Ellie Goulding interview

Several days before her exclusive chat with Hot Press, Ellie Goulding went jogging in central London. She wore bright pink lycra and lemon running shoes; her hair was tied in a pony tail. We know this because her morning dash was breathlessly chronicled by Britain’s tabloid press. Goulding is so famous she can’t even have a constitutional without paparazzi taking pictures of her bottom.

“You get used to it,” says the ‘Burn’ singer, matter-of-factly “You accept this is how it is: and you stop caring. I have fun with it. The other day I was [pretend] chasing paparazzi down the street. They thought it was funny. You have to giggle – not take it seriously.”
This morning, meanwhile, the internet is set to combust over the “bombshell” that – and please do feel free to take a seat, dear reader – Goulding “dumped” Ed Sheeran for Niall Horan of One Direction. It’s merely the latest breathless dispatch concerning the love life of Goulding, whose romantic ups, downs and sideways pirouttes are a source of endless fascination for the gossip industry. She is now in a steady relationship with McFly’s Dougie Poynter – but you have to wonder if all of the prurience might not, at some theoretical future date, put her off dating another famous person. The scrutiny must be horrific.
“People think that, if you are in the public eye, your life isn’t real,” she says. “You wonder whether the people who go on about that stuff [i.e. her love life]…how would they feel if someone was talking about their girlfriend or boyfriend or family? It can be a little weird sometimes. You have to remember – stuff like that isn’t your actual life. I don’t treat it as if it is something that affects me.
“It doesn’t matter to me who they are. If I meet someone, their background is irrelevant. If I like someone, I like someone. Honestly I’m past all that now. I’m very good at dealing with it.”
Goulding became an unlikely lightning rod for the debate regarding the ‘sexualization’ of pop this year. More than Rihanna, Beyonce and all the rest, she has drawn flack over her ‘provocative’ stage wear. There was a sense that, as a posh-sounding young lady from suburban England, she ought to have known better – should have stuck to the mumsy figure she cut circa her first record in 2010.
“Again, it’s not ‘real’,” she says of the criticism. “I wear what I wear on stage... I wear what I wear to the gym… People want to make a [big deal]….well. Look, I wear what I wear.”
She’s flinty and phlegmatic – and you wonder how much of that is owed to a genuinely hardscrabble upbringing. Though her diamond-cut vowels have a distinct whiff of Sloane Square, Goulding is in fact thoroughly working class. She was brought up by her single mother on an unglamorous council estate in Hereford, a glum market town near Wales (her father, from whom she is estranged, walked out on the family early in her childhood). “My background gave me quite a good sense of humour,” she says. “I have a good perspective on things: it leaves me pretty grounded.”
It also, early in her career at least, shackled her with low self-confidence. Unkind reviews of her first record, Lights, shook her – she was particularly stung by what she felt was the personal nature of the criticism (you don’t like the music, fair enough – why attack her dress sense?). However, that was very much then – super-famous, with a heaving rolodex of famous pals (Elton John, Bjork, Iggy Azalea, um…Ed Sheeran and Niall Horan) nowdays she is self-possessed and, if a little short of
guarded, certainly steely in the face of journalistic scrutiny.
“You change and you learn a lot about yourself in this situation,” she says. “I have grown up, things have affected me. It’s cool. I’ve managed to keep it together.”
It would be an exaggeration to state Goulding has triumphed over impossible odds. She has a distinctive vocal style, is photogenic AND writes her own material, which, viewed through the giblet gaze of the music industry, is close to the complete package. Still there have been wobbles. The “backlash” against Lights for instance was hard to take.
“It was such a relief when the album got to number one,” she once told me. “And if you think about it, isn’t that a horrible thing to say? I should have been delighted. It should have been a moment to savour, a fantastic surprise. Instead, my response was...’well, thank God for that. I’ve shown them’ I’ve justified myself.
“With journalists, they don’t want to be seen as being seduced by the [buzz]. They want you to think they are ahead of the curve. With a lot of the reviews, I think they knocked a star off, simply because I had received so much exposure. The guy in The Guardian...I don’t think he’d ever written a review like that before. He seemed more concerned in writing about the hype than about me.“
Goulding’s had a busy year. Twelve months ago ‘Burn’ gave the singer her first chart-topping single. Bright and brash, it confirmed her passage from twee acoustica to fists-in-the-air electro-pop. She’s spent much of the intervening time headlining arenas (including Dublin’s O2) and playing to huge outdoor crowds (35,000 at Marlay Park in August). Now, she is coming to the end of the touring cycle and, frankly, can’t wait for the breather. Her sign-off was a secret gig, alongside HP cover star Hozier, at Dundalk's Spirit Store as part of Guinness Amplify (see live review elsewhere this issue).
“I enjoy playing big venues,” she says. “Luckily I had a chance to build towards that – and grow in confidence at the same time. It was a smooth transition. I’ve worked pretty intensely. I’m looking forward to spending some time at home. I’m moving into my new house. Hopefully I’ll also get back to the studio.”
The morning of our chat word is spreading of U2’s “surprise” new album, announced at an Apple press conference the previous night. Incredibly, Goulding hasn’t heard – when Hot Press breaks the news to her she is impressed by the Dubliners’ ingenuity. She likes the idea of recording an LP in relative secrecy, then unleashing it upon an unsuspecting world.
“I’d love to do something in that vein,” she says. “There are so many different ways of releasing music nowadays. What Beyonce did was really cool too [last December Bey surprise released her latest LP]. My focus is on writing new songs. Once I’ve the material down, I’ll have a think as to how I want to put it out.”

Details of future Guinness Amplify events at guinnessamplify.com