British singer Ellie Goulding's estranged father helped her beat a bout of writer's block.

The Burn hitmaker, who hasn't seen her dad in over a decade, reveals she was struggling to come up with lyrics until she decided to write a song about him.

She explains, "I woke up and I wrote this song, called Explosions, about my dad... and then it sort of just all came out."

But fans needn't go back and look for hidden meanings about her feelings in the song because she insists the lyrics are not that deep.

She adds, "The songs that I write are not bitter or angry. They're just sort of: 'What happened there?'"