“Confrontation & comfort”: Ellie Goulding’s guide to quarantine

Creative Direction: ISSTUDIO; Photographer: Louie BanksFor the past few months, Ellie Goulding’s been self-isolating with her husband in the British countryside and preparing for the release of her long-awaited new album Brightest Blue.  If you’r…

By ABC Audio on June 22, 2020

Creative Direction: ISSTUDIO; Photographer: Louie BanksFor the past few months, Ellie Goulding’s been self-isolating with her husband in the British countryside and preparing for the release of her long-awaited new album Brightest Blue.  If you’re still on lockdown, or you’re at home because you’re working remotely, or your summer job fell through, Ellie has some thoughts on now to put a positive spin on these crazy times.

“I know it’s a really tough time at the moment, and I know it’s just completely not anything that any of us could have imagined, but I hope you are using the time for good and you’re trying to be as positive and productive as possible,” Ellie tells ABC News when asked for some words of advice for fans.

“[I hope] you’re picking up some books and you’re just forcing yourself to read and forcing yourself to watch what you wouldn’t usually watch,” she adds, noting, “I think this is a time for a bit of confrontation and a bit of comfort.”

The “reading and watching things you wouldn’t normally read or watch” is where the confrontation comes in. As for comfort, Ellie says, “We all need to accept that we’re not going to exercise one day and…and we’re gonna eat junk food another day…I think it’s really been a time to get to know ourselves and our habits.”

“We can learn from that!” she adds. “We might not ever get this time again, so that’s the only way that I can describe it as somewhat of a positive thing: This is the only time in our lives we might have to really take for ourselves…so try and enjoy it in some way…That’s what I’ve tried to do, anyway.” 

Brightest Blue comes out July 17.

By Andrea Dresdale
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