Before she was Party Nails, Elana Carroll was a guitar-toting tween songwriter, playing any open mic she could near her hometown of Chatham, New York. Performing solo or with a band of seasoned adult players backing her up, she wailed lyrics about her family’s divorce, dreams of leaving her small town, and a then-undiagnosed anxiety disorder across biker bars and community centers, often met with tears from patrons moved by her fearless expression of raw emotion. At home she recorded herself with Garageband, instigating a love of music technology that continues to this day.
Party Nails debuted in 2015 on Neon Gold’s famed blog with “Break”, a heartbreak dance-pop single clearly inspired by happy ad classics such as “Dancing On My Own” and “Blue Monday”. In 2016 on Vice’s Noisey blog Party Nails debuted “No Pressure”—think Haim instrumentation paired with Taylor Swift melodies—before leaving a 360 deal and rebuilding independently. Her first full-length Past Lives and Paychecks was equal parts collaborations—Caleb Shreve, Ryan Nasci, Mereki Beach, among others—and self-produced, engineering and playing guitar, bass, synthesizers, and programming electronics alone in her home studio. Her first US tour in 2017 (with PVRIS and Lights) ushered in a devoted fanbase, and her live performances continue to be a core facet of her artistry, being equal parts Madonna, Hayley Williams, and Sheryl Crow. In the studio, though, her muses are Robyn, Prince, SZA, and Dolly Parton, to name a few.
Since 2020 Party Nails has penned a song about period pride for Kathryn Hahn’s character to sing for Loren Bouchard’s Apple animated series Central Park, wrote and produced the Le Tigre-infused “Supernatural” for feminist rock duo Deap Vally, and continued to lend her vocals to other musicians (LŪN and Urban Heat both released music featuring Party Nails in 2022).
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