GOULDING’S NEW SOUND

GET ready for a different Ellie Goulding.

The star immersed herself in classical music while recording her long-awaited fourth album.

Ellie explained: “I’ve been listening to classical music, I have Classic FM on all the time.

“This is the first time an album has gone through different stages.

“I keep writing, I’ll write three or four songs then love them as one, then I suddenly go and listen to another artist or classical music and decide to go down a different road.

“It was 2015 when I released my last record. It’s been all over the place and the first time I’ve been able to experiment and relax.”

It’s not just classical artists she’s working with, though: “I reached out to an upcoming classical musician called Jean-Michel Blais who is a phenomenal pianist.

“But then I also reached out to a rapper to feature on my latest song.”

Ellie admits success was “a very lonely place to be” at the start of her career as she was struggling to be taken seriously.

She said: “I played guitar better than any of the blokes in my music class, but that obviously wasn’t enough to make me a rock star.

“Quite a few music articles written about me would say: ‘She’s not really a rock star or cool’ because I would talk about running and trying to keep my head together. Thank God now there’s more emphasis on talking about your mental health and anxiety, but back then I was taken the p*** out of so much for being this running nerd.”

Despite topping charts across the world she admits she could have been an even bigger star.

She told the George Ezra podcast: “I could’ve really gone to the next level, but I was so over it and just wanted to be human again.”