Urban Mom: Singer-Songwriter Eleni Mandell

My wife and I are totally out of the loop with our scene. No one has kids. NO ONE. Raising our 3-year old son here in Echo Park can be a lonely experience in a hipster enclave where everyone seems to be single and under 40. I was talking shop with Eleni Mandell, the fantastic songwriter and the soprano voice in local vocal supergroup The Living Sisters.

She’s deep in her second year of motherhood, raising twins here in town, and we discussed local kid-friendly spots and creative changes within ourselves since parenthood came to town.

While she has been tempted here and there to move her clan to the Valley, she’d rather share her attraction to an energetic walking neighborhood in the city. It's where her friends are, it's not so isolated for the kids, and the cultural factor can’t be undervalued.

Usual hangouts like the have an extra sense of serenity when strolling the twins and walking with her friends. Other times, watching the kids hang out at Little Barn, a country-and-western themed indoor playground downtown, brings a much needed hit of anonymity from the soccer moms and the social scene scrambling in the city parks. And it's agreed that Griffith Park, with its famous Merry-Go-Round and pony rides, is a must for rekindling her own childhood memories.

Personally, my biggest problem since being a papa has been having enough clarity to write and arrange art and music. I just can’t focus on anything grand. This isn’t the case with Eleni. She began cobbling out songs just weeks prior to giving birth and over the course of the year since. 

In fact, it’s opened a new channel to childlike themes to write about. “Everyone said, ‘Oh, you’re gonna start writing childrens music,’ and I hated that idea.” But sure enough, the songs came. “They aren’t really childrens tunes, but songs from that made-up place.”

They’ve even been recorded, and she feels great about how they turned out. As more are sure to come and though they may be personal, she eventually envisions the day she will release them.

As she begins her path back to the stage--her ninth record slated for an upcoming release, and The Living Sisters slowly crafting a new EP--Eleni has rebooted her career with the help of two new lifelong fans.