Holly Humberstone Announces Highly Anticipated Sophomore EP 'The Walls Are Way Too Thin'

Today, breakout singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone has announced her highly anticipated second EP, The Walls Are Way Too Thin, set to be released on November 5th, 2021 via Darkroom/Interscope/Polydor Records. The six-track EP features her brand new song "Please Don't Leave Just Yet," co-written and co-produced by The 1975's Matty Healy, as well as the incredibly emotive first single "Haunted House" and title track "The Walls Are Way Too Thin." This EP marks an evolution for Holly in which loss accompanies growth, and figuring out who you are means figuring out who you're not. Pre-order The Walls Are Way Too Thin here.

"This EP represents a feeling of being lost," says Holly. "It's the kind of lost that makes you question who you are and where you belong. So lost that someone might need to find you again because you can't find yourself. That's how it felt to move to Liverpool, then London, and be in transit between cities and never settling."

When Holly Humberstone entered the studio with Matty Healy, frontman of one of Holly's favorite bands, The 1975, it was mid-pandemic and the 21-year-old felt a yearning for human connection. During a year where people longed for company, Holly, Matty, and longtime collaborator Rob Milton, created a song that conveys the despair people feel in the minutes leading up to someone's departure. Even if it's time to part ways, holding on for just a few seconds longer delays the pain that you know is right around the corner. Holly's ability to communicate that amount of vulnerability among the distortion of the track is a testament to her storytelling abilities. Listen to "Please Don't Leave Just Yet" here.

In Holly's own words: "The song is about wanting someone to stay so badly, even if only for five more minutes, because you know how much it'll hurt when they leave. I think the desperation in the words really sums up how I was feeling at the time and how so many people must've been feeling last year when we were all completely starved of human connection! I often write songs with a bit of a visual in my head, and I kept picturing solitary places, like drifting far out to sea, so far that you can't find a way back, or old deserted cargo shipping yards with all the lights at the edge of the city.

The Walls Are Way Too Thin follows Holly's critically acclaimed debut Falling Asleep At The Wheel, which marked the first chapter in the story of a new global talent who's garnered over 150M global streams to-date. Having just been announced as the Ivor Novello Rising Star Nominee, to being named the BBC Sound of 2021, Apple's Up Next Artist, VEVO DSCVR's Artists To Watch 2021, and internationally heralded by the likes of Jimmy Kimmel, James Corden, Triple J, The Sunday Times, NME (5*), The Guardian, i-D, ELLE, and Billboard, it is Holly's remarkable storytelling that has captured the hearts and minds of fans globally. Holly wants her lyrics to be the ones people could tattoo on themselves and her songs embrace and translate some of life's most intense feelings in a way that typical conversations all too often fail to capture, from mental health struggles to the dizzying feelings of displacement as you grow out of adolescence.

The Walls Are Way Too Thin represents a turning point for the rising artist. Produced by Rob Milton, who also collaborated with Holly on Falling Asleep At the Wheel, her sophomore effort is a departure from the crumbling childhood home that has been at the forefront of her creative identity to-date, and is an emergence into the heartbreak that can accompany all facets of adulthood. Last summer, Holly and her family were told that they were no longer going to be able to live in their house due to its decay, right around the time that she also was experiencing life altering changes: heading to uni only to hate her experience there, ending a relationship, and having to say goodbye to a loved one. During her time living in that house she wrote and recorded her debut EP, filmed all of her music videos in and around it, and experienced countless poignant life moments that ultimately were woven into her searingly honest lyrics.

The grief that accompanies a new life transition was integrated into each part of her new EP. Whether it be "Haunted House," an intimate ode to the end of her childhood, or "The Walls Are Way Too Thin" a track seething with claustrophobic energy and a need for control, this project is a timestamp for Holly. The Walls Are Way Too Thin serves as both a celebration and a eulogy of sorts - not just for the home, but for that part of her life. With its release, Holly is making an exciting leap into the unknown and igniting the next chapter in her story.

Creating a visionary world within her music, Holly has also set up the Fifth Sister Swap initiative, as a way for her and her fans to swap clothes without relying on fast fashion. It's an idea that stemmed from her three sisters constantly borrowing from and swapping their own wardrobes, and growing up in a house of women has made Holly passionate about issues affecting women. Holly recently filmed a session for Splendour In The Grass Festival in the Mind Charity shop in the UK, with the focus being on the incredible work the organization does for mental health, an issue close to her heart. Wanting to bring her initiatives directly to her fans, Holly will be launching the first IRL Fifth Sister Swap at her sold-out headlining shows in London this month.

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