Holly Humberstone Could Be Pop’s Next Big Thing — but That Doesn’t Interest Her Much

variety.com:

Ellise Shafer For the past two years, Holly Humberstone has been living on the road. After growing a passionate fanbase in her native U.K.

with the 2020 EP “Falling Asleep at the Wheel,” the singer-songwriter hopped across the pond for two back-to-back, life-changing opening gigs: first for indie favorite Girl in Red, followed by a stint on Olivia Rodrigo’s debut tour.

But somewhere along her quick ascent to that sweet spot between obscurity and full-blown popularity, Humberstone stopped feeling like herself. “I was just feeling a bit crap at myself and I was like, ‘Where do I fit in all of this weird chaos?'” Humberstone tells Variety at Polydor Records’ London office. “Industry stuff makes me feel like shit, like I kind of just want to go home.” But it was that same moment of depression that spawned the title track of Humberstone’s long-awaited debut album “Paint My Bedroom Black,” out now via Polydor/Interscope.

During two off-days in New York City, her go-to producer Rob Milton flew out and Humberstone poured her emotions onto the page. “The lyrics are kind of just a big ‘Fuck it, fuck all of this,'” Humberstone says of the song. “I’m just going to shut everything out and be on my own for a bit and enjoy this feeling of being in the studio and being away from everything.