Ella Eyre is BEAUTFIUL, guys. Those pics on her Instagram that you pore over coveting her lovely, lovely hair? That’s actually what she looks like IRL. Oh, and she’s super nice, too.
The 21-year-old singer has been on our radar for a while; she started off singing on tracks for Bastille and Rudimental before going on to be runner up in the BRITs Critics’ Choice Award in 2014 (she lost out to Sam Smith, a worthy opponent). Now, she’s just about to release her debut album Feline, which features more of her fun drum and bass tinged pop anthems.
We caught up with her a few weeks back to talk about her (massive) trainer collection and, obviously, cats.
Hi Ella Eyre. So I tried really hard to get a pair of those silver high-top trainers you wore at the Brits two years ago.
Oh yeah! I’ve actually got two pairs of those.
**Oh man! I did find some on some sketchy website in Korea, but they were like £400 or something. **
Yeah, they did sell out actually! It was really strange I got them for the Brits and then my stylist rocked up with another pair and I was like, ‘Nice, already got these’, so I signed them and gave them to an auction.
That’s nice. How many trainers do you reckon you’ve got all together?
Well over 100, definitely. I know for a fact that I have 32 pairs of Air Max.
Woah, Ella Eyre!
It is ridiculous. But I love them. I always wear catsuits on stage – and it doesn’t matter what the catsuit is, I’ve definitely got a pair of trainers to go with it. So it’s quite a relief.
Have you ever found some you forgot you owned?
Yeah! Some (Nike) IDs! I put them on today.
Have you got a special room in your house that you keep them in?
No.
So all these trainers are in your bedroom? Where do you sleep?
I’m moving house this year so I’m looking for a house with an extra bedroom for my shoes. That sounds so silly but…
Nah, it’s pretty cool. I probably wouldn’t turn down a shoe wardrobe if I could get one.
My trainers are all in massive storage boxes under my bed, above my wardrobe, under my sofa and then also in my corridor. It’s ridiculous; I don’t even know what I’ve got anymore.
I heard you’ve got a pair of trainers from when you first learned to walk still? I don’t even think my mum knows what time I was born.
Oh, my mum made a big deal out of it. She’s got a book with the the time of day in, baby’s first hair. Ridiculous.
Obviously, she’s super proud of you
She loves to be involved; I try and involve her as much as possible.
Does she come to all your shows wearing an ‘Ella Eyre’s mum’ T-shirt?
Yeah, she does. She’ll be like, ‘I want to bring Agi from the chip shop, you know Agi’ and I’m like, ‘I don’t know Agi from the chip shop’ – well, I do know Agi actually. She’s always like, ‘Remember Deborah who we lived next door to when we lived in Govington Road?’ and I’m like, ‘I was two’. She’s got all these mates that she wants to bring to the shows all the time, which is really sweet. She just wants to show off.
That’s really sweet. What was up with that mad Olly Murs jacket you wore the other day?
It’s at home. It’s weird because it hangs on my wardrobe and you wake up next to ‘Olly Murs’ and it’s like, ‘This is what it feels like to wake up next to Olly Murs.’
Lucky lady.
I know, right?
So your first album is called Feline. Is it all about cats? Because that would be ace.
It’s a mixture of things. Because my hair is obviously like a lion, my logo’s a lion, the catsuits I wear, my cats... Also, feline feels like a really feminine name, and I’m a feminist as much as everyone else. I’m like not one of these active feminists but I believe in strong women and I feel like it was an appropriate start in terms of what I’m presenting to the world.
Tell me about your cats, more specifically Frank…
He’s a moody bugger, to be honest. He’s alright, he’s like a old man and he’s not even two yet. His tongue is too long for his mouth though, and that’s a permanent thing.
So it’s always sticking out?
Yeah, it’s cute. Even when he’s happy he looks really unhappy and that’s what I love about him. He’s got a brother, Edward, who’s a longhaired version of him and he’s slightly softer than Frank. They’re interesting actually, cats, because they’re not loving in any way, but they are. They don’t want you to come anywhere near them, but when you don’t, they want it.
Hell’s yeah. Owning a cat is like a constant game you’re playing all the time; who’s going to give in and finally accept that they want attention.
Yeah, I think my cat’s actually a lot like my boyfriend.
Haha. What book are you reading at the moment?
I went through a phase where I watched a lot of series and I felt like I was getting slowly brain dead. So I started reading again because I just felt like reading is something that people don’t do that much anymore. So, I started reading The Girl On The Train, which had loads of good reviews. It was a really good book, actually.
Oh, that’s a good’un
I struggle a bit to read books about characters that have a weak mindset though and like, the girl in the book is an alcoholic.
Yeah, that is quite annoying. If she wasn’t pissed she could have remembered who the killer was! Do you party a lot on tour?
I make time for myself quite regularly, just in terms of I get off stage and go to bed. I don’t really need to go out and get drunk after a show. I’m not really that bothered by it. But when I come home and I’m with friends, I’ll go out and make time for that as well. But when I’m on tour I’m a bit of a caveman. Caveman? Recluse.
Probably the sensible thing to do Ella Eyre.
Yeah, when I first went on tour with Rudimental, they are quite the partygoers, so I felt obliged to do the same and especially because I was quite a lot younger.
Ha, was it fun?
They used to call me ‘Hurricane Elski’ which is great. I’ve just learnt over that time period and over the last couple of years, I can’t really afford to do that all the time because of my voice and vocal health.
What do you do to keep fit, Ella Eyre?
I’ve had to make it part of my lifestyle and not a chore. A lot of people think of the gym as somewhere like, ‘Ugh, I have to go to the gym’ and I was very much like that for ages. I think it’s about finding something that you like. Like, I fucking hate cardio, literally, I get so bored. So for me it’s about doing a 25-minute HIIT session, which is so intense that you throw up, but it’s worth it.
Definitely, yeah. Do you find it hard to keep up with all your fans on Twitter?
Yeah, because they’ve all got their own accounts, and they’ve all made their own fan accounts.
And they’re all in different time zones.
And different time zones, so I keep losing track of which fan account belongs to them. They’ve got their personal one and then they’ve got their ‘Ella Eyre’s Curls’. They’re just so supportive, and it’s really nice to know that if I say anything, I’ll get an immediate response.
But then don’t you worry that you’re not replying?
I think that’s the beauty and the curse of social media. I think it’s good to get a balance. I’m still finding that balance. Because I’m either really, really into it, or I just go away for three days and then they start going, ‘What’s wrong?’ I think I want people to know enough about me but not too much.
Definitely. There’s far too many oversharers out there.
It’s things like public arguments on Twitter is my biggest pet hate. It’s just like, no-one else needs to know your shit. Nobody. I don’t care what they did; I just don’t feel like publicly shaming somebody is anyone else’s business, to be honest.
Damn straight.
*Ella’s debut album Feline is out on August 28. You can pre-order it on iTunes here. *
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Photographed by Morgane Lay
With thanks to ACE Hotel London Shoreditch
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.