Londoner Freya Ridings is used to keeping it real. She began distributing her songs and performances digitally in 2017, winning a following for the pure-toned heartache in her voice and for recordings of her live performances. But her song "Lost Without You" broke the mold, bringing its enveloping sense of loss straight from her imagination.
"I always write from personal experience," says Ridings — but this was an exception. "It's never actually happened, and it really affected me." She said "Lost Without You" came to her "state of consciousness while … sitting at the piano. It just came out fully formed, and I was like, 'Oh my god, that just made me want to cry.'" It's received a big reaction with more than a million views on YouTube and Top 40 placement on the UK Official Charts.
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The unexpected response is reminiscent of another real experience from Ridings' life. "We made these little guerilla-style videos where we go around these secret pianos that are on underground train stations in London," she shared. "No one would stop, and I loved that because it was kind of in your own world." They tipped their fans 24 hours prior to one of these sessions thinking to attract "friends and family" but they got more than they bargained for. "They had to shut down the station," she described. "It was hundreds of people and I was like, 'What is going on?' I still can't believe that happened." A friend's choir even showed up and joined in.
It will be interesting to see how other unexpected and imaginary life experiences surface through this emerging talent's songs that have yet to arrive.
