There’s a line in Fin’s Song that runs — believe in all your dreams and you might make some. It’s a song that is sung with tenderness but power, as though looking down at the sleeping form of her nephew who gives the song its name. But Ellie might have written the lyrics for herself.
Last Wednesday Ellie Williams signed a contract with Sellaband which could well change her life. The young singer/songwriter from Exwick is due to meet with A and R man, Adam Sieff and producer Mick Glossop this week. The main subject under discussion — how, when and where to record Ellie’s first album.
“I mainly feel excited but there’s a little bit of fear and a bit of reality hitting,” she said as she sat on the sofa with her husband Steve. “It feels like the beginning of the next step really. I’m not running away with the idea that it will go platinum but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for so long, to get an album recorded. Anything else would be a bonus.”
It was Steve who originally pointed her towards the Sellaband website. The deal was simple — upload three songs and raise 50,000 dollars by persuading people to believe in her enough that they would invest in one or more parts of the deal, at 10 dollars per part. She hit the target in an unprecedented 50 days.
“A lot of artists have written to me asking — what’s your secret?” said Ellie. “I can honestly say that after I joined, I wrote to all my friends and people I know and asked them to tell everyone that they knew. I contacted the Echo, the radio stations and kept in contact with people on Sellaband. You have to stay visible. When it came to chart day, my dad, Mike Melmoth and other family members would buy a couple of parts to make sure I remained visible. “The reaction was huge,” she continued. “I have 552 believers and only about 15 are family and friends. One of the main things that people said was — if you can create what you’ve done at home, let’s see what you can do with a proper studio and producer behind you.”
Ellie and Steve lived and breathed Sellaband for 50 days, even eating their meals in front of the computer. But what really persuaded Ellie’s supporters to believe in her were the haunting lyrics, the harmonies and the beauty of her songs.
“Quite a lot of them seem to be about loss, yearning, missing something or not being good enough,” she said with a laugh. “Weirdly, I think it’s a bit of a parallel because I’m a very happy person with a happy life and a lovely family. I was born eight weeks early and had double pneumonia shortly afterwards. I grew up knowing that I almost died. I suppose it made me realise the fragility and importance of life. Maybe that’s why, in my songs, I explore those innermost feelings of insecurity, loss and fear.”
Music has been part of Ellie’s life since she was a child. She tinkered on the cheap organ at home, went to church and joined the choir. But the turning point came when her Nan died.
“The first song I really wrote was about missing my Nan,” she said. “It did feel like a trigger and I’ve been writing ever since. I’d like to think that there’s more maturity in what I write about now. Now I write and don’t really worry about what I’m writing. It’s just an expression of me.”
It’s difficult to fit Ellie into a specific genre. It’s not quite folk although one might say the songs are balladic. And it’s not pop or rock.
“I tend to say that I’m an acoustic singer/songwriter who plays the piano,” said Ellie. “I’d like to think that that people just discover me.”
She rattles off a few names — Kate Bush, Sarah McLaughlin, Roberta Flack, Peter Gabriel and Kathryn Williams.
“I think I’ve absorbed a lot of bits. But hopefully I have my own style within all of that.”
Yesterday, Ellie played her last gig for a while at the Victoria Inn in Exeter. But when the final album track is cut, the tours begin.
“I want to go down the route of art centres and places like that,” she said. “I have a lot of believers in Holland so I’d like to do a four or five day tour there. And there’s the States, but the main thing is to build up the local support. The dreamy side of me hopes that it will all take off but the realistic side says that getting something out to the people would be it. If I could make a living from writing and singing songs that would be perfect.”
But even more important than the music is Ellie’s family which always comes first. Fortunately, they’re among Ellie’s most ardent supporters and none more so than Steve.
“This is all I have ever wanted for her,” he said. “I met Ells when she was gigging in the old days and I’ve been through the journey with her. She was always a great singer but now she writes her own stuff and people are loving it. The response she gets is fantastic. She endears herself to audiences because they can find Ellie in her songs. I get emotional with every one — her voice is very strong but fragile at the same time.”
Who knows — maybe a star is being born.