Ellie Goulding joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music to run through her ‘At Home With’ playlist. She tells him about how New York inspired her forthcoming album ‘Brightest Blue’, being sampled by Drake and Jay-Z, loving Kate Bush, and how she did a duet with Craig David at her wedding. She also speaks about collaborating with Juice WRLD, Swae Lee, and Diplo on the album and reveals she has an entire album of songs with mega-producer Greg Kurstin that has yet to be released.
On Craig David Singing At Her Wedding…
I've always really liked honesty. I love transparency in being able to explain my music, my lyrics, my voice, even where my voice came from. And I realised that there was an obsession with knowing as much as you could about your idol, all about the person that you loved. And I remember when I was a kid, I wanted to know everything about the singers that I loved. I was totally in love with Craig David for quite a long time. He was my first pop gig in Birmingham and he looked at me, even though I was in the nosebleed seats way at the back, he definitely made eye contact with me. No, he did not. Yeah, but I can dream still. But look, it's full circle he ended up singing at my wedding and it was just like It was just perfect. I did end up going up and singing on stage with him at my wedding, which I haven't admitted to anyone. But I did in fact do that.
On Kate Bush…
I had a similar feeling when I first heard Bjork. She was one of the things that made me think that maybe I could be a singer. She was a bit experimental, but she clearly had an affinity for pop music. And she sang in a way that wasn't pretty or on paper pretty to listen to, but voices have just always affected me. But I was listening to Kate Bush as much as I was listening to Eddie Vedder because his voice had this crazy effect on me. I saw one of the nights she played 20-something nights at Hammersmith Apollo. I played there a few times. She refused to play the arena as a stadium, she just wanted to do very intimate performances. And yeah. I'll never forget it. She's not into phones or people filming, which is good. She's phenomenal.
On Being Sampled by Drake and Jay-Z…
Drake and Jay-Z sampled me on, this is dork moment, because, obviously, I'm a big Drake fan. Who isn't. But someone came into my old flat in London and was like, "Oh, I swear this is you on this track." Just thinking it was someone that sounded like me. He's like, "This is Drake's new album." And he puts a song on and it goes, (singing). Yeah. I was like, "Wait, that is me." And no one had told me anything, no one had contacted us. And you know what, it's Drake and Jay Z so they can get away with it. I was like, "You take it. You have it.”...I've done that a few times, where people have used my voice, taken it from... I have a few tracks where it's just my voice, it's quite easy to rip it, whatever. And I'm like, "Look, I don't care. If you want to use my voice." I've had producers message me on Instagram saying, "Can you send me some vocals?" And I just send them. I don't care.
On How New York Inspired Her New Album ‘Brightest Blue’…
I was living in New York for a couple of years. You have to be in a very certain state of mind when you're there. That was it with New York. But somehow amidst that chaos, I found Brightest Blue, the album. And I think it was a combination of leaving my roots behind and suddenly finding myself. And now I passed through New York. It was more voyeuristic. It was more like I would just be like, ooh, this is a fun city. And I'd go and play there and never really immerse myself in it, which is really true for every single city I've been to, I took it for granted so much. And then suddenly, I'm in a city. You have to be very confident when you're there. It's weird. You have to have this kind of extra layer of confidence...If I'd stayed there and then I could have taken on that kind of bigger world, but I felt like my heart was back here, back in London.
But then for some reason, when I came back to London with the music that I'd written, I loved it. It didn't sound like it had been made in New York I don't think. I wrote my second album in the countryside where I grew up, and there's so much nostalgia and sentimental stuff wrapped up in it. And I truly believe the way you are affects the way your music sounds. And it seems like I still had that inside me when I was writing in this weird studio on Broadway. It like a very dark studio. And they'd always say, oh, so-and-so was in yesterday, and so-and-so is coming tomorrow. But I never saw a single other artist, but it was crazy. And so I was kind of there by myself, making music for a couple of years. And yeah, and that kind of made the album.
On Her Song “Power”, Written With Jamie Scott…
Power was one of those songs that I just accepted what it was. We wrote the verses on piano and then I wrote with Jamie Scott. So Jamie wrote a bunch of the early One Direction stuff and then he worked with Nial and Harry and so he's done a lot of pop stuff. He is a beautiful pianist, a beautiful writer, has an incredible voice. And he sat down and wrote and we have this piano thing, but you know what? Then somebody was like, "Wait, that sounds a bit like a Toto song.” But I mean, I didn't know this and then we look it up and yes, it sounds like a song that was written by the guy from Toto, I don't know.
On A Possible Album With Greg Kurstin…
Actually, I have songs that may end up being another album. And I also have an entire album of songs with Greg Kurstin that have never been released. Yeah. I know. But yeah, we have this whole album that I want to release at some point. So yeah, there's definitely options. There's definitely options.
On Collaborating With Juice WRLD, Swae Lee, Diplo & More…
It is a lot of me on this one, which was really important to me. I've been doing a lot of collaborations. I call it on the surface, because it's situations where I haven't been with an artist necessarily. But, for example, with Blackbear on Worry About Me, we only met on the video. But when he sent his verse back, I knew it was the one. But I wanted the Brightest Blue side of the album to be a lot of me. And also, you go back to old time collaborators, which I've realized is so important. And I feel so lucky to have those people that I've worked with for such a long time, in Fin, Starsmith, Jim Elliot. And Joe Kearns, who's one of my best friends is a complete lunatic. So the only artist I have singing with me on Brightest Blue is serpentwithfeet.
I'm making it sound more complicated than it is. It's just two sides to the album. So Brightest Blue is all new. No one's heard anything from that album apart from Power, now. And then the other side of the album, I have my song with, God bless him, Juice Wrld. And with - Yeah. Gosh. So sad. Juice Wrld, and with Swae Lee, obviously, with Close to Me and Diplo. And then I've got Worry About Me with Blackbear and then I've got a song with Lauv on there. So that was the side of the album which I wanted to put out there. I didn't want to discredit, I didn't want to take anything away from those songs.
Yeah, exactly. And I listen to those songs and think, "Wow." I find it hard to believe it's me, and I love that I got to play that kind of character. That's what's so amazing. I can still go on a song, I can still be on a song like that, and still get to do my own thing. It's so amazing that I get to have these different ways of working.
