Elle Coves: "Myself and Lewis [Capaldi] arm-wrestled... It took about three seconds. I lost!"

‘Lost Cowboy’, the lead single from Elle Coves’ upcoming debut EP, is a blasting country-pop track, which teases the damsel-in-distress narrative with a canny inversion. The accompanying cinematic, western-style video was shot in Nashville, and Elle is due to return to Music City the day after we speak. She laughs when I tell her I’m jealous, softening the blow by telling me that it is currently minus 14 degrees in Tennessee.

We swap a few Nashville tales – Elle tells me that last summer, she caught Noah Kahan and Hozier at two back-to-back gigs at the Ascend Amphitheatre, an open-air venue located on the Cumberland River.

“People in America go absolutely crazy for Hozier!” Elle informs me. “It was really loud for Noah the day before, but when Hozier came on the next day, it was even louder, it was incredible.”

Elle was in Nashville at the time writing new material.

“The EP is done,” she explains. “I’m just trying to gather as much material as I can at the minute. I might put out another EP after this one and then do the album. I’m not really sure, I never want to stop writing. I don’t ever want to get rusty.”

I reckon there’s little fear of that when you consider Elle’s work ethic. When her manager Conor O’Donohoe of Wild Youth fame told her to write a song a day, she did just that.

“I took that very literally and I wrote song a day, for a year!” she chuckles. “I went to the studio twice. And then lockdown happened, so I had to do Zoom sessions, but I made it work. I actually wrote ‘Summer’ over Zoom and those are the vocals in the final song.”

‘Summer’ is one of several blasting singles Elle released across the back end of ’23.

“I posted snippets of ‘Summer’ on TikTok when that song was just a demo, and labels sent emails showing interest.”

Ta-da! Of course, it’s not as easy as that. But Elle Coves is no ordinary artist, which her stack of singles – ‘Before I Fall Apart’, ‘Summer’ ‘Headcase’, ‘Lost Cowboy’ and, more recently, 'Born To Lose – attest to. Influenced by Haim, Kacey Musgraves, Maggie Rogers, Noah Kahan, Zach Bryan and a certain Taylor Swift, Elle’s songs perfectly capture the spirit of Gen Z youth, complete with anthemic choruses and intuitive lyrics.

“Taylor Swift is a huge inspiration,” Elle affirms. “Her storytelling has always been so great and her lyricism has really inspired me. I love detail in lyrics as well – dropping song names or the colour of the shoe that the person you’re with is wearing. I just love imagery that’s very specific.”

Indeed, ‘Summer’ includes shout-outs to both Hozier and Harry Styles. Indeed, the latter went viral, with many people posting memories of Harry Styles gigs with the Coves’ line – “Driving down Main, screaming to Styles, we must look insane / ’Cause it feels like summer, when we’re with each other” – providing the soundtrack.

That’s pretty zeitgeist. So too, is supporting Lewis Capaldi.

“Wow, that was incredible,” Elle beams. “It was 7,500 people. I didn’t honestly realise how many people that was going to be until I did the soundcheck and saw the size of the stage.”

I wonder what’s it like walking out to do that?

“I don’t get nervous,” she says. “I think my number one is being onstage and then writing comes next. I feel it’s the reward. So, the more people the better, I was buzzing. On a slower song, people got their phones out, that was probably one of my favourite moments ever.”

Did you get to meet the main man?

“Yeah, we hung out after,” Elle laughs. “We all went to a pub somewhere in Exeter. Myself and Lewis arm-wrestled, there’s a video of it online. It took about three seconds. I lost! He told me to keep doing what I’m doing, and he told me he always goes home to Glasgow. Obviously, my roots are all over [Elle was born in Germany to Spanish parents and moved to Ireland when she was 13], but right now home is Cork. So I try to be home to write, and then I go to London and finish the songs in the studio.”

What’s the plan of action for 2024?

“The EP is coming out pretty soon,” says Elle. “I want to keep playing shows, hopefully release a second body of work before the end of the year. I’m extremely excited for people to hear this EP. It means a lot to me and I put a lot of work into it, so I really hope people like it.”