Ever since I first blogged about Ellie Goulding back in the spring of 2009, I have been keeping tabs on the incredibly talented British singer and continued to report about her on ArjanWrites.com. I saw her first big headlining show at London's iconic Hammersmith Apollo in 2010, cheered her on at several South by Southwest gigs in Austin and attended the singer's kick-off show of her very first U.S. headlining tour in Atlanta back in 2011. It's wonderful to see her now having breakthrough success in the U.S. with "Lights," which is a remarkable success story.
On Friday night, Ellie was the special guest at my ARTIST#TALK live interview series that I produce in close partnership with HP and Microsoft. Ellie and I chatted for a full hour in-depth about the success of "Lights," her inspirations, her new single "Anything Could Happen" and her forthcoming new LP, "Halcyon" that will be released in the U.S. on October 9. Click here for photos of the event.
Looking stylish as usual, Ellie talked about dealing with writer's block after the success of "Lights" overseas. She traveled to Ireland in the middle of nowhere by the coast to meet with producer Jim Eliot. "I had such trouble finding his house and I thought at first this is going nowhere," she explained. "But after we started working together we really made a connection." Her new single "Anything Could Happen" is the first track they worked on together, which set the perfect tone for their partnership.
After previewing new tracks "My Blood" and "Halcyon," Ellie talked very candidly about the feelings of loneliness that inspired much of the new album. Lyrics like "If I was a shelter, you're not heading home to me, we could be closer," sum up the tone of the LP perfectly. "I think loneliness has quite a positive effect on me," she explained. "I write songs out of being alone."
But despite its intensely emotional undertones, there's a hopeful quality about Goulding's music on "Halcyon." She has empathy, understanding and always a sense of humor. "I'm quite a hopeful person. I like to write songs that give people hope," she smiled. With songs like "Atlantis" and "Dead In The Water," the singer also touched upon the theme of water that runs throughout the LP and beautifully captures the sentiment of loneliness.
A big thank you to Ellie for making time in her busy schedule to guest on ARTIST#TALK, all of the writers and bloggers that came out to cover the event, the fine folks at HP and Microsoft for their partnership, and Cherrytree Records and Interscope for their support of the event.
