FEATURE: Spotlight: Ellur — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Ellur

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I thought that I had…

already spotlighted the brilliant Ellur. Real name Ella McNamara (Ellur is named after the Yorkshire pronunciation of her name), she is an artist I have admired for a long time now, so I shamefully assumed I had included her on my blog and would revisit her at a later date. However, checking at past articles, it doesn’t look like I have! So, overdue, I am exploring this remarkable young artist. This stunning and enormously talented songwriter was born in Halifax (Yorkshire) and has been on the scene a little while now. I think I first heard her back in 2020 and singles like Reflection and I Don’t Know What We Are, caught my ear. Even though she has that half-decade of exposure and great music, I would consider her an artist in the ascendancy still. Not known to all, this is an opportunity to highlight this phenomenal talent. There are not that many recent interviews, so I have dipping into some slightly older chats. One of my favourite singles of the year is Missing Kid. The Line of Best Fit were among those who reacted to the single release. From her new E.P., The World Is Not An Oyster, it is a track that is embedded in my mind. Let’s go back to 2020 for the first interview. When I Make It To LA! had probably never spoken to an artist from Halifax! However, it was a chance for American readers to discover this new artist. Speaking around the release of Alive, we do get some useful background and insight into Ellur:

“How did you start making music?

So I started making and writing music when I was around 10 or 11, I think I wrote a song on the piano, using the same chords as Adele’s “Someone Like You”, which would probably explain why a lot of the songs I write tend to be in a pop ballad style! (I’m yet to release any of those though haha). I think, growing up around music and bands and gigs and festivals, it’s meant that I just live for music now. Going to gigs is a great place for inspiration and, despite the current circumstances, I just want to be performing!

Which artist has had the biggest influence on your style?

It’s hard to choose just one artist as I immerse myself in so many different genres and types of artists. I think it would only be fair, though, to say my Dad as if I hadn’t grown up surrounded by music and hadn’t met so many bands and been to so many live shows I may have never chosen a career in music. I’ve also grown up listening to him write songs all the time and so I take a lot from his writing processes. It’s so great now that I get a chance to work collaboratively with him as we work really well together and it’s so easy because the studio’s in house too haha! He really is my musical idol though, his songwriting is truly phenomenal”.

In Your Ears Music interviewed Ellur in January 2024. About to embark on a busy year, one could say this year has been even more packed for her. Wonderful that so many people are reacting to her music. An artist I have left off of this blog for no good reason! I hope this provides an overdue apology and some form of recompense:

“First off you’re from Halifax, a place that has so many wonderful places close by like Hebden Bridge. Is there anywhere you like to go when you write your music?

I tend to write from the comfort of my bedroom. Writing, for me, requires a really safe and intimate environment. For me that’s my room. It’s somewhere I can look inwardly without judging myself, which is something I find really important when it comes to writing.

The music you write is about the challenges and thrills of modern day romance and break-ups with compelling originality. Can you explain why?

It’s (unfortunately) something I know a lot about and I choose to write about it because I think it’s something we can all relate to. Heartbreak is a fact of life but having music and art to turn to during times of need is a really special thing. I’m very grateful and very lucky I get to do what I do.

You have supported some incredible female artists recently like Brooke Coombe and Rianne Downey, How was that? Who would be the one artist you would love to support?

BILLIE. EILISH. Dream support slot. She’s the future of music.

Your latest track Satellites is a brilliant song about the disintegration of relationships you have witnessed from a young age, Can you tell us more about the track?

It’s probably the saddest song I’ve released to date (but I secretly think the saddest songs are the best ones). I wrote it with a brilliant writer named Dan Bryer. When I entered his studio back in summer I told him I wanted to write a song that felt timeless. One that I could still sing in my sixties and it still hold a lot of truth. One of my favourite songs is Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell and it was the main reference track when writing and recording the song. The orchestral performance she did in 2000 is my favourite live performance of all time. What a woman”.

I am going to come to some more recent interviews. Let’s now head to Formidable Beats and their interview from June 2024. We discover new things about Ellur. Even though I have heard some of her songs on the radio, I don’t think she is as shared and played as widely as she should be. She is genuinely one of our finest young artists. Someone who deserves to play some huge stages:

“Could you walk us through your songwriting process? Where do you draw inspiration from, and how do you translate that into your music?

