Building worlds through music, film, & architecture

Strictly Elizabeth is the artistic vision of Jessica Elizabeth Davenport, a multi-disciplinary creator blending music, film, design, and architecture into a singular voice of resilience and transformation. With roots in personal reinvention and a creative spirit that challenges cycles of trauma, Strictly Elizabeth tells deeply personal stories of healing, courage, and self-discovery.

Born into a cult and raised by poor artists and working-class immigrants, Jessica’s life has been shaped by profound contrasts. Widowed at 35, she relocated to California, where the landscape and energy of the West Coast inspired a rebirth. This tension between loss and renewal lies at the heart of her work, providing the foundation for the poignant and bold narratives that define Strictly Elizabeth.

Her music, driven by her voice, guitar, and piano, weaves elements of punk, rock, EDM, and Americana into a rich tapestry of sound. Each song is a testament to her journey—vulnerable yet strong, reflective yet empowering. Her name, Strictly Elizabeth, transforms her surname into a statement of identity and resilience, while her barcode logo questions humanity’s coexistence with technology and the preservation of individuality in a digital age.

Jessica’s artistic process draws from her environment, from the architectural energy of New York to the creative pulse of San Francisco. Her move to California marked a turning point, with its landscapes seeping into her art and songs often foreshadowing events in her life.

Her 2021 album, Contemporary Construction, and the award-winning animated short film What Happened to Stephanie?exemplify her interdisciplinary storytelling, exploring themes of empowerment, freedom, and healing.

Through her creations, Strictly Elizabeth invites us to embrace our scars, find strength in vulnerability, and begin our own journeys toward authenticity and renewal.

In 2019, Jessica formed, Strictly Elizabeth, and began releasing music and short films through her production label, Data Water Records. She is the writer of an award winning animated short film What Happened to Stephanie? which features the music of Strictly Elizabeth and has co-directed music videos for the band’s release, the self-penned “Coretta”. The video features artwork created and commissioned by Jessica, a protest sign series as well as a Robot Mural of the song’s namesake Coretta Scott King.

 Jessica was born in Indianapolis, completed college in Cincinnati and upon graduation headed for New York City where she carved out a successful career as an architect. That career eventually got her to San Francisco. After some personal tragedies in her life Jessica decided to dedicate herself to her aspirations to make music and films. This eventually led to joining the group Sunset Republic and meeting Chris Hughes who she began to work with, resulting in an EP of demos called Route in Blue.  

With the encouragement of the music community she had found in San Francisco, Jessica and Chris set out to make a full-length album. Shelter in Place was released to great acclaim in 2020 and built a solid following at college radio. On that album are the songs "Oscillation Friday", "Baby, C’Mon" and "Seduction Trash".  

Enter What Happened To Stephanie?, the short animation film. Using these three aforementioned songs she turned to her design talents and storyboarded a script for the 7-minute film. As the Executive Producer, Screenwriter and Artist Jessica teamed up with Director Ciro Ayla and his Provoke Films to create the animated short film. The triptych of songs provided the soundtrack for the stories of Liz and Stephanie, told in comic book style inspired by the artwork of Roy Lichtenstein.  

Praise for the film has been staggering, garnering 15 festival selections, and wining several awards. The festivals include the Los Angeles Film Awards (Best Music Video), Los Angeles Film & Script Festival (Best Animation), Los Angeles Rocks Film Festival (Best Animation & Best Editing), the San Francisco Indie Short Festival (Semi-finalist), Onyko Film Awards (Best Animation Finalist), Venice Shorts Film Awards (selection), Hollywood New Directors (Honorable Mention), and L.A.’s prestigious Dances With Films (downbeat selection).

In May of 2021 Strictly Elizabeth released Contemporary Construction, a collaboration with producer/musician Shane Soloski (Brian Wilson, Five For Fighting). It’s almost all original tunes including an ode to Coretta Scott King entitled “Coretta”. In reference to two of the songs on the album Jessica said, "‘Coretta‘ and ‘You and Free‘ have their origins in New York City ", she explained. " When I picked them back up in California, I began to feel them as premonitions. I realized that my searching for meaning and purpose in life was already here in these songs and the experiences of my grief shed light on their completion."   

Awash with complexity and contradiction, Strictly Elizabeth is a hymn to her and a psalm to silence; dreamy, heavy, light and dark with sweetly vicious confessions that cut and soothe and post punk grooves you won't soon forget.