After months of touring, the question of meaning came: Humberstone tells how old Grimm fairy tales & ballet shoes shaped their new album.
For Holly Humberstone, her rapid rise still feels a little unreal. Between touring life, growing pressure to succeed and the search for one’s own identity, her new album CRUEL WORLD (released April 10th) is a very personal work that is characterized by nostalgia, female strength and the contradictory sides of love. In an interview with MUSIKEXPRESS, the 26-year-old talks about creative self-doubt, the courage to be vulnerable and why authenticity is the most important compass for her.
ME How did the creative process for CRUEL WORLD start?
Holly Humberstone: When I returned from touring for months in September 2024, I suddenly had a bit of an identity crisis and thought: Who am I as a person? I knew pretty well who I was as an artist, but as a person I’ve changed a lot since I wrote a lot of my first songs. And suddenly I was supposed to write a new album and I didn’t really know who I was outside of this role. The music industry is very overwhelming, over-stimulating and extremely fast-paced. You’re constantly thinking about what’s next, where the next gig is or when you have to pack your bags again because you’re traveling on. Since lockdown, since my career started, I felt like I’d never really had the chance to think properly.
This phase of self-reflection sounds very intense. What helped you find your way back to yourself?
When I moved out of my parents’ house, I had to sort out around 23 years of things I had accumulated. During this process, I rediscovered a lot of things that once defined me but that I had lost touch with: old objects that used to mean incredibly much to me – my old ballet shoes, for example, or old pieces of jewelry, a jewelry box that I loved as a child with a little ballerina spinning around. Or an old book of Grimm fairy tales that I treasured. Also old stories, CDs and films that shaped my identity back then.
This looking back seems to be heavily influenced by memories. So nostalgia is an essential aspect of your new work – what else?
During the making of the album, I also learned that love, at its core, is a very painful emotion. For me it is similar to nostalgia. Both feelings are incredibly strong. The special thing about them is that they have a very beautiful, euphoric side and a very sad, painful side at the same time. You cannot separate these two sides, they exist in the same space. These contrasts and references can be found in the lyrics and also in the music of my new tracks.
Many of these feelings seem very personal, but at the same time you often write about people close to you. Are you sometimes afraid of revealing too much of yourself in your music?
As one of four sisters, I was definitely not the one who set the tone in our family constellation. My role was more to observe, listen and be empathetic. That’s why I’m naturally pretty good at reading and understanding other people’s emotions. That’s why I often find it easier to write about other people’s experiences than about my own. But at the same time, there’s something very satisfying about writing a song about how I feel about myself. I connect with “Scarlett,” “Lauren,” and “Lucy” on so many levels because in them I write about very universal feelings, even if I’m not directly experiencing them. Of course, releasing songs that are so personal that they almost seem a little embarrassing is always a little scary.
Femininity also seems to be a central theme. The new album sounds very feminine. What role do women play in your life and how do they influence your self-image and your music?
Women define me very strongly; I grew up with three sisters and attended a girls’ school. I am incredibly grateful to have so many inspiring women around me – without them I probably wouldn’t feel strong enough to do this job. However, I have never really written about what it is like to be a woman and part of this “sisterhood”. We have an incredible number of strengths and also some hidden superpowers that I wanted to celebrate on the album – in a world that often makes us feel small and weak. Traits such as empathy, the ability to read and understand people, identify with them, be empathetic, and think of the collective rather than just oneself are often labeled and dismissed as “feminine.” I wanted to remind others and myself that we are strong and our abilities are great.
Your lyrics draw pictures and are complex. Do you find it easy to turn your ideas into lyrics?
To be honest, most of the lyrical ideas I have at the start of a session are pretty bad – and that’s okay. I have to get the bad ideas out of my system every time. That’s the only way I stumble across something that might be brilliant and that other people can identify with. Songwriting is chaos, there is no real formula. You just have to go into the studio, be emotionally open and see what you want to write that day – and always stay brave. I can’t just turn on my creativity, it’s not a faucet, it’s a process. That’s why it’s important for me to work with people I trust and who understand that a song isn’t created every day. Those who are willing to wait with me for inspiration to come. I don’t have to and can’t be creative all the time. It should only be me when the moment feels right, when I feel like it, and when I’m truly inspired.
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You’ve opened shows for numerous artists in the past – including Taylor Swift. What have you learned from your musical role models about success and authenticity?
To be noticed by artists like Taylor Swift, Sam Fender, girl in red, Olivia Rodrigo and Lewis Capaldi, who I have admired for so long, feels incredible. It makes me feel like I’m being taken seriously as an artist and shows me that I’m on the right path and should stick with it. One observation that particularly struck me about all of these artists: Each and every one of them has something very unique and special about them. When you find out what that is about yourself, you should focus on it and emphasize that aspect even more. They also taught me that authenticity is the key to success. You should just be yourself, because other people already exist. When you truly own yourself, people can connect with you for simply being human.
Looking back on this whole process, what did the making of the album teach you about yourself?
When you’re in the middle of the process, it’s often difficult to step back and see things for what they are. Looking back now, I understand that I have self-determination – as a woman, as an adult and as an artist. I learned to trust myself and make the music I want to make. In the end, I understand myself and my own project better than anyone else. Over the last year and a half of the album process, I’ve felt like I’ve grown up and realized that I’m capable and good at what I do. The most important thing I’ve learned along the way is to be kinder to myself. Because it’s not about life and death: at the end of the day it’s just music.
And if you want to see Holly Humberstone live: The indie artist is giving a series of concerts in Germany in September: on September 20th. in Cologne, on September 26th. in Hamburg, on September 27th. in Berlin and on September 28th. in Munich.
