Freya Ridings (born 19 April 1994) rose to prominence in 2017 with her ballad, “Lost Without You”, which became a top ten hit on the UK Singles Chart. She followed this with the release of her debut extended play, You Mean the World to Me (2019). Her self-titled debut album was supported by the single “Castles”, which would become her international breakthrough.
She’s been extravagantly dubbed The “Titian Goddess of acoustic pop” by people of the UK. The English singer and songwriter is as down-to-earth as they come, and such a demeanor stems, she implies, from spending much of her childhood and early teenage years removed from crowds and performing in front of fewer than 10 people. Ridings first took an inkling of what she wanted to do with her life when she drew a picture of a violin on a piece of cardboard and then pretended to play it. Her parents, she says, didn’t know her interests lay in music until they saw the drawing. Cue violin lessons. “I realised, however, that you can’t sing when you’re playing the violin – or at least I can’t – and as that aspect of performing is important to me I shifted to the piano.”
Ridings was raised in North London and grew up in Palmers Green. She is the daughter of British actor and musician Richard Ridings, and learned guitar from watching him play. She attended St Christopher School in Letchworth, followed by the BRIT School from the age of 16. Very quickly, music became her solace and protector. The need to sing and play piano or guitar became a must. She admitted to the Irish times, “Sometimes, when we’re on tour, I’ll find an empty room or a corner and I’ll just sing. It heals something in me, be it some kind of isolation or loneliness. It’s really quite beautiful that singing can do that.”
Music became a coping mechanism to offset the period of time when, 25-year-old Ridings was bullied as a schoolgirl. She began to write lyrics and songs at the age of 11 because, she underlines “you can imagine a girl with red hair and tall for her age”. Struggling at school academically because of severe dyslexia added to the general mistreatment from other children. Her teachers were more forgiving. “Going to the piano room and just writing became a thing I did during any stormy time in my life. For anything heart aching, or losing friends, things like that, it was the piano I always turned to” Ridings said.
Matters changed for the better when Ridings joined the BRIT School for Performing Arts at the age of 16. She was attending the same school as Adele, Kate Nash, Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis, Katy B, and Jessie J (all of whom had either graduated or departed prior to her arrival) which stimulated her ambition and creative focus. Leaning towards the melancholic genre much like her inspiration, Adele – she sensed the commercial pop music market was becoming more accepting of female songwriters unafraid to explore deeply personal issues.
She said “Adele was a huge inspiration to me, and her success really did make me continue what I was doing. At the same time, playing piano ballads was the furthest thing from cool. When I got signed, however, the label [Good Soldier] took a real leap of faith in doing so because major labels certainly didn’t. That aside, having strong female lyric-writing role models while growing up meant so much to me. It’s something I’m so passionate about now, showing young girls that they can absolutely write their own songs.”
Her big break came when the lesser known song of her’s “Lost Without You”, was featured on the reality television show, Love Island. Within weeks of the song being aired, Ridings knew she was saying goodbye to years of being viewed as an oddity. ‘Lost Without You’ is said to be about “an intense, regretful moment that changed her life”. The song reached the UK top 10 in November 2018.
Ridings released her debut single, “Blackout”, on 5 May 2017. She released the single “Maps” on 30 June 2017. On 22 September 2017 she released her debut live album Live at St Pancras Old Church. After releasing the album she went on to her first full headline tour in the UK. She spent most of 2017 supporting the likes of Tears for Fears, Tash Sultana and Lewis Capaldi. She released “Lost Without You” on 3 November 2017. The song peaked at number 9 in the UK Singles Chart, after being featured on the reality show Love Island in July 2018. It was subsequently chosen by Scott Mills’ as his ‘Tune of the Week’ on his Radio 1 show in August 2018. She released her second live album, Live at Omeara, on 30 March 2018. She released the single “Ultraviolet” on 15 June 2018.
In 2019, she released the single “You Mean the World to Me”, which was re-produced by Greg Kurstin, followed by an extended play of the same name. She also announced her self-titled debut album, which peaked at number 3 on the UK charts. Blurring the lines between deep melancholia and electro-pop empowerment, the album transitions effortlessly between waves of emotional intensity, as Freya’s renowned, vocal-heavy approach succeeds in highlighting her strongest attributes. She’s by far one of the most authentic songwriters, and on that Ridings said “The beauty of songwriting is that you can always find something you feel strongly about, always find that kind of depth. When you sit down at the piano, whether you’re missing your family, missing friends, the issues of having or not having love interests – I travel so much I feel it isn’t really fair on another person to put them through the weeks and weeks away – there is always something you can find to process and create songs. Another thing is that with some people you meet, even briefly, there can be degrees of intensity you can write about.”
Freya Ridings is an impeccable artist, and for fans of Adele, she’s a must have on your music radar. Be sure to check out her debut album below.
Rating: ★★★★★
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