New Music
Interview
Persia Holder: “My voice has always been a bit like a protective mechanism”
The rising artist talks about opening doors without connections and the challenges that make you
The voice is singer-songwriter Persia Holder’s strongest instrument, and the piano the vehicle that carries it forward. So is her gift for sharing personal storms and emotional ‘Baggage’, as the title of her 2024 debut single goes, in poignant, key-laden narratives that hit home, regardless of what you’ve been through. Released in summer 2025, her first EP I Didn’t Think You’d Hear This assembles recent singles like ‘Echo’, a sweeping inner monologue of broken promises, in a patiently crafted, deeply expressive five-song portrait of an artist navigating the challenges of her 20s in choruses that effortlessly soar.
All upbeat and laid-back, she answers questions in her car during our Zoom interview — perfectly timed after a run, yet morning traffic had other plans for Persia. This openness and ease, a catalytic part of her popular TikTok videos, has come with practice to a naturally shy artist. Her powerful voice has always acted as a shield in ballads of loneliness and heartbreak, which will be going places in the coming months, starting with FIRST FIFTY, the live launch of The Great Escape 2026 in London on 13 November, presented by BBC Introducing — she’ll be playing the Brighton festival in May — and a tour supporting singer-songwriter JERUB later this month, including a show at the iconic Jazz Cafe.
You’re quite open about having gone through your fair share of emotional challenges. How do you feel these have shaped your songwriting — are there any experiences or moments that you feel have defined you as an artist?
A 100%. Growing up with a single mum, a very strong female woman around me, I always felt like I could do anything I wanted to do and my mum would support that. I think seeing her raise two kids on her own gave me the strength to be like, “okay, I wanna do something that’s scary”, which is follow my dreams.
And also I tried to look at the challenges I faced — it’s a double edged sword cause, obviously, you don’t wanna go through stuff like that, but also it’s given me this gift of things to write about and to try and shape my stories in a way that make other people feel seen, which I think is one of the most beautiful things about music. You know when you hear a song and you think, “Oh my God, that’s captured exactly how I feel!”. I try and do that through my music. Not that all my struggles are relatable — not that everybody’s are, but I think there’s a way to craft that narrative where people feel like there’s a bit of their story in there.
Your music seems like an outlet and a form of healing. Was there a song that was particularly hard to write?
Yeah, I think actually my first release, “Baggage”. I really struggled in lockdown. For me, it was really tough mentally losing connection with people, losing the friendships that anchored me when I was struggling.
I wrote that song pretty soon after lockdown, just about how isolated we all felt in that time and how important it is to have someone in your corner that you can reach out to and unpack all your baggage with and it’ll be a safe place. I think it’s really easy to think everybody has that. To have someone who you feel safe enough to be open with and talk to about things that feel kinda scary. That song for me was super important, that came out first. It’s not just about love for me. It’s kind of framed in a romantic way but it’s really about connection and struggle. I wanted people to hear it and think about love, but also maybe hear that underlying message. That was, to me, such a great first song to put out into the world.
You have a huge following on TikTok but, beyond numbers, you can see from the comments that your songs really resonate. Apart from having a means to share your songwriting, obviously, do you find comfort in people and these reactions — maybe get a different perspective that feeds back into your music?
I think you wouldn’t be using social media right if you didn’t look at the feedback on songs and kind of go with what people like and don’t like. Βut I think, for me, I built my TikTok through a place when I was really struggling. Ιt was my outlet to post covers back in 2019 and it wasn’t even about views at the time. I didn’t even tell my manager about it, I didn’t tell anyone I had TikTok. It was more of a dance app just before lockdown.
So it was really a place for me to sit down on a piano and just sing songs. They were sad songs. I think people really resonated with the emotion I’m able to express in my voice. I built that up knowing that, regardless of views, having a place where I can keep sharing that, put my own words, it was a comfort for sure. Not even an expectation of things going viral. More like showing people that journey everybody has in music.
It wasn’t like I met someone who catapulted me, it was really building things on my own with no help, opening doors that way and trying to show other young women that there is a possibility to get into music without having connections.
Is it easier for you to click on that button and share something really personal online — or is it harder to play it live, even if it’s to much smaller audiences?
It’s funny, I am someone who I wouldn’t say social media is something that I love. I love that it can bring people together and how it makes it so accessible to share music. But, for me, I’m quite shy in real life and I think I’ve had to spend a lot of time opening myself up. You have to share more and more and I wouldn’t even say I’m there yet. I’m always working on trying to get my personality across online— and it’s hard to find that balance, not oversharing but also people to feel like they’re getting the real me, not just covers.
Live, my voice has always been a bit like a protective mechanism. It feels like a safe way to share things. I would be much less likely to stand on stage and tell the stories, like, spoken. It feels like such a safe medium to get that across without it feeling like I’m super-vulnerable. Because music for me is such a sanctuary. I don’t really care about other people’s judgement because I’m sharing something that I know is so vulnerable and a lot of people know how hard that is to do. When people appreciate that, it just makes me wanna keep writing and keep performing.
