Holly Humberstone has won Best Mixtape at the BandLab NME Awards 2022 for her intimate project ‘The Walls Are Way Too Thin’.
BERWYN (‘Tape 2/Fomalhaut’), Central Cee (‘Wild West’), FKA twigs (‘Caprisongs’) and PinkPantheress (‘To hell with it’) were also up for this year’s award.
“I’m really nervous,” Humberstone said while accepting her Best Mixtape gong, before talking about how NME had an impact on her growing up.
“I used to listen to the NME demo CDs with my family when I was a kid,” she went on to say that’s how she “discovered so many of my favorite artists when I was a kid.”
She added: “Thank you so much NME.”
The Grantham singer-songwriter released ‘The Walls Are Way Too Thin’ last November. In a four-star review, NME said the EP had “a sense of warmth and levity” with “more adventurous” production than Humberstone’s 2020 debut, ‘Falling Asleep At The Wheel’.
Speaking to NME at this year’s BRIT Awards red carpet, she opened up about the “scary” task of writing her debut album.
“For some reason, the idea of an album is so intense, quite scary, and quite official,” Humberstone said. “It has to be perfect, I’m such a perfectionist. I’ve got enough for an album but I think I can beat myself and do better and write better songs and I’ve had a few months now to write and just experiment and have fun.”
She added: “I think I’m closing in on it but I don’t ever think I’ll feel like I’m done writing I’ll always feel like I’ve got more to give I think someone is just gonna have to stay stop writing you’ve got it let’s put it out. But yeah, a scary concept.”
So far, the BandLab NME Awards has seen stunning performances by Sam Fender, Griff and Sigrid, CHVRCHES and Robert Smith and BERWYN. Still yet to take the stage at London’s O2 Academy Brixton are Rina Sawayama and Bring Me The Horizon.
Check back for the latest news, interviews, winners and more from the BandLab NME Awards 2022.