Holly Humberstone

Holly Humberstone’s deeply personal, brutally honest pop confessions are as therapeutic for her to create as they are for us to wallow in. “I try to write as honest as possible,” the English singer/songwriter tells Apple Music. “I feel like it’s my way of processing a lot of my feelings and thoughts.” Born in 1999 and raised in a tiny village outside of Grantham, England, Humberstone grew up in a house full of music. She listened obsessively to Damien Rice (his 2002 alt-folk masterwork O is her biggest influence) and created piano melodies to go along with her dad’s favorite poetry before picking up the pen herself. To expand her songwriting skills, she learned the guitar and began recording rough demos on her dad’s old computer. As a teenager, she uploaded a few of those demos to the local BBC Music Introducing show, and within a week, they were playing one of those songs, “Hit and Run,” on the radio. Her soulful voice and vulnerable songwriting caught the ear of writer/producer Rob Milton and singer/songwriter Lewis Capaldi, who invited her on his tour in early 2020. Later that year, Humberstone was named an Up Next artist by Apple Music, just before releasing her debut EP, Falling Asleep at the Wheel. Working closely with Milton, she draws from her own experiences with razor-sharp intensity—“Deep End” is a comforting plea to her younger sister; “Vanilla” is a cathartic close to a relationship—and wraps it all in airy, atmospheric pop that highlights the passion and precision in her vocals. Though her music is introspective, it’s also universal: “I’m genuinely just trying to figure out how I feel,” she says. “I’m not the only one that’s going through stuff like this.”