"No one knows it's happening," grins Nieve Ella a few hours before her surprise appearance during overpass' set at Reading Festival, where the two acts performed unreleased indie anthem 'Fall In Love' together for the very first time. The collab is reportedly out early next month and "just felt right," according to Nieve. "I've known them all for years. We're both from the West Midlands, and we came up together. I love overpass so much, so doing a song together means a lot."
Of course, 'Fall In Love' isn't the only new music Nieve Ella has shared today. Her new single 'Romance Is A Desert', a sassy, sexy and feel-good slice of sunny-side pop that deals with "the feeling of being so in love that consequences don't seem to matter," also hit streaming earlier today. And Nieve's already being stopped by fans eager to sing it back to her. "It's crazy, but I really do love that song so much. It's just a fun, end-of-summer jam. I hate the winter, so I want to keep that good feeling going for as long as I can."
'Romance Is A Desert' is the fourth single Nieve has shared from her upcoming debut album 'How Long Will It Take?' (out 16th October), and each one has been very different, from the swaggering 'Drive', the ferocious 'Bite Back' and the emotionally fraught 'Standing On A Pane Of Glass'. But that was the goal going into her first full-length.
"It's scary sharing a bunch of songs that are different to what I've done before. I've made three EPs now, though, and I can always make more music like that in the future if I want… but why not change it up?" she shrugs. "I've always felt like I don't really belong in a certain [scene] either, and I wanted to make music that took me out of those conversations completely. Each song is a little bit weird, but I think you can tell I was chasing what felt fun. It's freedom, and that feels so good."
Being back at Reading today, a festival she first played back in 2023, has really underlined just how much Nieve feels like she's grown since the release of early EPs' Young & Naive' and 'Lifetime Of Wanting'. "I feel so confident. I remember walking around here last year, feeling like I didn't really belong with all the other amazing artists that were playing. Now, I just feel so sure in what I'm doing and what I've created. "
It hasn't always been the easiest of journeys, though, and that's what Nieve explores across 'How Long Will It Take?'. "I haven't really thought about what it will mean to anybody else because I'm so in it right now. For me, though, it represents a really weird time in my life that was so up and down.
"I haven't spoken about it much, but I was listening to the album recently, and I just realised how depressed I was last year. I had bad health issues. I had really bad acne, and I didn't know how much that affected me until the end of the summer," says Nieve, who came offstage at Reading last August and told her team she needed a break from playing live. "My body just felt wrecked."
She'd already been tentatively writing songs for her debut, but as soon as she got home from festival season, she locked herself away in the studio and created what would become 'How Long Will It Take?'. "I really do adore each and every song on that album. They're the things that kept me alive."
There are moments of joy across the record ("There were days where I felt really, really good and was able to be the loving, freebird person I truly am"), but it doesn't shy away from her hard reality either. "Being able to write about the worst time in your life with people you really trust, like Finn [Marlow] and Jamie [Rendle], is just the coolest thing in the world."
"I feel really proud that I'm able to talk about those sorts of things and just be honest about what I've been through, especially because I'm seen as this bubbly, fun-loving person," says Nieve. "Now, I can't wait to dance them out. I wrote these horrible, depressing songs and now I get to go on stage to scream, dance and set them free."
Nieve Ella's debut album 'How Long Will It Take?' is out 16th October.