The writing process is really changing for me at the moment. I’m in the territory of writing my first album and my main inspiration for that is self-awareness and honesty. I want it to feel like a documentation of everything so far. When I sit down to write it’s usually after I’ve reflected upon feelings and experiences and then I try to make a song that sounds like how I feel. I used to just sit down and write about romance and other people or write about myself and disguise it as a ‘love song’ or a ‘break up song’ because I was scared of being vulnerable. A lot of my writing recently has been an admission of how I feel and how I am. These days, if it feels vulnerable then I like to think I’m probably doing something right.

Live performance is an important aspect of being a musician. What do you enjoy most about performing live, and do you have any memorable onstage moments you’d like to share?

Live performance is me truly expressing myself and letting go in the moment. I suffer with anxiety and the stage is the only place where I really allow myself to be me. That has always been the most exciting thing. I love connecting with people on stage, making eye contact, singing with people, allowing people to let go and move with me. I’ve just done my first headline tour and to play to hundreds of people who knew my music and joined me in the moment was amazing. I want to share my music and connect with more and more people. It’s a really unbelievable feeling.

Looking ahead, what are your goals or aspirations as a musician? Are there any upcoming projects or collaborations you’re excited about?

My dream has always been to to be the next Chris Martin or the next Sam Fender or Kate Bush or Madonna… but I think now that I’m older and understand myself and what I actually want a little bit more, I think my first priority, to be pretty frank, is to be able to make a stable income from being a musician. I’m living with my mum and working as a cleaner to make ends meet. To build a home from the art I’ve created is the new dream I think. In terms of upcoming projects, I’m writing and recording my debut album which includes many songs that I’ve written with lots of talented writers. I’m playing my dream festival, Reading and Leeds this year. I’ve got more announcements coming including lots of new music. Things are looking up”.

You can read reviews like this and this for her recent E.P., God Help Me Now. That gem was released in January. I cannot find reviews for The World Is Not an Oyster, though I would imagine new interviews will be published soon or early next year. I will get to some 2025 interviews now. In January, DORK spent time with Ellur. An artist who has always had music in her blood and bones, God Help Me Now is overflowing with ambition and self-discovery. They heralded to a brilliant and beautiful musical voice who is transforming “personal revelations into soaring indie gold”:

“The upcoming EP’s title might suggest someone in need of divine intervention, but Ellur is quick to clarify: “Despite the defeated tone of the title, the four songs on this EP are a celebration of me finding myself. I’ve found out who I am by writing songs and I am so grateful for that.” She’s refreshingly candid about the journey there: “In truth, until I wrote this EP, I was feeling incredibly dejected and fed up with myself. I would always find myself looking up into the ether and asking for a sign that I was doing the right thing, asking who I was and what I should do.”

Working with co-writer Benjamin Francis Leftwich has helped her tap into an even deeper well of honesty. “It has been an honour and a privilege to write with Ben,” she says. “He has such a strong sense of melody and what an artist needs to write about. I wanted this EP and my first album to be really raw and vulnerable, and writing with him and Jack Leonard was really the start of me understanding how to tap into that honesty within myself.”

When she talks about her influences, it’s clear Ellur has her sights set on creating music that connects on the largest possible scale. “Their honesty and their ability to turn the innermost parts of themselves, all the tiny details of their lives, into such expansive tracks that connect with so many people,” she says. “That’s all I want to do with my music. Connect people and connect with people through storytelling. Big stage, big drums, big laughs and tears.”

2025 is already shaping up to be a landmark year, with SXSW on the horizon and an album in the works. “Among releasing my EP, finishing the recording of my album and then starting the campaign for it, I’m planning headline shows, and I’ve been booked for a few festivals in summer,” she enthuses. “We’re going to Texas in March, too, which is absolutely insane. I’m living the dream. A year of recording, releasing and playing as many live shows as I physically can?! I think I’ve ‘made it’!”

Between all this, you might find her immersed in Skyrim or working with her 70s knitting machine – “I live a fairly boring life outside of my career, and that’s just how I like it,” she admits. But there’s nothing boring about where her music is taking her. “I’m just really grateful for the places this EP has taken me so far. I feel I’m finally reaching my audience,” she reflects. “I’m grateful to everyone who’s backed me since the start; I just can’t wait to see where I am in another year’s time.”

With ambitions to support the likes of Sam Fender, The 1975, and even Coldplay (“God, I absolutely love Coldplay”), it’s clear Ellur’s trajectory is pointing firmly upward. That four-year-old putting on shows in her living room would surely be proud”.

