“Every song starts as a work in progress. Some stay as demos and ideas, others find new life with more production. But these songs were demos I couldn’t leave behind. I went back through the archives and discovered these lost older versions of myself mixed up with the present version of me. I wanted to release them this year – as I start touring again and since the release of my debut album – as a work in progress for my fans. I’m very much a work in progress, and I think this body of work feels impulsive and more like a stream of consciousness to me. Dive is the first song I’m dropping today. I wrote it a few years ago as a kind of warning to a guy to not get involved with me. I was worried I’d hurt him. Whenever I think about the highs and lows of past and present relationships, it reminds me that life will always be evolving and changing in ways that I can’t predict, and I think that’s ok!” – Holly Humberstone
Award winning singer songwriter Holly Humberstone starts 2024 with details of the Work In Progress EP, to be released on 15 March 2024. “I am work in progress” says Holly, collecting four songs from uncut demos that represent older versions of herself “mixed up with present versions of me”. Having released her critically acclaimed top 5 debut album Paint My Bedroom Black in October last year, Holly continuously bares her soul with her open and instinctive songwriting and storytelling. The Work In Progress EP is a stream of consciousness for fans, the first song “Dive” previewed with her Discord community online and officially drops today. The song is a warning to a guy not to get involved, “Honey I’m spiralling, the web that I’m tangled in, just isn’t built for two. So before I let you in, tread lightly, just tread lightly,” sings Holly. “Dive” also features a sample from Bravo’s Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, referencing the American reality show, “because I’d rather watch Real Housewives”. Written in 2022 with long-time collaborator Rob Milton and songwriter Ben Leftwich, Work In Progress includes a new collaboration with Flyte’s Will Taylor and producer Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Dijon, Bon Iver). Having also collaborated with US girl band MUNA for a reimagined version of “Into You Room” and dv4d on “Superbloodmoon”, this year spells a time of collaboration for Holly, with more to come.
LISTEN TO DIVE
Tracklisting
1. Dive
2. Work In Progress
3. Down Swinging
4. Easy Tiger
The BRIT and IVOR NOVELLO nominated singer and songwriter will begin her biggest UK and European tour to date this Spring, headlining 20 venues including The Albert Hall in Manchester on 8 March and London’s Eventim Apollo on 13 March. Having already spent the start of 2024 touring in Australia and Japan, this summer the Grantham born artist will head to North America for a 17-date tour, headlining two shows at Brooklyn Steel on 11 and 12 May. This follows the release of her critically acclaimed debut album, Paint My Bedroom Black, which represents Holly’s coming of age story; growing from an unknown singer at her parent’s piano to one of the most exciting alternative pop stars of her generation. The dark and otherworldly space Holly has built and invited fans into, both sonically and visually, has been lucid and visceral and offers a lens into her chaotic thoughts and deep feelings.
LISTEN TO PAINT MY BEDROOM BLACK
Praise for Paint my Bedroom Black
“Holly Humberstone is ready to conquer all” British Vogue
“Every song comes with an expertly crafted, big pop chorus or a sonic gear-change” Observer 4*
Music that touches base with Taylor Swift and Gracie Abrams.. the quality doesn’t dip” – Sunday Times 4*
“Humberstone’s debut is a triumph” The Forty Five
“Holly’s here for the long haul and fulfils much of her potential” – Daily Star
“Presents her as a golden-voiced mainstream singer with a touch of Alanis Morissette’s confessional approach.” – Times
“A remarkable artist baring her soul” – NME 4*
“Holly Humberstone is the real deal” DORK 4*
“Escapist and heavily personal” DIY 4*
With a talent for capturing and characterising moments that are both uncomfortably intimate and brutally revealing in her songwriting and creative – most of Holly’s 2022 was spent in hotel rooms, stuck between places, watching life from afar rather than being totally present in it. Lacking real connections and missing loved ones, Holly’s debut album portrayed a songwriter at a moment of huge change. Paint My Bedroom Black features triumphant singles “Into You Room”, “Kissing In Swimming Pools”, described by The Sunday Times as portraying “empathy, insight and unblinking candour”, to the sublime “Superbloodmoon” featuring d4vd. As well as “Antichrist” and “Room Service”, the double A-Side singles that reflect Holly’s introspection and extraversion, two opposing artistic multitudes that inform Holly’s lyricism and sound. “I feel like two different people half the time. My biggest challenge is always to make something I feel I haven’t done before, that reflects new parts of me”.
WATCH “INTO YOUR ROOM”
WATCH INTO YOUR ROOM VISUALISER
Always inspired by her environment and how that affects her sense of self and identity, from her parent’s Haunted House to flatshares in London with The Walls Are Way To Thin, Holly Humberstone has become an important voice for her generation, capturing the hearts and minds of fans globally through her emotive songwriting and storytelling. Humberstone’s debut 2020 EP, Falling Asleep At The Wheel, and 2022 follow up EP, Can You Afford To Lose Me?, earned Holly a loyal fanbase thanks to her raw, unfiltered, confessional songwriting.
Holly has appeared on Late Night With Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Late Late Show with James Corden while also playing her Matty Healy co-written song “Sleep Tight” for Vevo Live. Recently performing “Into You Room” and “Kissing In Swimming Pool” for Amazon CURVED and covering Frank Ocean’s Ivy for BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge Month, Holly creates a brutally honest intimacy whether she’s playing in a room to 50 people or headlining festival stages (Barn On The Farm) and playing to tens of thousands of people at Glastonbury, Lollapalooza and Outside Lands.
UK Headline Tour
8 March Albert Hall Manchester SOLD OUT
9 March Queen’s Hall Edinburgh SOLD OUT
10 March The Engine Shed Lincoln
12 March O2 Academy Leicester
13 March Eventim Apollo London
15 March Beacon Bristol SOLD OUT
16 March Academy Dublin SOLD OUT
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