Features : Ellur Finds Calm and Clarity Through Indie Pop

Ellur once questioned whether she would ever reach her 25th birthday. On the reflective track ‘Lonelier Than Heaven’, the artist born Ella McNamara looks back on periods of poor mental health that strained her relationships, wondering whether she would survive the long stretch of adolescence that was often mislabeled as the supposed “glory days”. Last November, McNamara turned 25 and marked the milestone in her usual way by writing herself a letter filled with intentions for the year ahead.

“[2024’s] letter was, ‘I want to come to next year and understand what it is that I want to do with music,’” she tells NME while nursing a ginger beer inside Halifax pub Meandering Bear. “Now, this is the first year where I really feel [different]. I used to feel this panic, particularly as a young woman, because there was this weird, invisible pressure to do well before you’re 30, because your life is over – and it’s so not true. I’ve taken that pressure off myself.”

Five years after releasing her debut single ‘Reflection’, McNamara’s slow and steady approach continues to pay off. Across two EPs, ‘Moments’ from 2021 and ‘God Help Me Now’ from 2024, her brand of indie pop has steadily expanded and peeled back new layers, arriving at a sound that comfortably sits alongside artists like Nieve Ella and Holly Humberstone. There are also traces of the thoughtful, roaming guitar lines associated with The War On Drugs, which appear throughout her forthcoming debut album ‘At Home In My Mind’. The record is a confident statement that highlights McNamara’s strengths as both a vivid songwriter and a natural storyteller.

As winter rain pours down across Halifax, we spend an hour with McNamara in familiar surroundings. Just next door stands The Piece Hall, the town’s striking 5,500 capacity outdoor venue where she has watched Boygenius perform and previously supported Embrace, the band fronted by her father Richard alongside her uncle Danny. Her parents separated a decade ago, and for the past five years she has lived with her mum, juggling work as a barista, cleaner and gardener among other jobs, all while relentlessly chasing a future in music.

“I’d be cleaning a house and writing a song at the same time,” she says. “Music is literally all I could think about. I’d be making sandwiches or pulling pints, thinking, ‘One day, this is not going to be a thing.’ It’s a thing now, and that’s also fine. The people you meet, the stories you hear – you can’t really be a writer without having those experiences.”

On her father’s Irish side, around 30 of his own dad’s cousins are musicians. “There’s definitely something in the blood – that need to sing,” she agrees. At the same time, her mum’s work as an art teacher has been just as influential. “My mum’s a jack of all trades,” she says with a smile. “She does these creative mindfulness nights once a month, where people can have an evening that doesn’t revolve around booze, just being present, connecting and making friends.”

That same spirit quietly feeds into McNamara’s own fan space, a private Instagram page called @theellurclub. She used it to invite 10 followers to appear in her video for ‘The Wheel’. Once a devoted fan herself, poring over The 1975 and picking up Skrillex posters from HMV, she now wants to create a community that values closeness, warmth and openness.

“There’s a general giddiness with everything,” she explains. “Even if you’re an adult, just having an hour to feel excited, because that’s how I felt going to gigs. We’re all connected by one thing in common. As long as it’s [connecting with] one person, I’m doing something right. I’m chasing that more than the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.”

“I used to feel this panic, because there was this weird, invisible pressure to do well before you’re 30. I’ve taken that pressure off myself”

The idea of giddiness comes up repeatedly in conversation. McNamara laughs as she tells NME that she often soothes her 13 year old Jack Russell, named after U2’s frontman, by singing to him, before jokingly writing her own headline: “Bono loves the album!” Despite the emotional weight of her songs and the thoughtfulness of her answers, there is a warmth and optimism that feels central to Ellur’s personality.

That contrast runs through much of ‘At Home In My Mind’. Tracks like the infectious, Sam Fender inspired ‘Missing Kid’ and the raw ‘Disintegrate’ transform feelings of isolation and heaviness into moments of bright release. “‘There She Goes’ by The La’s sounds super jolly, but then you dig deeper,” she says. “I think that’s true of me as a person. I’m quite happy and extroverted, but on the inside, I’m actually super introverted and pretty shy.”

“Life’s been this thing that I’ve struggled through, but music’s always helped me out of it,” she continues. “My brain is very tumultuous, and I wrote [the title track] about wanting to feel at home within myself. The behaviours you don’t really like about yourself are always going to be there, whether you ignore them or work on them. It’s about accepting that and giving yourself the grace, understanding and patience to make peace with it.”

Another standout, ‘Pushing Away’, began from a place of frustration but gradually shifted toward release and movement, a space where “we can move on and have a little boogie”. That closing garage influenced section reflects her deep love of dance music, shaped by everything from Huddersfield raves to a recent Underworld show. Trying to confine Ellur to a single guitar led lane would miss the breadth of influences she is now embracing.

It was the writing process itself, along with the support of her partner and the familiarity of Halifax, that helped Ellur uncover some hard truths. One was the decision to reclaim her most authentic self, the version of her that dances freely and embraces awkwardness, rather than pushing it aside as she once did at school. She hopes that same sense of freedom reaches the people who come to her shows.

Another discovery was a confidence she did not realise she had. “Recording and writing the album, you [need] a lot of self-belief to pursue a career in something where you fail every single day,” she tells NME. “I [also] went on this journey with spirituality and religion. A belief that there’s something bigger than us. Being a creative person, you’re harnessing energy. I feel like there’s a lot of things that come together for a reason.”

There is, undeniably, a feeling of fate surrounding where Ellur stands today, even as the reality of the work behind it remains clear. “It’s not necessarily full time financially, but it’s a full time commitment,” she says. Support from PPL Momentum Music funding allowed her to fully focus on recording ‘At Home In My Mind’ and finally lock in creatively.

Looking ahead, McNamara lists ambitions that include Coachella, Primavera and Wembley, but one unexpected moment recently stood out just as much. At an awards ceremony, she met actor and comedian Lee Mack and performed in front of him. He promised to listen to her music while walking his dog. “My hero,” she says, glowing. “I would love to go on Would I Lie To You? and be on Lee’s team. If I do that, I can retire early. Even though it’s nothing to do with music!”

Ellur’s debut album ‘At Home In My Mind’ is released February 6 via Dance To The Radio