A New Hampshire native, Christopher Pappas has made the most of his 14 years in Los Angeles, writing music for NASA, scoring an off-Broadway musical and performing his own works with 27-piece orchestra. Grabbing the attention of Rilo Kiley co-founder Pierre de Reeder and his Little Record Company, Pappas got his Elle Belle project off to an ambitious start in 2106 with the release of Wako Gumbo. The sprawling, 20-song double LP references everything from ’70s radio pop to psychedelic rock to electronica but really isn’t beholden to any one thing—aside from clever songwriting.
“Selene” is the latest of a string of Elle Belle singles released since 2023’s How Do I Feel? LP.
“It’s about grifters and the people they prey on,” says Pappas of the song. “Through a series of vignettes, ‘Selene’ looks at the nature of belief and how our hope can be weaponized against us.”
In honor of Halloween, Pappas also offers a more whimsical take on the song.
“My wife, Mary Beth, thinks I have a ghost named Selene following me around,” he says. “She even thinks Selene pushed me to write this song. I’ve had strange experiences growing up, but I think they can be explained rationally. When something goes missing in our apartment, Mary Beth will say, ‘Oh! There’s Selene trying to get your attention.’ What would she want? What’s the afterlife—following some idiot around, hiding his car keys every now and then? Closing a door late at night with just enough plausible deniability that it could be blamed on the wind? That’s forever?”
We’re proud to premiere Elle Belle’s “Selene.”
—Hobart Rowland
