Colin 
Elise Trouw has unveiled the first single from her ambitious new project The Diary of Elon Lust, a satirical concept album exploring power, gender, and the contradictions of modern masculinity. The project marks a major creative evolution for the multi-instrumentalist, producer, and visual artist, drawing on her personal experiences navigating both the music industry and dating culture.
The album introduces listeners to “Elon,” a fictional twenty-something alter ego who embodies charm, entitlement, and objectification in equal measure. Through this exaggerated persona, Elise holds up a mirror to the social behaviours and double standards she and many others have encountered firsthand.
From prodigy to provocateur
Known for her meticulous musicianship and innovative live-looping videos, Elise first rose to fame in her teens, amassing millions of views across YouTube and Instagram for her one-woman performances. Her debut album Unraveling led to an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and a two-week arena tour with Incubus, achievements made without a label or manager. Those early years positioned her as one of the most technically gifted young musicians of her generation, though she has since admitted that much of her early songwriting came from a desire to please rather than provoke.
“I wanted to be seen as likable,” she explains. “As someone who could play well and sing well and look good doing it, even if that meant not being my full self.” That need for acceptance, she says, made her music polished but emotionally cautious. The new record changes that completely.
The Diary of Elon Lust, out 13 February 2026 via Midtopia, is what she calls her most honest and radical work to date. Written and recorded under her own direction, it exposes uncomfortable truths with humour and self-awareness. Each of the 14 tracks takes the form of a diary entry from her male alter ego, drawing on real lines men have said to Elise and other women in her life. “I started writing these songs as a joke,” she says, “but over time I realised they weren’t completely jokes. And suddenly, they were the only songs I was writing that felt real.”
Satire, discomfort, and self-liberation
The lead single “All You Need Is Lust” reworks a classic Beatles refrain into a tongue-in-cheek mantra of desire. Over hypnotic drum grooves and layered harmonies, Elon preaches a gospel of pleasure that quickly turns absurd. The self-directed video heightens this surreal energy, featuring cherry-headed dancers and giant boob costumes in scenes inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. “We wanted it to feel strange and unsettling, somehow sexual but not sexualised,” Elise says.
While her technical precision remains intact, this new chapter allows space for imperfection. The grooves are still tight, but Elise’s vocals feel freer, her lyrics sharper. “It’s the first time I’ve felt free in my songwriting,” she says. “Even though these songs come from my experiences, I hope people hear them and understand too.”
Elise sees the project not as a rejection of her past but as an evolution. “I’m proud of Unraveling. It was real in its own way. But I wasn’t comfortable being fully honest yet.” Now, she is. With The Diary of Elon Lust, Elise transforms discomfort into art, using satire as both shield and scalpel.
You can follow Elise over on Instagram.