Grooblen: 'Egg Freeze'

The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.

Vocalist and guitarist Ellie Stokes of the San Francisco-based “cabaret dream psych band” Grooblen found her true love for rock when she was able to participate in the SF Rock Project, a nonprofit music school for youth.

“I was introduced to so many people in the music community — just intergenerationally — from a very young age because we played a lot of, like, street festivals, like Sunday streets, we played a lot of community events,” Stokes said.

Stokes formed the band initially with her brother and a family friend, who played songs she had written over the years. Eventually, they went to college and Stokes began volunteering at a community radio station during the pandemic. She met her friend and drummer Sean Aaron there, and the two began performing as a duo. The other band members would later join through connections at the radio station and other friends.

Stokes also runs a small nonprofit organization called Big Leap Collective that throws accessible community concerts within the Bay Area and beyond. There’s also an educational program for people to learn skills in production management and more.

“We feature a lot of like independent local artists and touring bands as well that don’t really have as much of a financial backing,” she said.

The song “Egg Freeze” was written after Stokes experienced chronic pain and consulted with her gynecologist.

“She was like, ‘Well, the only real way to basically stop the suffering is to get a hysterectomy.’ And I was like, that certainly can’t be true,” Stokes said. “That was the launch pad, and this was kind of written, like, what if that was the only option? If I wanted to have this option in the future, if I wanted to have children, I’d have to get my eggs frozen.”

She was able to have a different procedure done instead that helped her manage her pain.

“I know they’re just, there’s so many people out there who don’t have that access, and it just feels like they aren’t getting listened to,” she said. “Everyone deserves a chance to be able to feel good in their body.”

The band’s members include Sean Aaron, Alejandro Lara-Agraz, Spencer Lay, Eva Gogas and Jack Lillian. If you’d like to hear them live, Grooblen will be performing at Neck of the Woods in San Francisco on May 22.