On the Road With Holly Humberstone
Music

On the Road With Holly Humberstone

Describing an artist as "on the rise" is easy, but those words have a bit more weight for Holly Humberstone.

In the span of a year, Humberstone amassed more than 260 million streams, performed on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Late Show With James Corden, received the BRIT Rising Star Award, made her Coachella debut, received critical praise from practically every possible music publication under the sun and has most recently capped it all off supporting Olivia Rodrigo on her latest tour. As far as musical resumes go, Humberstone's is pretty impressive for an artist just getting their toes wet — and the future for her is only looking brighter.

Drawing inspiration from artist like Damien Rice, Lorde, Bon Iver, Phoebe Bridgers, Frank Ocean and HAIM, Humberstone's fusion of intimate confessional bedroom-pop and soaring full-throated arena rock is as enchanting as it is vulnerable. Fresh off the release of her most recent single and second collaboration with The 1975's Matty Healy, "Sleep Tight," Humberstone fully embraces the 2000s-era Sheryl Crow/KT Tunstall singer-songwriter pop-rock with a slightly updated sound that finds just the right blend of nostalgia and youthful hopefulness to have us hooked.

Now getting ready to head out on her own headlining tour this fall, PAPER caught up with Holly Humberstone for a behind-the-scenes look at her recent whirlwind run of shows. Check out the tour diary and full list of fall tour dates, below.

From Coachella: I’d been dreaming of playing this festival for so long and it was very lovely. I wasn’t really expecting many people to show up to my set, but the tent filled up and there were people singing the lyrics, which was pretty surreal.

I’ve discovered that people are much better behaved at festivals in the US than the UK. Everyone was so nice at Coachella.

On stage somewhere in the US supporting Olivia Rodrigo. She has been one of my favorite artists for so long now, so it has been such a dream to open for her on tour. Here, I’m playing the first-ever song I released, called "Deep End," which is a really personal song about my sister and it warms my heart when people put their flash lights on for it.

All of the fans have been so lovely. I was really nervous at the start of tour that people wouldn’t connect with my music, but every night has been so special.

I got to support Olivia [Rodrigo] at the iconic Greek Theatre, which was such a dream of mine. It was a really special evening for Olivia too, as she had dreamt of playing there since she was a child. This is me getting ready and slapping on so much makeup to keep my nerves at bay.

Sound check at the Greek. At this point, I was three months into tour and going home to the UK later that week. It felt so bittersweet doing soundcheck for the last time.

I gave a cheeky wink to my photographer, Deanie [Chen], mid-show. This photo was taken in Irving, Texas, right before playing my new song, "Sleep Tight." It had just been released and was so cool to see people dancing and singing. This was one of my favorite shows off the whole tour. The energy was electric and magical, and I had goosebumps coming off stage.

2022 North American Tour Dates:

November 1, 2022 - Webster Hall - New York, NY

November 3, 2022 - AXIS Club - Toronto, ON

November 5, 2022 - Metro - Chicago, IL

November 9, 2022 - The Fonda Theatre - Los Angeles, CA

November 10, 2022 - The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA

Photography: Deanie Chen

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