Before getting to a recent bit of news, the final interview I am including is from this September. Published in promotion of her then-new single, Missing Kid, Atwood Magazine spoke with the Yorkshire musician about the track and what being a missing kid means to her. Everything Ellur releases is golden. Such a hugely awe-inspiring artist, this is someone I need to see live but have not yet. Hopefully, I can rectify that next year. Someone that everyone needs to know about:

“Atwood Magazine: Ellur, what's the story behind your song “Missing Kid”?

Ellur: I wrote it when rehearsing for a support tour I did last November when I was feeling a bit self-critical and low. I felt like I’d spent my life copying everyone else and looking to other people for guidance on how I should be living my life. I needed a song that would pick me up.

You’ve spoken previously about how this is how you observe the people in your life… What’s this song about, for you?

Ellur: Adulthood feels like it hits you in the face. I find life throws me situations sometimes and I’m left feeling like a kid who’s lost their Mum in a supermarket. I suppose that’s what this song is about for me at the moment. It’s also about wanting to move and getting other people moving when we play it live. I love playing it.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Oglesby

How does this track fit into the overall narrative of who Ellur is in 2025?

Ellur: It’s the start of a series of songs that represent me at my best and worst. It’s me writing alone in my bedroom at night when I’m at my lowest points and then later recording and performing it when I’m at my best, in the state of creative flow. The drums and guitars and sparkles and frills make my diary entry songs feel like healed wounds when I come to perform them. Music is so important to me.

What does it mean to be the “missing kid,” to you?

Ellur: I suppose, bearing that earlier supermarket metaphor in mind, it’s also an allusion to me trying to find and heal my inner child. A lot of the creative process for me recently has been about weaving in ideas and creating things that she would love. It’s all about finding her and listening to her. Videos, instrumentation, outfit and style choices, performances. I’m living out her dream and so I do it all for her.

For those who are just discovering you today through this writeup, what do you want them to know about you and your music?

Ellur: Music is as much of a home for me as the place I sleep and the people I love. I create music that feels vulnerable and honest whilst wanting people to feel comforted and related to. I love guitars, folk rock, indie, pop and alternative music. I take inspiration these days from Jeff Buckley, The War on Drugs, Sam Fender, The 1975 and Dora Jar.

I also like reading, Yorkshire Tea, and spending too much time on my phone”.

I am ending with some news from CLASH. Again, they were among a growing list of music sites that use the word ‘return’ and apply it to an artist who has gone nowhere. Ellur released a fuck*ng E.P. earlier in the year and is said to ‘return’. It is such an idiotic word that is applied to artist and shows what a short attention span there is out there! I will not rant again, suffice to say Ellur has not returned from anywhere and has been putting out incredible music since 2020. The amazing single, The World Is Not An Oyster, is the pearl title track of her latest E.P. One that you need to hear now:

“Halifax indie force Ellur has shared new single ‘The World Is Not An Oyster’.

The precocious songwriter completed a short UK run a few weeks back, playing six sold out shows in London, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, and Bristol. Airing old favourites and a smidgeon of something new, Ellur is now ready to take a step forwards.

‘The World Is Not An Oyster’ is self-consciously big, with the sonic opulence framed by her early Noughties CD collection – think Coldplay, think Radiohead, think Embrace.

Alongside this, Ellur spins a tale of a teenage girl attempting to piece her life together. A child of divorce herself, the Halifax talent knows the sting of adolescent self-doubt, and – together with the aid of Benjamin Francis Leftwich and Jack Leonard (UNKLE) – she brings these feelings to the forefront on her new single.

Ellur comments…

This is the story of a teenage girl who is trying to figure out why love just doesn’t seem to come easy in her life. When I was 15 my parents split up and my whole world fell apart and I got into a terrible relationship as a result of trying to understand it. Recording this song was a healing process after years of hurting from two of the most painful experiences in my life.

Inspired by ‘A Rush of Blood to The Head’, ‘The Bends’, Embrace and the sounds of the early 2000’s that soundtracked my childhood. To me this song sounds like home and is such a true representation of my spirit and soul. If I were to dedicate it, I’d dedicate it to my Mum and Dad and the infinite love I have for them”.

I really love Ellur, and I hope she gets to fulfil her dreams and play with artists like Coldplay! I do think she will get a load of summer festival bookings. In terms of the rest of the year, she plays at The Underground in Bradford on 28th November as part of BBC Introducing at the Underground. Before that, she plays Manchester’s Band on the Wall on 19th November. I know that next year will be really exciting and filled with opportunities! You can see the gigs she already has in the diary for next year here. This fascinating and enormously impressive person, Ellur is…