Rising artist, Elle Coves is giving all the yeehaw pop the music scene needs. At just 19-year-old, Coves has come a long way in a short time since falling in love with song writing as a teen in Ireland. Growing her fanbase of yeehaw gen-Z girlies who connect with her realistic lyrics of heartbreak, joy and screaming to Harry Styles’ discography. Her songs have that youthful carefree essence, ones that ache to be included on the soundtracks to your favourite coming-of-age films, certainly those from her newly released EP, Selfishly Inclined. Elle speaks to HATC about her journey to releasing her first EP as she braves the music world, learning about the artform through recording her hit songs in her bedroom to supporting Cate on her UK last year: “It was great. I’ve done a couple of supports and small little tours around Ireland, but this was my first UK tour with Cate. So, it was really lovely. Also touring with a girl was very fun. We’d get ready together and just do little things like it was just really wholesome and her team is incredible.”

 

“[Cate’s] audience as well. Her fans are really welcoming. I felt very safe. I think that allowed me then on stage to be more open. I didn't feel very shy. I'm fine with playing. It's just sometimes the talking bits, I can go a little bit shy. Or, you know, I will stumble on my words. But I felt quite comfortable. Because the energy was so welcoming I was like, this is great! And I felt more confident on stage. Also doing so many shows, one after the other. Just, it's crazy. Because you make mistakes, you don't know things and you learn them, and you get to do it again the next day. So, I just thought that was amazing.”

 

ALICE: What artist would you love to support on tour?

 

ELLE: I feel like everyone would say this, but I'm a huge Noah Kahan fan. Noah would be insane. Obviously, Taylor [Swift]. Maggie Rogers as well. Maggie was a huge, huge, huge, huge, influence when I started writing songs. And just in general, sonically. I just think she's cool, so that'd be insane. Just to hang out with as well. I would just love to just be on that tour.

 

ALICE: Let's talk about music growing up, where it all started and how it's come to where you are now.

 

ELLE: I grew up in Germany, my parents are Spanish. We had this big group of friends, loads of my parents’ friends, they were all kids from the same kindergarten (nursery). We were all the same age and we all used to get together on weekends. And all the adults played instruments except my parents. There was always music around the house, but my parents didn't play any instruments! My parents told me that I started asking for a guitar when I was about four. So, it was always something that I was just drawn to. I started playing and I did covers. I made up a couple of songs. But I didn't really write songs. And then we moved to Ireland when I was 13.

 

ALICE: How do you adapt to moving to Ireland during your teenage years?

 

ELLE: I learnt English in school. And I loved it. So, I was kind of excited. But I don't think I really realised what that entails. I had a really cool group of friends, and I didn't realise that friendships, you have to maintain them, especially at that age. We went back to Germany the following year; I went back to school because they finished school later than in Ireland. So, we'd finish school in Ireland and go to Germany back to my old class for like, three weeks. And the first year was great. We were all 15 and we got on well still and it was great. Then the following year, we went back and then I think how you change from like 14 to 16 is pretty, pretty huge. So there I kind of realised how much effort it takes when you move away to maintain friendships.

 

I'm used to having few friends scattered. I have a couple of friends in Ireland. couple of friends in Spain, so I’m kind of used to the long-distance friendship thing now. Now I think that was a lesson.

 

Honestly, all the first songs that I wrote, they're friendship breakup songs. They weren't like romantic breakups.

 

So then when we moved to Ireland, that's when I met Conor O’Donohoe my manager when I was 14. We met at a Wild Youth gig and I was with my mum.

 

ALICE:I love that your mum was like “Hey, will you manage my daughter?”

 

ELLE: Yeah, it was kind of a bit like, “Oh, you know, we were just trying to get anyone to listen to me” and get discovered thing. I was a bit shy around that time. So, my mom was more outgoing than me. And she used to just be like, “Hi, I'm Esther and my daughter sings!” so that's what she did with Conor.

 

I had some covers on YouTube. And she sent him one. We didn't have the intention of him managing me. It was bit like, Oh, he's in a band. He knows music. We have no one in the industry we know, we don't know how to get started. I hadn't really written songs at that point, like, song-songs. I'd attempted to write stuff, but it wasn't serious.

