Ella Travolta Remembers Mother Kelly Preston in New ‘Little Bird’ Music Video

Throughout her grieving process, Ella Travolta found solace in music. Now, she is ready to share her experience in the hopes that others will feel less alone.

Travolta released her new single “Little Bird” on Friday, September 6, and PEOPLE has the exclusive premiere of the accompanying music video. The song — which she considers her most personal to date — will be featured on her upcoming EP Colors of love.

“I grew up very much in the public eye. And that brings a lot of attention, especially when you lose someone,” Ella, 24, the daughter of John Travolta and the late Kelly Preston, tells PEOPLE. “There’s definitely the natural support and global support that comes with that.”

She adds: “But then there can also be a natural input and expectation of how you should feel, or how people assume you feel, or how other people feel, that gets added on top of that as well.”

Listening to the outside noise didn’t help Travolta process her grief. “Little Bird” — the final song she wrote for the EP — was her final listen to her inner monologue and focus on what matters most: her memories.

“(‘Little Bird’ is) about holding on to those pure relationships that you have with people that you’ve lost and just listening to yourself and being true to that relationship with that person,” she says. “It’s kind of the point of view of a mother bird talking to a baby bird and just not letting any other interference come in between because your true instincts were always there.”

“It had been a couple of years, obviously, since my mom passed, so I was able to look at the whole situation and step back and see what I wanted to communicate about it and what I wanted to communicate to her and what I was feeling in general,” Travolta added. “So that was kind of where I was at this point, and then that completed the EP and that felt really good.”

The little bird she references in the song also has a deeper meaning. Preston felt the presence of people she had lost through birds, Travolta says. Later, when Travolta was recording her EP, she found herself noticing the birds around her and experiencing the same feeling.

“I definitely felt like she was watching over me,” she says of Preston, who died on July 12, 2020 after a breast cancer diagnosis. “I knew she was really proud of this whole process and of me.”

For the video clip, Travolta searched for a number of home videos of her family, featuring her father (70), Preston, and her 13-year-old brother Benjamin.

For Travolta, the video is a “big compilation of some of my favorite memories” and she “wanted it to be as real and personal as possible.”

“I really wanted it to be a celebration of life as well,” she says. “I think it’s so important, even when you lose someone, that it’s a celebration of their life (because) you got the chance to be with that person for as long as you did and you have these memories.”

Travolta doesn’t take life for granted, emphasizing “how great it can be.” Growing up, her parents “had this amazing ability to make life so fun and exciting,” she says.

“Whether it was doing crafts or playing a board game, everything was geared towards having as much fun as possible, just the liveliness that they put into it,” Travolta adds.

Looking back, Travolta admired her mother most for her ability to set a “beautiful dinner table” and “make every holiday super special.” That foundation inspires Travolta to strive to maintain that joy in her life.

“My parents are a huge inspiration for a lot of things and the way I live my life,” she says.

“Little Bird” is the first release from Travolta’s upcoming EP Colors of loveShe previously released the singles “Dizzy” and “No Thank You”.