heart", "NOW", and "VICES". She also has a tattoo of three moths around a lamppost.
Mothica moved to Los Angeles in 2019 for her career in music, but moved back into her parents' home in Oklahoma City during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her mother Debbie Ellis, also known as "Momica," has assisted her with the production of music videos.
In October 2024, Mothica apologetically called off her U.S. tour to attend rehab for pill addiction, returning to recording and performing in 2025.
Discography Studio albums +List of albums Name Release dateBlue Hour August 27, 2020NocturnalJuly 1, 2022Kissing DeathAugust 23, 2024
Extended plays +List of EPs Name Release dateMythicDecember 15, 2015Out of IT (Remixes)February 15, 2017Heavy HeartMay 31, 2017AshesNovember 9, 2018Ashes (Remixed)February 1, 2019forever fifteenMarch 19, 2021Nocturnal (lofi beats to fall asleep to)August 25, 2022Somewhere in BetweenFebruary 20, 2026
Singles +List of Singles Year Name Album/EP2014"Molt"Non-album single2017"Self-Destructive"Heavy Heart"Sometimes"2018"Lovetalk"Non-album single"Water Me Down"Ashes"Burnout"2019"By Now..."Ashes (Remixed)"Love Me Better"Non-album single"NOW"Blue Hour"Hungover"2020"oh god""R.I.F.P.""Hands Off""everything at once""VICES""VICES (Remixes)"Non-album single2021"forever fifteen"forever fifteen"forever fifteen (acoustic)"Non-album singles"Can You Feel My Heart" "buzzkill""Heavy Heart"2022"CASUALTY"Nocturnal"GOOD FOR HER"Non-album single"SENSITIVE"NocturnalLast Cigarette"BEDTIME STORIES / BLOOD"2023"Glow in the Dark"Non-album singles"Sirens" (feat. Sophie Powers)2024"Doomed"Kissing Death"Curiosity Killed the Moth""Red""The Reaper""Toxins""Mirage""Afterlife"2025"Toxins (remix)"Non-album singles"VICES II""Evergreen Misery"2026"Save Your Roses" +As guest performerYear Name Album/EP2016"Clear"Clear"Clear" (Graves remix)"Clear" (Shawn Wasabi remix)"Clear" (Lh4l remix)"Clear" (Patrickreza remix)"Reputation"Non-album singles2018"Chasing Light""Don't"2019"Chasing Lights (Pt. 2)"2020"Overthinking"2021"upside down (Mothica Remix)""Soul Sucker, Pt. 2"2022"The Rapture (But It's Pink)"BIMBOCORE VOL. 22024"REPTILIAN"F.I.L.T.H.
References
External links