Sigrid at Glastonbury 2022: “I had the festival experience in mind when writing ‘How to Let Go’”

Glastonbury is a magical experience for most – but for Sigrid it holds a particularly special place in her heart. So much so that when she was writing her latest album ‘How to Let Go’, the 25-year-old pop star had the festival in mind.

Speaking to NME at Glastonbury Festival 2022, she explains. “I did have Glastonbury in mind. I had the whole festival experience in mind when writing this album. It was written for the past two years, and the one thing I was missing the most was festival season, being here.”

“Glastonbury is one of my favourites – if not my favourite festival – so it’s pretty special to play it tonight,” she adds.

Ahead of her Friday evening John Peel show at the festival, Sigrid joined NME for a quick chat, to discuss new record ‘How to Let Go’, working with Bring Me The Horizon and whether new material is on the way.

‘How to Let Go’ was written with Glastonbury in mind – does that make performing it tonight nerve-wracking?

“I woke up on the tour bus like [gasps] ‘it’s Glasto day!’ And it took me a couple of hours, and now I feel like I’m in a very chilled mindset again, now I’m just excited. Say what you wanna say, I’m going to have a great time.”

How’s the reception to ‘How to Let Go’ been?

“I think it’s going down pretty well, which is really exciting. I don’t take that for granted. It’s been really cool to see the reaction live at our shows, it’s a tiny bit different. Some of the songs are more summery and more chill, but seem to hit the audience in a different way. So I think tonight’s set at Glasto will be pretty sick, as it’s a mix of the new stuff and the old stuff.”

And on the album you worked with Bring Me The Horizon on ‘Bad Life’, how did that team-up happen?

“That’s my favourite thing about festivals, that you often meet bands and artists backstage. This morning I met Inhaler in the shower queue, we were just chatting and it was really nice. And the same thing happened when I was at Reading Festival last summer, and I was standing backstage and then Jordan [Fish] from Bring Me came up and said hello. We started chatting, and apparently they liked my music, I like their music, and he said ‘we have this demo of a song called ‘Bad Life’ we don’t know what to do with it, would you maybe want to come to the studio or listen to it?’ And I was like ‘yeah!’.

“So I came to the studio a week after and rewrote some lyrics and we worked on it together, and that’s how easy ‘Bad Life’ was born, it’s been so lovely.”

Is it one you’re going to hopefully perform live together at some point?

“I mean if our schedules intertwine, that would be so sick.”

Are you currently working on any new material, or purely in tour-mode now?

“I started talking about new music and stuff, and I am touring my album, and I think there’s definitely pressure of: ‘when’s the next thing coming out?’ I think I’ve already been asked ‘when’s the new album?’ and [‘How to Let Go’] came out literally a couple of weeks ago. Right now I’m just touring this album and really enjoying it and it’s something to give each song some proper time and let it sink in a little bit and not move on too fast.”

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