# Mothica

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 didn't 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 will 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.

## Discography
### Extended Plays

List of EPs :
| Name | Release date |
| "Mythic" | December 15, 2015 |
| "Out Of IT (Remixes)" | February 15, 2017 |
| "Heavy Heart" | May 31, 2017 |
| "Ashes" | November 9, 2018 |
| "Ashes (Remixed)" | February 1, 2019 |
| "forever fifteen" | March 19, 2021 |
| "Nocturnal (lofi beats to fall asleep to)" | August 25, 2022 |

### Studio albums

List of albums :
| Name | Release date |
| "Blue Hour" | August 27, 2020 |
| "Nocturnal" | July 1, 2022 |
| "Nocturnal - Deluxe" | October 21, 2022 |
| "Kissing Death" | August 23, 2024 |

### Singles

List of EPs :
| Year | Name | Album/EP |
| 2014 | "Molt" (with Bearface) | Off-album single |
| 2017 | "Self-Destructive" | "Heavy Heart" |
| 2017 | "Sometimes" | "Heavy Heart" |
| 2018 | "Lovetalk" | Off-album single |
| 2018 | "Water Me Down" | "Ashes" |
| 2018 | "Burnout" | "Ashes" |
| 2019 | "By Now..." (Brown Whale Remix) | "Ashes (Remixed)" |
| 2019 | "Love Me Better" | Off-album single |
| 2019 | "NOW" | "Blue Hour" |
| 2019 | "Hungover" | "Blue Hour" |
| 2020 | "oh god" | "Blue Hour" |
| 2020 | "R.I.F.P." | "Blue Hour" |
| 2020 | "Hands Off" | "Blue Hour" |
| 2020 | "everything at once" | "Blue Hour" |
| 2020 | "VICES" | "Blue Hour" |
| 2020 | "VICES (Remixes)" | Off-album single |
| 2021 | "forever fifteen" | "forever fifteen" |
| 2021 | "forever fifteen (acoustic)" | Off-album single |
| 2021 | "Can You Feel My Heart" (Mothica Version) | Off-album single |
| 2021 | "buzzkill" (feat. Brassie & Tokiejoestar) | Off-album single |
| 2021 | "Heavy Heart" | Off-album single |
| 2022 | "CASUALTY" | "Nocturnal" |
| 2022 | "GOOD FOR HER" (with emlyn) | Off-album single |
| 2022 | "SENSITIVE" | "Nocturnal" |
| 2022 | Last Cigarette (feat. Au/Ra) | "Nocturnal" |
| 2022 | "BEDTIME STORIES / BLOOD" | "Nocturnal" |
| 2023 | "Glow in the Dark" (From Rocksmith+ Original Soundtrack) | Off-album single |
| 2023 | "Sirens" (Feat, Sophie Powers) | Off-album single |
| 2024 | "The Void" | "Kissing Death" |
| 2024 | "Exit Plan" | "Kissing Death" |
| 2024 | "Another High" | "Kissing Death" |
| 2024 | "Doomed" | "Kissing Death" |
| 2024 | "Curiosity Killed The Moth" | "Kissing Death" |
| 2024 | "Red" | "Kissing Death" |
| 2024 | "The Reaper" | "Kissing Death" |
| 2024 | "Toxins" | "Kissing Death" |
| 2024 | "Afterlife" | "Kissing Death" |
| 2024 | "Mirage" | "Kissing Death" |
| 2024 | "Oblivion for Two" | "Kissing Death" |
| 2024 | "Kissing Death" | "Kissing Death" |
As Guest Performer :
| Year | Name | Album/EP |
| 2016 | "Clear" (Pusher and MOTHICA) | "Clear" |
| 2016 | "Clear - Graves Remix" (Pusher, MOTHICA and Graves) | "Clear" |
| 2016 | "Clear - Shawn Wasabi Remix" (Pusher, MOTHICA and Shawn Wasabi) | "Clear" |
| 2016 | "Clear - Lh4l Remix" (Pusher, MOTHICA and Lh4L) | "Clear" |
| 2016 | "Clear - Patrickreza Remix" (Pusher, MOTHICA and PatrickReza) | "Clear" |
| 2016 | "Reputation" (Icarus Moth and MOTHICA) | Off-album single |
| 2018 | "Chasing Light" {MEMBA and MOTHICA) | Off-album single |
| 2018 | "Don't" (Icarus Moth and MOTHICA) | Off-album single |
| 2019 | "Chasing Lights (Pt. 2)" (MEMBA and MOTHICA) | Off-album single |
| 2020 | "Overthinking" (Mickey Valen and MOTHICA) | Off-album single |
| 2021 | "upside down (Mothica Remix)" (nothing,nowhere. and MOTHICA) | Off-album single |
| 2021 | "Soul Sucker, Pt. 2" (Ellise, DeathbyRomy and MOTHICA) | Off-album single |
| 2022 | "The Rapture (but it's Pink)" Scene Queen and MOTHICA | "BIMBOCORE VOL. 2" |
| 2024 | "REPTILIAN" PVRIS and MOTHICA | "F.I.L.T.H." |