At 20 years old, Brighton born Elli Ingram has already toured with Chase and Status, been compared to Amy Winehouse and Adele, been lauded by the likes of Jo Whiley and Zane Lowe and received a MOBO award nomination for Best Newcomer. Now, as she gets ready to release her debut ‘album-ette’ The Doghouse, we talked to her about dressing like Missy Elliot and being a very naughty teenager.
The Debrief: Hello Elli!
Elli Ingram: Hello, I was just about to take a nap! I have a really comfy bed.
DB: Ooh lucky you. Where are you?
EI: I’m in Brighton where I live with my mum.
DB: Very jealous. How did you get started on the whole music thing?
EI: I’ve been singing for my whole life and it’s always been something I really enjoyed but I never really took it too seriously. It was only when I left school and I didn’t get the grades that I wanted study textiles that I thought my option was music. I formed a little girl band and toward the end of that time studying for a music BTEC at college I thought I’d give it a go at writing. I didn’t get my English GCSE or anything and I never really thought that I’d have that capability and one day I was just at the piano and I wrote this song and I played it to my dad and he was just like, ‘Oh my god where did that come from?’
DB: You started posting quite a lot of covers on YouTube – your cover of Kendrick Lamar’s Poetic Justice did particularly well
EI: I never wanted to get sucked up in that whole YouTube thing cos if you go too far in it you become a YouTube star and that’s not really a thing is it? I was quite scared of that. But luckily we only peeked through that door. It was that that really elevated everything. Since then it’s just been a whirlwind of madness.
DB: There’s a lot of soulful R&B in your music – who did you listen to growing up?
EI: My main aspiration was to by Missy Elliot. I used dress myself head to toe in camouflage to copy her and rock around school in Timberlands. I love strong independent women and I wanted to be different and do the opposite to everyone else. As I got older I discovered more like soul and R&B like Angie Stone, Erykah Badu and D’Angelo.
DB: Where would you take us if we came down to visit you in Brighton?
EI: I’d probably take you into the Lanes because even though I’m only 20, I started clubbing so early that I’m over it now and down the Lanes there’s so many good bars and food places and live music. Yeah, no clubbing. I just want to be sat in the corner drunk rather than drunk smashing into people.
DB: What’s your deal with tea? Your last EP cover was shot in a tea shop, you’ve got a tea cup tattooed on your wrist…
EI: I love the Granny vibe. I worked in this really cute little tea shop near my house for 6 years. It’s all about Granny chic. The little Grannies that came in were the best. I love them. They totally looked after me.
DB: Which was good right? We heard you were a bit naughty in your younger years.
EI: I was really careless and didn’t really care about anything and was more interested with just being at my mates and drinking and having a good time. I’m not academic and nothing really interested me. It was quite sad.. I couldn’t possible tell you the naughtiest thing I’ve done - you’d think I was horrible. I was the most evil person. I did a few stupid things but I think when you get to this age you’ve just go to look back and laugh. At the time it was probably all a bit dark a bit scary but I’ve turned over a new leaf. At least my mum’s happy!
Follow Jess on Twitter @jess_commons
Elli's EP The Doghouse is out on Monday 24th March
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.