With vocals that are both portentous and glacial, Freya Ridings is here to grab you by the hand and whisk you off to somewhere you’ve never been before.
Freya Ridings has never struggled to keep an audience transfixed and present. The singer’s ambient and, at times ethereal, sound places her somewhere in between London Grammar’s Hannah Reid and Florence Welch in terms of range and vocal power. To someone that has never heard her music before, she sits somewhere in between pop and piano ballads with a punchy hook, and her talent hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Similarly to the likes of George Harrison, The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, John Lennon and Katy Perry, Freya has just been signed to Capitol Records ahead of her much anticipated debut album. “It’s so thrilling getting to play and to work alongside some of my songwriting heroes on the other side of the planet…they’re all absolutely lovely people”.
When searching for inspiration for her songs, Freya Ridings looks at her own personal encounters, “I always write based off personal experience because that’s what feels most authentic to me but I love listening to different genres for melodic inspiration. It’s weird but I always shut my right eye when I’m playing piano and only recently found out that’s the creative part of your brain.” But like many of us, Freya struggles to shut out the noise to focus on what’s important: “The hardest part for me is getting out of the way and letting my subconscious speak what it needs to say”.
Freya’s favourite songs to perform live are most certainly her own, in particular, her poignant new single that has found success in the Charts, comfortably sitting in the Top 10. “The connection that ‘Lost Without You’ has given me with so many new people around the world has been a life-changing. As a song I wrote on my own in my little front room in North London, I still get whole body chills when I hear thousands of people sing it with me. To go from singing it in such isolation to singing it all around the world might be the most humbling experience of my entire life”.
Freya has just completed her debut nationwide tour which had completely sold out across the U.K. “After years of playing open mic nights in London where nobody knew me, to go from that to walking out to a sold or crowd every night on tour felt like something out of a movie. Honestly, I have no words for the feeling of being welcomed so warmly with open arms in cities I’ve sometimes never even been too”.
Speaking on tour life, there’s no doubt that the events can get tiring and overwhelming, however Freya has a playlist that kept her upbeat and motivated. “We had a tour bus for the first time ever with the whole band and crew, it was so much fun and it honestly felt like being magically teleported around the country in a tardis. We watched a lot of old films and also tried to come up with a pre-show chant with my band but we always ended up laughing because we got it wrong! In terms of listening, I loved listening to the new Rex Orange Country And Tom Odell Albums.” And what would she do just before shows? “Pre-show rituals I always eat an apple (the pectin helps breaks down vocal clicks) and have a massive group hug with my band and crew, very rock and roll- I know!”.
Freya has been frequently forthright about her struggle with dyslexia throughout higher education and has used music as a method for learning. “After really stuffing at school with dyslexia, finding that I could play music by ear felt life-changing and after all my teachers gave up on trying to teach me how to read music I started to write my own songs as a way to anchor me through the storm of school.”
Reflecting on her growth, she has some helpful words of advice for other young people challenged by dyslexia and reminds us that it’s important to accept and love everybody’s differences. “School really does not define who you are as a human being…The things that you think of as weaknesses now will one day by your biggest strengths. Also…being dyslexic gives you the ability to see things from another perspective and that’s one of your best qualities. The biggest lesson I learned is that everyone is battling with something growing up and just to be as kind and understanding as possible”.
However, with a career that is expanding before her very eyes, Freya Ridings is first and foremost, all about grace and gratitude: “It’s a universal bond that I’m so humbled to be a part of in any small way and I can’t wait to repay that kindness”.
