We recently connected with Eden Ulrigg and have shared our conversation below.

Eden, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Something recently that I did was go on tour with Olive Klug, a queer folk artist. It was the first international tour that I had ever been on, and was incredibly impactful on me and how I view my craft. I met Olive through TikTok in 2020, but didn’t end up actually seeing them in person until fall 2023. They asked me if I would be interested in joining their West Coast tour titled the “Truth or Dare Tour”, and I initially only played their shows in San Diego at the House of Blues and Los Angeles at the Echo, but was able to take time off from my part-time job in order to drive my van up to Vancouver, Canada and join them for the rest of their tour. Everyone in the band identified as LGBTQ+, which was incredibly affirming as well as fun to hang out with people from my community. Every single show, the vibes were always immaculate, with folks singing along to Olive’s songs and giving them handmade gifts related to their song titles. I feel fortunate to have been a part of the tour, and it definitely gave me a lot of motivation to work towards making sure that I keep working towards being a full-time musician.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Beginning in 5th grade, we were all required to choose an instrument, and my best friend at the time was going to play the cello so she naturally convinced me to play it with her. Inevitably, her mom decided that the cello was too big for her to lug around, so I stuck with the cello and she chose the viola instead. It’s been 15 years since then, and I’m still playing shows and recording for various artists.

I took to my instrument very quickly, and became obsessed. My parents are both musicians, as well as my brothers. Up until this point, I’ve always been a performance artist, but lately have been more interested in getting my doctorate in Ethnomusicology. I’ll be applying to go back to school this year, in order to further my learning and push myself.

What sets me apart from most is the fact that I incorporate a classical baseline to writing for more contemporary genres, like folk and pop. I’ve played with numerous different artists, all completely different. Since I’m a queer person, that has propelled me forward on social media with a different audience than most other cellists who don’t direct their media towards that subculture.

I am proud of all of my work, especially recently, when I was asked to perform for a pop artist here in Los Angeles named Dafna. She arranged string quartet parts for her new album that was just released last month. I was very fortunate to meet her through a mutual friend on Instagram, and will be playing more with her in the future. I love silly and quirky people, and to work with someone who pushes boundaries in her music was such a pleasure.

Most of my work is directly with smaller artists, whether that be performing at venues live or recording parts for them, but I’m interested in doing more solo work with loop pedals and my own vocals added on top.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I went to Western Washington University for my Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance and Education beginning in 2019. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020, right up the street from my house at the Shuksan Health Center. This forced all of our music classes online, and we had no idea when that would change. In one week, my childhood dog had a heart attack, my car was totaled, and the pandemic started. I began to post more on social media, and gained a large following on TikTok, as well as gaining a full-time job in order to pay off a new car while still in school full-time online. After one year of that, I had enough and ended up pivoting and buying a van so that I could take a break from the Washington rain. I moved down to San Diego in my hightop Ford Econoline van, and have been living in Southern California since February of 2022. It was necessary for my growth, and I’m so happy that I made the choice to leave school because otherwise I wouldn’t have the opportunity I have right now to go back and finally finish my degree at UCLA.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Be consistent! Post whatever you want! Just make sure you’re having fun. If you’re forcing yourself to look or be a certain way, you will burn out. It’s difficult when you aren’t working creatively full-time and have another job, but as long as you use one day a week to produce content and schedule posts throughout the week, that helps.

Depending on what social media platform you’re using, tips for getting views on your content vary. For TikTok, use a good hook to get people’s attention. TikTok is great to grow in terms of numbers and getting your content seen by new people. Then direct them to your Instagram via a link in your bio! I’m still personally trying to figure out getting more views on Instagram, but I’ve heard Reels is the way to go.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://edenthetree.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/edenthetree
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@edenthetreee