Freya Ridings was having “panic attacks in the studio” while writing her new material.
The Lost Without You singer – who was dropped by her record label following her second album Blood Orange in 2023 – has opened up about the crisis of confidence she experienced while recording her comeback record.
Speaking to BBC News, Freya said: “I was questioning and doubting myself more than I ever had. I was actually having panic attacks in the studio … but I was determined to write my way out of it.”
The 31-year-old singer explained that the sessions for Blood Orange had left her spirit broken, having been pressured into working with producers she hadn’t chosen, in what she described as “very masculine-dominated” studios.
She said: “I hated it. It wasn’t my choice to be with those people. I got hammered a little bit. It kind of broke my spirit.”
After being dropped by her record label, Freya took matters into her own hands – buying a plane ticket to Los Angeles without her manager’s knowledge to collaborate with producer Jen Decilveo, the producer behind Hozier’s track Francesca.
She said: “I was crapping myself. I felt scared, like a naughty schoolchild, because this was the first time in a long time where I hadn’t done exactly what I was told. But I lit up. It was like I was possessed.”
Meanwhile, Freya previously opened up about her songwriting process, revealing that she turned to a piano “in times of need”.
She told Buzz Magazine: “The place that I have turned to in my darkest times has always been a piano.
“At school, I didn’t have a lot of friends because I am a redhead, and very tall and different to the other kids. Being able to turn to a piano was almost like turning to a friend in times of need. That’s what I have always done.
“For all the storms in my life, it’s the kind of thing that anchors me to who I am.”