All About: Ellie Goulding
Although she left drama school to become a musician, there’s a sense of the dramatic in Ellie Goulding’s music. Breaking into the British mainstream, she worked with Frankmusic and was chosen in the BBC’s music critic poll as the “Sound of 2010.” Ellie hasn’t disappointed, with an incredibly popular (and as you may see on Rdio) heavily listened-to debut album, Lights. Ellie answered Five Questions for Rdio which reveals much about her musical heritage. She also created a playlist reflecting her trademark blend of electronic and pop.
Five Questions with Ellie Goulding
Who do you think is an important musician most people have never heard of before?
I know this seems ridiculous, but it is surprising how many young people don’t know who Stevie Nicks is. She has inspired so so many female singers and songwriters, and yet a lot of people still think she is a “he” because of the name. I was in the same room as her lately and felt truly honoured. Her voice really gives me chills and shivers and she has had an incredible life.
If you had access to any record in the world, what would you listen to right now?
It would be Wild Beasts’ new record, Smother on vinyl. They get labelled as dream indie pop, but you can never quite pigeon hole them. They make distinct melodic piano driven pop songs about love and sexual desire, with really beautiful guitar riffs, and the singer Hayden has an incredible vibrato. It’s all I listen to at the moment.
What album or artist do you most associate with your childhood?
The Pretenders, Simply Red and Seal. Random I know, but whenever I squint my eyes and think really hard about what music I used to be around, I always concluded with these artists. We lived in the middle of nowhere so we were always driving to somewhere with a CD on.
We hope people are Hopeful when they listen to our music.
We were thinking about my childhood when we wrote music for the new album.
