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Ellie Goulding: Starry Eyes, Itchy Feet

Every now and then a journalist professes to have interviewed a normal, down-to-earth popstar. They're so average they could be sitting next to you... on the Tube... right now. Ellie Goulding hasn't quite yet reached the dizzy heights of fame and excessive privilege, but since receiving a BRIT Award before even releasing an album (about which she's incredibly nonchalant) it's safe to describe her as the New Star of 2010. As she delights at the sound of an incoming text message on her iPhone and marvels at the amount of sweets she's just eaten, it's a comfort to learn that sudden propulsion to the big stage hasn't affected her. It's easy to mistake her as normal. But normal people don't have Number 1 debuts and draw comparisons with Björk. No. That would be abnormal.

Goulding's X factor is a boundless, magnetic energy. She's like Rafa Nadal rallying the baseline, constantly fidgeting - thankfully not with her pants. For the entire half hour of Q's interview, Goulding darts around the garden of flowers in her dressing room with a kettle in hand ready to prepare a cup of tea with Manuka honey, which never actually comes to fruition. Before, during and after kettle manoeuvres, she chatters with a vigour that can only be described as high impact. She's prone to mid-sentence digression and the odd skeleton-defying stretch. Any suggestions that she may rest on her Brit Award laurels are just silly. In addition to performing each of her first ever headlining UK shows, Goulding has taken it upon herself to commit to her own running tour of Britain while encouraging her fans to join her health initiative daily. It's not for charity. She didn't lose a bet. She's Mr Motivator with only partially side-shaven hair. Really, what's a couple of hours of cardio in the morning after a gig and a night on the road? As if vying to conquer the British pop landscape wasn't enough...

Q: Hi Ellie, how are you?
Ellie Goulding: I'm alright, but I wish I hadn't just stuffed my face with Haribo. Ugh! I feel absolutely huge. What have I eaten today? Banana, a biscuit... soup and then... ugh! [Scurries around for kettle and mug] This is posh for you isn't it, filling up the kettle with bottled water?

Q: So the touring lifestyle isn't really working for you?
EG: Well, since tour I've lost about half a stone. I've been training every day for these runs and I'm trying to eat a lot more healthily. Yesterday we did eight kilometres unexpectedly. We usually do about four but we had two army guys and a marine with us setting the pace. It was tough!

Q: Are you wiped out today?
EG: Yeah, I went running but I shouldn't have cos I've got a chest infection. I cancelled the full run but I still had to go to the gym for a 30-minute jog. Then I had an all-over body massage by a woman. [Whispers] She even slightly massaged my boobs...

Q: Has that happened before?
EG: Ha ha! Well, I'd never had one before and [rolls lips]... It was just amazing. Last week I couldn't even bend my back. [Using the table and hand movements Goulding demonstrates her back troubles and the various stages of the massage]. Usually I can do this cos I'm really bendy [she folds her body in two like a corkscrew]. [Exasperated] But I couldn't even bend my neck down!

Q: So... back to normal?
EG: [Large exhale] Hell yeah. Fuck yeah!

Q: So as well as headlining your first UK shows you're choosing 10 fans per city to effectively run around Britain with you...
EG: Well what do you feel about it? It's good, right? I'm a bit like Jamie Oliver. But not. [Laughing]

Q: It's a little insane...
EG: Well, I have set myself a difficult challenge. Ten kilometres is my average when I go on the treadmill. These runs are taking it out of me a bit but I'm determined to do them all. People come up to me and say, Oh I'm sure you get this all the time but... And I say, Don't be silly, you're a fan. This way I can do something with the fans that makes them feel good. I appreciate each and every person that comes to my shows, especially the people that come running with me cos it's not easy. It's a really good way of interacting with people. Everyone's achieving the same goal.

Q: What is it about running that you love? Does pounding the pavement help you escape the media circus?
EG: It helps me stay normal really cos there's a lot of shit going on.

Q: This is your first headline tour...
EG: Yeah it is. [Still struggling with kettle] This is a weird kettle... But yes, it's the first headlining tour and I think I'm going to kill everyone by splashing water on this plug.

Q: How is it panning out so far?
EG: [Giggling] Fine. I've got the lads with me. It's hard work, it's not easy being on tour. It's not glamorous sleeping on a bus in bunks and everyone gets ill. The shows are great, we're just having so much fun. Everyone is so energetic, dedicated to music and so passionate about being in my band that no-one slacks off. The other night I was so fucked from all the running I thought I was gonna collapse onstage. But it's good, y'know. I enjoy getting away from London cos I don't like it that much. I'd imagine emotionally it's a head fuck being in so many different places but it's good for the soul to keep performing and doing what you should be doing as an artist. I'm where I should be.

Q: Your music is often described as "folktronica". How does that translate live?
EG: [Excitedly] I loved Q's album review. I thought it was honest and really lovely. Aw, I wanted to cry when I read that. I really did. [Continues to war with kettle] Um, what were we talking about again?

Q: We're trying to sell your stage show...
EG: Oh yeah! [Searching] Everything's... everything's gone from being on track to completely live. My keyboard player has three different keyboards, sometimes at the same time and he plays a drum so we have a massive drumbeat under the machine. [Smiling] You can tell by my album that I'm a little bit obsessed with drums so a lot of the time it's me just really going for it on the drums, like in Salt Skin. Then everything just becomes a lot more... live. It's all really energetic and active!

