Georgia Ellery knows where she’s going, even if she hasn’t always taken the most direct route. That might mean barring her mum from involvement in her violin tuition aged 12 or applying to study jazz at the prestigious Guildhall School Of Music & Drama despite no previous experience in the form. Or it could be starring in Mark Jenkin’s stylish, arresting feature debut Bait, filmed in gorgeous grainy black and white back in her native Cornwall. Or choosing the cheeky mismatched name Jockstrap for the quirky alt.electro duo she formed with fellow Guildhall student Taylor Skye.

She has also been seeing other musicians, specifically playing in eclectic ensemble Black Country, New Road, who performed at the Edinburgh International Festival’s socially distanced edition in 2021. Now she returns to the city to play Connect as part of a full summer diet of shows with Jockstrap, who have blossomed as a live proposition, keen to flaunt their sensual debut album I Love You Jennifer B. 

‘We make all the music before we arrange it for live and it’s always in Taylor’s room or my room, and it’s not very lively,’ says Ellery. ‘We don’t jam or anything; it’s very concentrated. But I do feel like the way I’m singing on this album is more flashy and less bedroomy.’ 

Ellery and Skye initially bonded over a shared love of rave bangers as well as the artier end of the UK dance scene when they were in their first year of studies on separate courses. Ellery surprised herself by wanting to go to music school at all. ‘I was always the person sitting at the back of the second violins, yapping away,’ she says. ‘It was a social thing as much as artistic. I decided I wanted to do a different sort of course to classical, where it’s nine hours in the practise room every day. Being on the jazz course allowed me to have the side hustle and there were so many fantastic people and creatives in our year. It was hard not to get stuck in. I definitely tried to write songs at the piano when I was a teenager,’ she continues, miming scrunching up her callow efforts. ‘I’m one of those people who if I can’t do it as well as I’d like to, I get very frustrated. But I felt pretty galvanised by all the music going on; I was inspired by everyone and surrounded by people who were very supportive.’

Ellery and Skye clicked from their first collaboration, when she sent him her first ‘proper’ songwriting effort. ‘And he sent me back something which felt exactly what needed to be there. Coming from Cornwall, I’d never met a producer, let alone worked with one, but I immediately wanted to work with someone like that.’

The duo released a debut EP, Love Is The Key To The City, in 2018 while still students, with Skye applying an anything-goes patchwork of styles, instrumentation and references to Ellery’s light vocals and pop melodies. Having followed that up with a 2020 EP Wicked City, their first full album, released last autumn, is the most refined collision of their instincts and music education to date. ‘I like a song that has a special moment that makes your tummy flip,’ says Ellery, reflecting on her jazz training. ‘I particularly like when a harmony describes what the melody or lyrics are saying, how the three of them can say the same thing as different cogs in the wheel of the song. I like music that moves me . . . says everyone, ever.’

Jockstrap will play Connect, Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh, on Friday 25 August.