Freya Ridings

“At the age of 11 I did my first open mic show, and it was one of those lightning-bolt moments where I suddenly found what I wanted to do.”

“There was an open mic night when I was about 11 years old and I went and I played the songs that I'd written in my bedroom and it was the first night where I felt like I was myself at school.”

“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.”

“There's no expectations at all. Every single person that turns up to a show, you really appreciate them. Every single radio interview you do - everything.”

“I was in a choir at school and we were part of the BBC Proms back in around 2002.”

“Me and my mom were just watching the charts like, 'Why isn't it stopping?' And now I've got a platinum disc in my bedroom.”

“All my songs are based on personal experience, and 'Lost Without You' came out fully born.”

“Every time I do something new, it makes me a bit stronger. Playing huge shows, being invited to play with Nile Rodgers after the Brits - all are mindblowing and I have a great team around me who are empowering. It makes all the difference.”

“I remember in 2016 when I got signed to my record label Good Soldier, which is a very small indie label. They took a big risk on me because ballads were the furthest thing from cool at the time.”

“Selfies are one of those things I generally take but never post. It's more to remember the moment or what I'm doing.”

“I've been writing since I was 11. But I don't write with a pen, I just sing at the piano with one eye shut like a pirate.”

“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.”

“I remember, a couple of years ago I was playing my first headline show, and it was to 100 people in St Pancras Old Church in London; and me and my mum were like, 'We don't know 100 people, how are we going to sell these tickets?'”

“When I first started writing songs, I was almost quite embarrassed that I couldn't read music and I still to this day don't really know what chords I'm playing, I don't know the name of them.”

“I was brought up in a bohemian household where my dad plays guitar and my mom plays piano just because they love it.”

“When I first started, I'd play to a few people. My mum would invite everyone she knew and the venue was filled.”

“Songwriting really anchored me.”

“I'm on a group chat with my dad which he named 'Dearest Daughter'. It's so sweet because I don't think he really understands that a group chat normally has more than two people but I love chatting with him in it anyway.”

“The thing with 'Lost Without You' is that for a long time I didn't feel like I could share it with people. When it came to releasing it, it was a cliff-diving moment.”

“So when you're sat there and you're looking at a platinum disc on your wall, for a song you wrote on your own, it's like this is getting crazy, man. It's all crazy.”