Q: Your album Lights went straight in at Number 1 and...
EG: It's gone gold! It's going to go platinum soon. Really sweet.

Q: With the Brit Award for Critic's Choice too, you must be confident that people believe in you as a recording artist now?
EG: Well, they haven't done that yet. People are still saying, NO! I've got a long way to go to prove myself. I'm still growing massively as a performer and - I know it's fucking cheesy - [with self-mockery] I'm still finding myself live. I really am. I haven't got there yet. But every new year, every new season I grow and grow and grow and become what I should be. This time three years ago my voice was all over the place because I didn't know what I was doing. These live shows give me confidence to get stronger because I have more of an identity and I'm finding out who I am.

Q: So do you just take these early accolades with a pinch of salt?
EG: Well, although this seems like my year and I've come into it as the Sound Of 2010, or whatever, it's still very much an experimental thing. Obviously people won't understand that cos they just don't. But reviewers say that they can see it's in the early stages, and I like that. It gives me room to grow. I love the fact that people are curious about where I'm going and what kind of artist I am. Who knows where my next album is going to go?

Q: What's your reaction to the comparisons with Dido, Björk...
EG: Dido and Diana Vickers. What the fuck is that about?! I don't know why. One person said I was like Dido in Shoreditch clothes. [Throws head back] First I don't think I've ever listened to Dido. And second, I don't go to Shoreditch and I don't know what those people dress like. So fuck off! I think people are just like [rubs chin], Hmmm who should we compare her to? It's just a technicality, isn't it?

Q: So when you were writing Lights would you say there weren't really specific people who influenced you and it was more the product of your experience of music to date then?
EG: Yeah, it was everything. It's kind of like asking why you dress the way you do or have that particular haircut, or study a subject, or think a certain way. Everything we do is based on our subconscious and experience that we've had in our pasts that's been nailed into our head without us knowing. A lot of my childhood's blurry cos I blocked it out. But I believe that where I grew up encouraged me to be more experimental and different. I didn't have much music... if you liked Björk you were a bloody weirdo but you were allowed to like pop. So I had the best of both worlds growing up in the countryside and loving whatever pop you could buy from Hereford HMV, but also suddenly finding music for myself and recognising my musical maturity. I've grown to find things that are more weird and wonderful. But then I also just love turning on the radio and hearing a banging good pop song.

Q: What are you listening to at the moment?
EG: [Rummages through bag to locate iPhone] An amazing band called Middle East - they're a folk band from Australia and they're not very well known. I'm going through a Fionn Regan phase again. Björk - I've gone back to her. High Contrast I listen to in the gym a lot. Bon Iver obviously, it's the best record of all time. Noah And The Whale I fucking love, literally (The First Days Of Spring) is one of my Top 10 albums of all time. And I know what it's about cos I know those guys but I try and ignore the context. Jay-Z, Four Tet, Miike Snow, The XX, Delphic, Fleetwood Mac, ehhh The Corrs [laughing]. This is really good, I should do this more often just flick through my phone! When I'm silent it's because it's a track from someone I've already mentioned... [Goulding continues to endlessly divulge the contents of her iTunes and concludes...] Loads of random shit.

Q: Recently you've worked with Diana Vickers...
EG: [Interjects laughing] No! No! Last year I worked with her before I signed my record deal because Guy Sigsworth [producer] is a friend of mine. He was like, Yeah I'm working with that X Factor girl Diana Vickers, do you wanna come down? So I said, Yeah why not? I unexpectedly wrote some songs for her album. [Hesitating] Um, what do you think of her?

Q: We're asking what you think...
EG: Well me excluded, she's had some really amazing writers. They're trying to make her massive I think. But then I don't know. [Again hesitating] I don't think I'm going to write for anyone again. I've decided it's not for me. Saying that, I might but it wouldn't be like that. I'd write with someone.

Q: In terms of collaborating who would be the ultimate?
EG: Actually this is a really weird one but Tinie Tempah! I think he's absolutely brilliant, he's an amazing guy and a lovely person. I love him. We'll see. There's so many people. Jonsi would be good. I need time though, I'm booked up till Christmas now, I'm not even joking. I'm going to Australia, I'm going to Denmark for a day tomorrow. And I hate flying! Oh well, nevermind.

Q: What's planned ahead?
EG: I'm writing a little bit at the moment. I've done a few evenings recording back in London. Me and Finn [aka Starsmith] wrote some songs together... when we were quite drunk [laughs]. My next album is going to be a continuation of the first. There's gonna be a lot more experimentation but I'm still gonna be me. [Pauses] By the way last time I saw Q a guy came round to my house to interview me and we went for a run together. I made him do press-ups and everything. Ha ha! It was funny...

Q makes a narrow escape and leaves Goulding to limber up and prepare for her two-pronged assault on another city. Phew! Time we took a good lie down.

Ellie Goulding is currently continuing her UK tour/run and will be appearing at several festivals this summer including T In The Park and V.

Words: Eve Barlow (Eve's personal music blog can be found at http://www.boomerang-kid.blogspot.com)

4:11 PM | 01/06/2010