Humberstone, Holly – Doctors’ daughter starred at Glastonbury

Holly Humberstone (b1999)

Holly Humberstone is a British musician from Grantham. She rose to popularity through her association with fellow musician Lewis Capaldi, performing during intermissions on his concert tours.

She is studying at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

Holly cites Damien Rice, Ben Howard, Phoebe Bridgers, and HAIM as musical inspirations. Rice’s debut album is considered by Humberstone to be her ‘first favourite album’.

She performed at Glastonbury Festival 2019 on the BBC Introducing stage.

Her debut single “Deep End”, was released on 30 January 2020 and her second , “Falling Asleep at the Wheel”, in  March, while her third, “Overkill”, was released on  June.

On 30 July 2020, she released a cover of “Fake Plastic Trees” by the English rock band Radiohead. Her debut EP, also titled Falling Asleep at the Wheel, was released on 14 August, which contained her three previous singles, alongside the tracks “Vanilla”, “Drop Dead” and “Livewire”.

At the start of lockdown, the 20-year-old moved back home to Lincolnshire with her three sisters and her parents, who are both NHS doctors.

“It was extremely chaotic. We’ve all got big personalities and there’s six of us in one house,” she told Radio 1 Newsbeat.

In March, she’d just come off a huge tour with Lewis Capaldi and says the change of pace took the family a while to adjust to as they tried to “co-exist”.

During those first few weeks, it was difficult for her to see her parents so stressed as they worked long hours and dealt with an ever-changing pandemic.

But things have gradually got a bit calmer and says the experience was a “nice excuse” for her whole family to come back together and reconnect.

One of her sisters even helped out her career by filming the video to her single Overkill.

Taking an old VHS camera, she made Holly run through the local forest at dusk with her guitar in hand, creating a video that’s a bit like the Blair Witch Project.

Still in the early stages of her career, Holly describes her music as “dark, wonky pop” but admits she’s still trying to figure out exactly what her sound is.

“I take influence from loads of different places but I love Lorde and Phoebe Bridgers who both have really personal and ‘on-the-nose’ lyrics.”

Things moved fast for Holly after she went from playing small venues to arenas as the support act on Lewis Capaldi’s European tour.

Even though her parents are both doctors, their interest in the arts meant they encouraged Holly to take up music and be creative.

She says TV was banned in the house so instead she would make up songs and music on her piano from poetry books.

“It makes us sound really strict but it was actually fun.

“I’ve been grateful to be in the countryside. Lincolnshire has so much space and it’s been such a nice place to lock down and isolate.”