Ella Henderson has been taking over the airwaves with her songs Ghost and Glow. Rachel Bache chats to the British pop star about her upcoming album Chapter One.
Herald: Your first single Ghost has been pretty doing well here in New Zealand. What is it like to get such a warm reception from the other side of the world?
Ella Henderson: It's just crazy. When I wrote this song with Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic, we definitely felt something special, we felt so proud and very excited about it. But you never know the success or the outcome of a song.
When it started doing well in the UK, like, literally when it went up on iTunes it shot to number one. It remained there for one or two weeks and it's gone platinum there. That's one thing and then to know that there is a buzz about you on the other side of the world, a place where you've never been before, was just surreal.
I bet it's an amazing feeling, especially since it's been two years since you were on X Factor UK. What have you been doing since then?
When I came off the show I was 16 and I signed my record deal.
Music is something that I've always done, it's not just something that started at X Factor. So if ever I was going to have the opportunity to have a record deal and (to be) signed, I'd have to do it the way I've always wanted to do it. The proper way of working hard and really figuring out my sound, what kind of artist I want to be, what have I got to bring to the table that nobody else has yet?
At age 16 this industry can be a scary and daunting place, so I had a lot to figure out. Ultimately, I write off life experience so I had to experience new things and be able to get to a certain point where I felt like I had enough to say. I didn't want to just go to my old song books from when I was younger, I needed to be given time to do that.
I've had such amazing experiences in the last two years. I've been writing in the UK and in America. I got to write with some insane producers like Baby Face, Al Shucks, who wrote Empire State Of Mind and then Ryan Tedder for Ghost, that was just surreal. [Tedder] ended up getting in touch and fell in love with my voice and it kind of happened in this really mutual and really organic way. We ended up sat together in this studio in London and this song called Ghost just happened there and then, it happened in the space of like 20 minutes. And it's so cool, because I feel like I'm just so happy.
You never know what's going to happen, but the way Ghost has gone, it's opened up a lot of opportunities for me and at the same time it throws a bit of confidence back at me to know that I did make the right decision to take my time with it.
Your debut album comes out this week, following the release of your singles Ghost and Glow, what can we expect for Chapter One?
There's definitely a variety on there. Dynamically, it's got highs and lows. In the last two years I figured out this was the chance, you only get one first shot at it, so I really wanted to figure out what my sound was, but also experiment with things I'd never done before.
So with Glow I never thought I'd look into electronic sounding production or heavy drums and I fell in love with it, with that track it just had to happen. Then other tracks are just me sat at a piano recording these live one takes and they're on the album, so it definitely takes you through a little journey.
Lyrically, I'm very open and honest. This is like a diary of my life, I talk about life experiences, about me growing up, there's a track on there called 1996 which is the year I was born. It talks about everything. There's one song that can start in one place and lead to something else, but it can kind of get you through things, in a therapeutic way.
I'm just excited now to share it with people because I've had these songs behind my belt for two years and then to finally get the chance to you know let the world hear it - it feels like I'm giving birth to something.
It's your first little baby in a way. So after your album's released what's next for you? A tour?
Things change all the time and it all depends on how your music goes, whether people take an interest to it. So I'd love to one day, when the time is right, to go on a tour with my band, I mean I'd love it. Performing live with my songs, that'd just be a dream come true.
Have you had much of an opportunity to perform live? Or has it all been about getting the album done?
I've been doing a lot of showcases and that's mainly in front of radio stations all over the world and those corporate things to get everything going. But back in the UK I've done quite lots of huge radio events, like I did Wembley (stadium) which is 80,000 people and that was insane! I got to perform Ghost and that was the first time I ever heard people singing my song back to me. And that's a moment that you dream about and when it happens, it just happens really fast. I took a step back and my manager had recorded it for me and I watched it back and I just can't believe that that was me on the stage, 'cause you can't believe it's happening this fast to yourself! As soon as I step on stage there's no better feeling than people smiling or singing your lyrics back to you or just like, connecting with people through something other than just talking or eye contact - it's like this whole other little world, music.
It's great how music can connect people. What artists have you felt connected to or inspired by when it comes to your own musical style?
I grew up on all different styles of music. My main influence was from my Granddad. My Grandfather had an old record player and he'd play his vinyl records. Like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, swing music, all that kind of stuff. So there's that side of me that loves the old-school stuff. My mum brought me up on Motown and R&B music and my dad on Duran Duran and 80s and my brother loves reggae. So I was constantly surrounded by these different sounds growing up which meant I was never into one particular artist, I just appreciate any kind of music.
Which was fun because when I was writing, it was very much like, I knew what I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be the sounds where you hear a voice, you hear the instrumentation that you wanna hear surrounding that and there is nothing over-doing it, I like it to just feel quite raw.
Like on your song Yours? The way you sing on that track is beautiful and it does have that raw feel to it.
Oh my god! You said that! That's like, one of the most personal, one of my favourite tracks on my album!
Can you tell me a bit more about that song?
So Ghosts was the last song I wrote for my record and then pretty much everything was finished for the album. Everything's been mastered and all the photos and all the photos had come together and I just had a little bit of free time one day and a guy who I'd met at an event, Josh Record, he's a UK signed artist, he's got some music out, he's really incredible. He's also a writer and he was like: "We should just catch up and like grab lunch or something". So I ended up in London, he lives like, 50min from me where I am. He made the best cups of teas, we really got along. It was a really sunny day we sat in his back garden with his gorgeous cat that he has and yeah, we ended up just sat at a piano. Personally, something that I felt I hadn't said yet that I was experiencing and it's a new experience for me, to do with falling in love and it was a nice way of sharing it. And yeah this song [Yours] just fell into place, it's just something that happened that wasn't meant to be on the album but then people heard it and I felt so strongly about it that I had to have it on there.
That's great that you had the opportunity to collaborate with a peer in that way. Who else has got your ear at the moment?
I like how music has had this big turn-around lately it's all become more about the voice than the music itself. Sam Smith is smashing it right now.I'm so proud of him, he's amazing. I love the band The1975 and London Grammar, her voice is phenomenal. Kind of that kind of mixture. There is always just fresh talent just shooting and throwing itself in out of nowhere and it's exciting - it's just really exciting to be a part of it at a time like this.