 

And then, Conor asked me ‘Do you write songs?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, you know, I’m starting to’ And then he said to me that I should just write a song a day and he was going to listen to them and give me notes. And I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is ideal’, I took it quite literally. And I sent him a song a day. it was a bit overkill. But it was great because I would send him something. And he would actually just give me advice and I’d send him the corrected version. He’d be like, ‘great’, and then it'd be the next song and we did that for a year.

 

Then I went to the studio twice in Dublin and Conor showed me how to be in a studio. I had no idea how anything worked.

 

ALICE: I think it’s just one of those expectations to know everything already, especially in this industry. 

 

ELLE: Yeah, I was so used to listening to my songs with just my vocals and a shitty keyboard I had. He’d be like ‘How do you hear this part?’ And I didn't have that developed because I didn't know it was possible. So, it was really nice to have Conor and my producer (Cormac Butler) teach me how to. That was great. And then lockdown happened immediately after.

 

Then we had to figure it out. And I think it was my mom again-my mom's the best- She saw a lot of artists were doing Zoom sessions. She thought I could do it so I did a couple of Zoom sessions until October 2022.

 

'Summer' was a song that I literally wrote in my bedroom. I recorded the vocals in my bedroom and those were the final vocals on the record. Because sometimes [recording] can be a bit like the back and forth. It is fun, but it's a bit intense. It's really expensive as well. So sometimes if I have to get a vocal out, I'll just do it at home, and send it over. I’ve done that for a couple songs.

 

ALICE: I think it’s great that we now have flexible working spaces and sometimes the best ideas come out first at home.

 

ELLE: It's so much more accessible really. You don't need to be a genius producer, you can just record, comp, and cut your own vocals, and it's pretty straightforward and then send them, which is just what I do.

 

ALICE: It’s great that you are outspoken and ask for help from your peers.

 

ELLE: I want to be constantly improving, I’m trying to, there’s a million things even just doing the shows, setting up and stuff. I'm like, Oh, God, all these cables! I think that first day of show rehearsals, I felt a bit useless, and I felt really shitty. I was like, I have no idea. But then I'm like, well if I don't do this, I'm not going to learn. I'm not going to magically know. These people have done this a million times. They’re pros. So, I need to be watching and learning and asking questions.

 

Honestly, it was my producer Cormac who taught me how to do the vocals and once I knew that you're just cutting now. It makes my life so much easier. I think it's important to ask for help because no one is born knowing.

 

ALICE: What's one of your goals for music?

 

ELLE: I'd love to maybe start sketching out an album. I want to release a second EP after my first.

 

[Selfishly Inclined], was just taking songs that were written and putting them together. Sketching out an album or thinking just a bit more concept, even if it's not a concept album. Just thinking about it more because I have no idea. I'm already sketching out the second EP, but an album is quite like a milestone.

 

ALICE: I saw your recent trip to Nashville on your Instagram, how was that?

 

ELLE: I stayed in Nashville for two weeks for a writing trip last October. And I loved it. And that was just testing the waters. I was there for a week before the Cate tour. I literally came home. I was home for two days. And then went on tour.

 

ALICE:  Is there a location that you feel most connected to? 

 

ELLE: Probably my home (Ireland) Usually, I go home, and I write for a week or two and then I'll collect my best ideas. And I'll go to the studio with my best ideas. That's  how I write, so home is always where I gather my thoughts and just reconnect and think about what I want to say.

 

ALICE: Are you in a certain era? What vibe do you feel like you are currently in?

 

ELLE: Some people were asking, like, ‘Oh, so it’s country.’ I’m not a country artist. I just think there are elements of country and Americana that I really enjoy just fusing that with pop. It's something that I’m starting to explore with a producer (Todd Clark) I met in Nashville that I'm working with a lot. I’m just exploring it, but I’d definitely say I’m in a little yeehaw era.

 

ALICE: Do you ride horses?

 

ELLE: Not well! My aunt used to love horses So when I was little, more. But then I took some riding lessons for the "Lost Cowboy", and I felt like it was the perfect excuse. I try not to stick to [the country genre] but it’s something that I really enjoy, and I really love country music.

 

With a pen for writing about relatable stories of young romance and her ever-growing love for music that she continues to study, Elle Coves is surely on her way to being a rockstar.

 

Elle’s new EP Selfishly Inclined is out now!

 

Words Madison Drew