“There was no plan B. I just knew I wanted to do this,” shares Sienna Spiro, as the 19-year-old takes NME back to where it all began. “[Singing] always just felt like something I was going to do.”
Not even a year has passed since the London-based singer released her debut track ‘Need Me’, which crystallised the raspy, roaring vocals and balladic pop lyricism previewed in her viral TikTok covers. Since then, the rising artist has built up a monthly Spotify listenership of 2.1million, performed at All Points East festival and found fast fans in SZA and Finneas, even linking up with the latter for a session last year. When we speak at 9am sharp on a grey Monday morning, Spiro is still jet-lagged after returning home from performing in Australia; her debut EP ‘Sink Now, Swim Later’ also dropped over the weekend. “It’s been insane,” she unsurprisingly reflects on her whirlwind release week.
For Spiro, the journey to her debut EP has been long and, at times, challenging; she started writing her own songs from age 10 and found solace in words when she struggled to fit in growing up. “I always felt like the biggest weirdo ever and I got bullied,” she shares. “Everyone made me feel so alien. And I also think that had something to do with being undiagnosed with ADHD at the time.”
But that all changed when she joined East London Arts and Music (ELAM) aged 16 and connected with fellow musically-minded creatives. At the same time, her online covers – often filmed from the floor of her shower or planted on her bed – began to take off thanks to her truly powerful voice, which channels the timeless blues, soul and jazz vocals of legends like Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald, who Spiro listened to during her childhood.
In fact, mere weeks after uploading her TikTok cover of Finneas’ ‘Break My Heart Again’, she found a manager and decided to drop out of music school after eight months to move with the momentum of her fledgling career. Now signed to Capitol Records, her new EP is an intimate introduction to the personal stories behind her soulful vocals. As she looks to the year ahead – which includes a support stint on tour with Nao – Spiro reflects on the last nine months of growth, her first ever shows and hopes for the year ahead.
Your first TikTok cover was ‘Break My Heart Again’ by Finneas. What was your reaction when you saw the viral response?
“I filmed that cover literally just before I was about to get on a train to go to Reading Festival. I remember I posted it the first day I joined music college. I didn’t think anything of it, and then it was so overwhelming. It reached a bunch of people and I got so many messages from people that wanted to collaborate and people that wanted to meet. The most full circle thing to me was I ended up doing a session with him last year.”
Wow! How did that go?
“It was insane, it was crazy – really like a dream of mine. I think one of the things that I’ve been so lucky and privileged to be able to do is be working with people that I looked up to. And that was really one of my life goals, to be able to work with these people. And I didn’t expect it to be so soon, but he was incredible and so nice. It was a pinch me moment.”
2024 was a year of firsts – your first show, song, music video and festival. How would you describe your attitude towards approaching things for the first time?
“There were so many firsts, but there was also so much thinking about it [beforehand] and getting nervous and excited that I try not to think about it being the first time, and pretend like I’ve already done it loads. Whilst it’s happening, I have 1000 thoughts in my head. There’s something really beautiful about doing something for the first time, you’ll never be able to get that back. I also try to enjoy it as much as I can.”
“When I was younger, I really felt like nobody would ever listen to me – I’ve felt the most listened to when I was on stage”
Your live vocals are so powerful. Have you always been a confident performer?
“I’m quite a shy person, even though that’s quite shocking. But I feel the most myself [when] performing. It’s where I feel the most present. When I was younger, I really felt like nobody would ever listen to me, and I’ve always had trouble speaking and expressing myself, and I’ve felt the most seen and the most listened to when I was performing and when I was on stage.”
SZA commented on Instagram that your cover of Childish Gambino’s ‘Redbone’ was “insane”. What was going through your head when you read that?
“There’s been a bunch of things that have happened where I’ve just been like, ‘There’s no way this is real!’ I had a bit of a silent moment and I had to step out of the room, called a couple of my friends and just freaked out for a second. I’m such a huge fan of hers, and I’m so in awe of her and love her so much, that that was a very crazy moment.”
You said the songs on your new EP were written during a time of trying to navigate the “layers of being young and being a woman”. What did that look like?
“There’s so much that didn’t make sense, especially in the world at the time for women and in politics. There’s so many struggles that women have and that I’ve had myself, especially with body image. I struggle with that a lot, and there’s a song called ‘Cyanide’ which is quite toxic but it’s very real. And I really wanted to make sure I wasn’t lying and being honest. A song like that is the stuff that was going through my head, and it was me trying to make sense of things.”
Your numbers across streaming and social media are already huge. How have you found that process of making fans so quickly?
“It’s a really surreal process because you’re kind of thinking ahead of everything. And there’s rarely a moment that you sit back and think, ‘These are real people’ until it’s in real life, and then you see people, and you interact with people, and you watch people interacting with your music.
“I don’t even know how to compartmentalise it, because that’s what I need to do to understand things. But it’s really crazy, to be honest; I sometimes find it hard to believe myself.”
What do you see when you think about the future of Sienna Spiro?
“The main goal that I’ve always wanted to achieve is writing an album that I hope changes music in a good way, and that I feel completely proud of, start to finish. Because I think that’s hard to achieve with all the rush these days. I really hope that is something I achieve.”
‘Sink Now, Swim Later’ is out now