A Giant Dog And Sweet Spirit’s Sabrina Ellis Feel Texas’ Warmth, No Matter How Far From Home

Sabrina Ellis grew up in Houston, moved to New York City at 18 years old to study theater and soon found herself returning to Texas to pursue music. In Austin, Ellis reunited with old friends, Andrew Bauer and Andrew Cashen to form the rock band, A Giant Dog.

“We had just this wild summer on top of a roof, drinking the cheap wine you drink when you’re 21 and writing songs for the first time,” Ellis says.

Now, she’s in not one but two bands, A Giant Dog and Sweet Spirit. This year, her plan is to tour for seven months (often performing in a leotard), produce five music videos, and release an album with each band.

Ellis’s songwriting partner and A Giant Dog bandmate, Andrew Cashen, helped her form Sweet Spirit. The two of them first collaborated when Ellis returned to Austin and Cashen left a job in Houston.

“Andrew Cashen was working a desk job, if you can believe that. Feral, Andrew Cashen, behind a desk in Houston,” Ellis says.

Now the old friends are taking on the challenge of working with two bands at once with Sweet Spirit releasing “St. Mojo” in April and A Giant Dog releasing “Toy” in August.

“It’s like I’m a surfer and I’m waiting for a wave,” Ellis says. “I’m about to get on top of it but as soon as I fall off that one I’m going to have to get right back up on my board.”

Even with all the extra work, Ellis says it gives her the opportunity to tap into her different musical sides.

“A Giant Dog is a little darker and dirtier,” Ellis says, “Sweet Spirit is what I would consider everybody’s base humanity of wanting to hear pop music, wanting to escape their life a little.”

The more Ellis works with each band, the more she gets to travel. But she says that coming back to Texas again always feels right.

“Coming home, it’s like when you come home from work and you take off your shirt and then you’re like ‘now I’m going to take off my bra,’” Ellis says. “It’s been sticking to you all day and you take it off and you’re like ‘ahh.’ That’s how it feels to drive back into Texas when you’ve been on a long tour.”

Written by Emma Whalen.