Growing up in the countryside amongst a tightly knit community, Holly Humberstone always drew artistic inspiration from the world around her. However, when she moved to London to pursue her music career, she found herself alone in an ocean of strange people and even stranger sights.
“There weren’t a lot of people I could reach out to for support,” recalled the 22-year old British singer-songwriter who was recently feted with the Rising Star award in the 2022 Brit Awards. “And I moved into a really small apartment with a bunch of people I didn’t know. It can feel really isolating if you aren’t used to it and you don’t really know how to integrate yourself in society.”
“On train journeys I had loads of time to confront how I was feeling because I had nothing else to distract me from it,” she added. With her hangovers preventing her from being able to filter her thoughts, Holly began to write ideas in the Notes app on her phone and record little voice memos that would form her second EP, The Walls Are Way Too Thin.
From this feeling of isolation came her newest single, “London is Lonely.” Though written just before the pandemic, Holly’s lyrics evoking isolation and the subtly pounding piano indicating the march of time is eerily fitting. Combined with her Lorde-like vocals, the song is a snapshot of Holly’s emotions as she navigates and learns to love the bustling city.
“I love the chaos of it,” she says about London. “And then there are days when people just kind of just want to go to their destination and not really make eye contact with you, but the more time I spend away on tour, I’m slowly coming to terms to living here.”
Holly first fell in love with music because of her parents’ huge cd collection. She recounts how she as a child would browse through the collection and pick out whichever she found interesting.
“They were really encouraging my sisters and I to be creative. I just remember coming home from school and all i really wanted to do is write little songs,” she stated.
In addition to her parents’ encouragement, Holly also cites being inspired by her “spooky” childhood home. Though it is old, “freaky” and almost falling apart, she shares that she feels that the house has “a soul” and in some way, it also raised her.
“I have a real spiritual connection with the house, “It’s like a seventh family member. It’s part of me,” she said.
Formally educated at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, Holly was already a violinist for the Lincolnshire Youth Symphony Orchestra when she was discovered by a manager while performing on the radio show, BBC Introducing
Inspired by artists who “overshare” such as Phoebe Bridgers and Adrianne Lenker, Holly is an artist who unravels the “chaos in her head” and spins it into relatable songs.
“My songs are quite self-exposing. I don’t really leave much to the imagination because I am writing so much for my own mental well-being,” Holly concluded.
“London is Lonely” is now available on all major streaming platforms.