Ellie Goulding is still figuring herself out and admits she might never fully discover who she is — but she’s learned who she isn’t and won’t let others influence that.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, the singer opened up about resisting pressure from others. “I think that the most shocking thing for me at the beginning was how much people cared about your physical appearance: your weight, your hair, your clothes, and also your opinion on things,” she said.

Ellie recalled hearing conflicting messages and realized she couldn’t win when it came to making everyone happy. “I was not prepared to be scrutinized in that way. And I think the thing that has always kept me going is that I never got lost in that,” she noted.

When talking about “Like A Saviour,” which is her favorite song off her upcoming new album, Higher Than Heaven, Ellie said, “Right when I first started out, it was quite vulnerable because there was no kind of support for young female artists going into the studio with predominantly male artists and producers.”

“I think when I wrote that song, I just needed to reclaim a power that maybe I’d lost at the beginning where I’d go into studios and it just didn’t feel safe. You go into sort of survival mode,” she continued, adding she wrote the song as the #MeToo movement was happening. “That’s probably the deepest [song] on the album.”

Ellie also appeared to let slip she has a deluxe version of Higher Than Heaven: “There’s a song on the deluxe version called ‘Better Man,’ which just feels really empowering to sing because it’s me saying I’m the better man.”

She also hinted at the potential of a tour, saying, “I am trying to make my tour carbon-neutral.”

Higher Than Heaven arrives April 7.

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