Introducing: Essy Sparrow

Essy Sparrow is not here to make you feel better-unless you’re the type who finds solace in savage lyrics and brutally honest indie-pop anthems. With a voice that cuts through the noise and a pen that doesn’t pull punches, Essy returns with a track for the quietly bitter and chronically online-those who scroll through their ex’s feed hoping to feel something other than rage. Dubbed the “scrappy little songwriter,” Essy’s blend of sharp humour, emotional candour, and haunting folk-pop melodies has made her one of the UK’s most compelling rising artists. After the success of her debut EP Still Upset About It Actually, she's gone viral, charmed BBC Introducing, and won over tastemakers and TikTokers alike. Now, she’s back—and she’s still not over it.

Your new single "Artists Dreamers" is an anthem for the secretly bitter — what was going through your head when you googled your ex-best friend and realized you’d been “replaced”?

To be totally honest, I think sometimes looking people up from the past is almost a way of checking in with yourself to see if you're over it. If you see them thriving and that makes you happy, then you get a sense of relief. If you see them thriving and it makes you feel jealous, then you realize you need to focus on your own life and build something for yourself.

So when I looked up this person from my past and saw heaps of images with her and someone new (and someone that looks like me), I felt sad, but I also felt like it was my own fault for looking.

In writing this song, I realized that loads of people do this — they look people up and wait to either feel good or bad. They wonder if they "won" the breakup. So I wanted to take that "secret act" of searching your ex and turn it into an honest song. It's been really lovely to hear how people have connected with it (and also to realize I'm not the only one that does it!).

I think there's a real fun, snarky energy to pop at the moment — when Gracie Abrams brought out "that's so true" I thought, this is it, it seems like it's time to be honest about when we feel bitter.

You’ve been described as a “scrappy little songwriter” with a sharp tongue and quick wit. How do humor and heartbreak coexist in your writing, and do you ever hold back?

I think humor and heartache coexist in my life as much as they do in my songs. I'm known for loving to laugh, and I'm also known for being quite a deeply emotional person. Humor has been my tool throughout my life for getting through, well, everything. People sometimes look down on it, as if it means you don't sit with your emotions, but I think you can have room for both.

I try to make space for both in my own life — to feel it all and to then belly laugh about it. In terms of "do I ever hold back," the answer is absolutely yes. When I'm comfortable sharing something, I will often be honest about all of it —because that feels the most comfortable to me. I like sharing and I like connecting with people through honesty.

But this sometimes leaves people with the false impression that they know everything about me because I write it in my songs — but there's a lot I choose to keep to myself.

As an artist these days, you have to be aware that you will have to market your music online, quite honestly and quite relentlessly. So for me, I don't want to release something that I am not comfortable talking about for at least 6 months.

The songs on my EP "Still Upset About It Actually" arose from an extremely difficult time in my life, but I deliberately left it about 2 years before I wrote about the situation, and then on the whole 4 years to release them.

I didn't want to put something out that would feel like a reaction; I wanted it to feel like it was a curated response to my feelings at the time. It's a delicate balance between sharing something vulnerable that I hope will connect with people, but also making sure that you're ready and happy to talk about it. For an early-stage artist, it requires you to give SO much of yourself.

So there is much that I don't cover in my songs: my sobriety, my deconstruction of religion, my relationship to my sexuality, my relationship of 10 years — these are all things that many people know about me but don't currently get covered in my released music. Perhaps one day I will, when I'm ready.

There’s a clear evolution in your sound, from early Laura Marling-esque folk to more expansive textures like Maggie Rogers or Lorde. How do you approach shaping the sonic world around your lyrics?

Thank you, that's really kind of you to say! I love to work with producers whose work I genuinely love and listen to. For this EP, I worked with producer Jemima Coulter, whose work with their band Hailaker soundtracked most of my 20s. They have also been a close friend of mine since we met 10 years ago, so the whole process felt really magic. I love hearing speckles of their production style in my work. We spent a lot of time listening to Lorde's Solar Power when thinking about how we wanted the EP to feel. I feel like the result is a combination of folk-based storytelling songs that have sparkles and glimmers of the modern day to them.

For music, I'm an extremely visual thinker and I like to pull visual references as well as audio ones. So I had Pinterest boards for every song and how I wanted them to feel. For Artists Dreamers, it was a lot of nostalgic film photos, movement, and glistening water. I felt like the light speckles on water were synths and that they could help to build that feel into the music. So, I explained that to Jemima, and I felt like they really understood what I meant.

Now, one of the most common things that people say about my work is that it feels "nostalgic," so I think it must've worked!

Your debut EP Still Upset About It Actually struck a chord across social media and UK radio — what’s surprised you most about the way people have connected with your music?

I think what has surprised me is how FAR it's reached. I have had people in Belgium lip-syncing to my songs and that blows my mind slightly. I think it has also been such a much-needed confidence boost for me. When I was younger, I had a very loud inner critic. I would often say to myself, no one will relate to what you put out there because it's not unique enough, you're not pretty enough, you're not talented enough. And this whole process has proved to me that that isn't true. I still struggle with feeling "enough," but it's shown me that if you really get grounded and put yourself out there, your people WILL find you, and it will be really beautiful. You are exactly the right thing for someone. I had a brief stint at drama school when I was 19, and one of the teachers told me that the best thing anyone can ever learn is to "stay in their lane" and "be themselves." This always felt really difficult to me because I didn't know who "myself" was, and I didn't know what "my lane" even was.

Now, through the process of putting myself out there and really finding my people, I feel like I know those things. It's actually been very healing. And I feel so grateful that I took the chance and put this EP out.

From cohosting BBC Introducing to being championed by tastemakers like Jodie Bryant and Under the Radar — how are you handling this rising momentum, and what’s next for you in 2025?

I have an EP show this week, so I'm really excited for that! I think for me, I see this as my little small business. I still work a 9–5 mostly, so it's about building and making business moves with my music. I'm working right now on a new track, so hopefully we'll have some new music to share and hopefully some more live shows too. I'm also looking to build out my team, so that's exciting! Managers, hit me up.