Biography
Ilsey crafts songs with a textured, soulful vocal delivery and keenly perceptive words, her melodies drawing from the traditions of Laurel Canyon alongside classic AM pop. A Los Angeles native, she first built her career crafting material for prominent acts including Beyoncé, J-Lo, and Miley Cyrus, later joining the writers responsible for Mark Ronson's 2018 single "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart" that featured Cyrus. While maintaining her behind-the-scenes work, she stepped forward as a solo artist with the 2023 release From the Valley, whose introspective tracks blended rustic instrumentation and modern electronic textures.
Born Ilsey Anna Juber and raised in Los Angeles amid entertainment-industry connections, she is the daughter of Laurence Juber, the fingerstyle guitarist who performed as lead guitarist with Paul McCartney & Wings and earned a Grammy for the band's "Rockestra Theme" as Best Rock Instrumental in 1980, prior to her birth. Her mother's father was Sherwood Schwartz, the producer behind Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch. After picking up guitar as a child and completing one year of college, she committed to music professionally; though she initially pictured herself performing, songwriting quickly became her focus, spurred by a track she placed on reserve for Rihanna that ultimately went unrecorded.
Throughout the mid-2010s and still in her twenties, she accumulated co-writing credits that appeared on recordings by Jennifer Lopez ("Never Satisfied"), Pitbull ("Fireball"), Major Lazer ("Powerful"), and Beyoncé ("All Night"). In 2018 she contributed to the songwriting collective for Mark Ronson's "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart" featuring Miley Cyrus, an international success that reached number two in the U.K. and number 43 on the U.S. Hot 100; that same year she also helped write Panic! at the Disco's alternative-charting "High Hopes." Subsequent credits included tracks on Cyrus' 2020 album Plastic Hearts and songs for Weezer, the 1975, and Kacey Musgraves in the years that followed.
Releasing simply as Ilsey, she issued her first solo recording in June 2023, a duet with Bon Iver on a version of Neil Young's "Heart of Gold." The song appeared on her debut album, From the Valley, issued by Elektra that October.
Born Ilsey Anna Juber and raised in Los Angeles amid entertainment-industry connections, she is the daughter of Laurence Juber, the fingerstyle guitarist who performed as lead guitarist with Paul McCartney & Wings and earned a Grammy for the band's "Rockestra Theme" as Best Rock Instrumental in 1980, prior to her birth. Her mother's father was Sherwood Schwartz, the producer behind Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch. After picking up guitar as a child and completing one year of college, she committed to music professionally; though she initially pictured herself performing, songwriting quickly became her focus, spurred by a track she placed on reserve for Rihanna that ultimately went unrecorded.
Throughout the mid-2010s and still in her twenties, she accumulated co-writing credits that appeared on recordings by Jennifer Lopez ("Never Satisfied"), Pitbull ("Fireball"), Major Lazer ("Powerful"), and Beyoncé ("All Night"). In 2018 she contributed to the songwriting collective for Mark Ronson's "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart" featuring Miley Cyrus, an international success that reached number two in the U.K. and number 43 on the U.S. Hot 100; that same year she also helped write Panic! at the Disco's alternative-charting "High Hopes." Subsequent credits included tracks on Cyrus' 2020 album Plastic Hearts and songs for Weezer, the 1975, and Kacey Musgraves in the years that followed.
Releasing simply as Ilsey, she issued her first solo recording in June 2023, a duet with Bon Iver on a version of Neil Young's "Heart of Gold." The song appeared on her debut album, From the Valley, issued by Elektra that October.
Albums
Singles