So, your first EP, I Didn’t Think You’d Hear This. This can be translated either as something confessional that you didn’t think you’d be sharing — or maybe you didn’t think it’d reach that many people. How was the process of putting everything together? Did the experience match the expectations?
I think the name of the EP and the idea behind it came through the entire experience of even creating the music. I Didn’t Think You’d Hear This is the lesson I learned through creating a body of work for the first time. All the struggles I experienced with my mental health during that time, lockdown, having so many songs and lots of people being like, “When is the music coming?” And not having a label yet, or the funds to put stuff out, and still continuing to keep showing up and not giving up on myself.
Τhere are stories that I didn’t even think I’d get the chance to release. There’s gratitude in that statement of how lucky am I to have these songs out, produced by amazing producers. But also
things that are really vulnerable to share about navigating your early 20s as a young woman.
How difficult is it to find the right people to work on that kind of music especially, that is so vulnerable?
That’s a really good question. I’m very deep, I’m very emotional. I struggle with surface level, that’s why my songs are normally, you know, there’s always something at the core of them. I think my biggest problem has been finding people that I feel safe enough to even explore with. And it’s not something you can really predict. It’s really when you get into the room, you either feel that or you don’t. And that’s not to say you don’t have an amazing session or make a friend. There’s a specific feeling I get where I feel like I can really delve here, go down some deep holes and not feel judgement. I think that’s the main thing.
Cause if I write from a place of no fear, I think you hear that reflected in the writing. When you can relate, other people in the room can relate to me and I feel like I’m not alone here.
You played your first festival in Germany in October. Even established bands like Garbage stated recently that extensive touring has become unsustainable and warned that, if things don’t change, audiences will likely lose a generation of creative and adventurous artists as a result. What is your perspective as a young musician?
It’s getting harder and harder to be a musician and it can be a bit frightening, as a new artist, when you hear that even established artists are struggling to make money on tours. I think anyone in the industry knows how hard it is to make the money back, let alone a profit. I know it’s tough. I hope that one day artists feel like they can tour and not have to worry about using all their savings to do it.
Cause at the end of the day, it’s not just about the money. It’s about creating fans and bringing people on that journey. And as amazing as TikTok and Instagram are, there’s only so much you can do on those apps in terms of creating real fans, who actually love you and your music and wanna follow you on that journey.
I think that’s an issue lot of artists are facing, trying to find that balance between social media, and fans online, versus people who would actually travel across Europe to come and see you. Those are the kind of fans that are gonna buy your merch and show up. That’s my dream! People who see you and get excited for every release. Not to say there aren’t people like that on TikTok. But I think creating that almost-family feeling of support, and people who understand that being an artist comes with its own struggles, and having even a little bit of support makes the whole experience so much more fun in the beginning.
I think Ireland will be making a basic income for selected artists permanent after a successful pilot scheme. There is still reason to hope!
I’d better move to Ireland if it’s only there! My friends who are in music always say there aren’t many jobs in the world where you don’t get paid to show up. Like the hundreds of sessions— that’s how you know someone really loves it. If they’re still in it after years, that’s how you know it’s a passion. Because you’re not doing it for any expectation, it’s just a quiet hope. It’s so easy to look around and be like, “I’m not where everybody else my age is”, but I think there’s something so powerful in turning that noise down in your head and just listening to what you really want. No one else can make those decisions for you.
Were you ever offered an opportunity as a musician that sounded good on paper but you felt like you had to turn down?
I remember back in maybe 2021, I was offered a record deal from a label that was a JV [joint venture] of Sony. They were quite new and showed a lot of passion. I think a lot of people at 21 would have been like, “I have to sign this!”. It was a really good amount of money for my age. But I reflected and I remember thinking, something didn’t feel right in my gut. I didn’t feel like I had the music that was ready to go. And I feel like a lot of it was driven by social media. I wanted to find people who were like, “We love you regardless if something’s gonna go viral”.
I didn’t want a team around me who had that expectation always there, because you can’t control that. If we could, we all would. And I’m really glad I didn’t make that decision, because I ended up finding a team in Germany who support me regardless of social media. As important as it is, they want the live stuff in place. The German festival opportunities wouldn’t have come if I had signed that deal. My manager at the time was really pushing me to sign it, so it was hard. Ι don’t think that label exists anymore anyway. Looking back, it was a great decision.
You sang to over 5000 people at the Royal Albert Hall last December. How was that experience, what were some of your highlights this year — and how do you plan to build on this and take things to the next level?
It was really funny, I got a call from my old manager at the time, and it was about three days away. He said you’re booked to support Jamie Cullum at the Albert Hall on Friday, for example, and it was like, a Wednesday! At that time I’d only ever played just me and keys — playing myself. So we got a keys player in and we had about an hour before to play together and rehearse. So it’s all super last minute but we ended up smashing it. The first time I could stand on stage, didn’t have to worry about the piano, just sing and get all the emotions out. It was absolutely incredible! It was one of those moments where you think, “This is why you do this”. To see all these faces… ‘Baggage’ had just come out in October, so it was very early on to my EP coming out and it felt like a great way to to honour that.
Getting support from BBC Introducing has been really huge this year. It was something that I’d always really hoped, to get played on the radio. As a Londoner born and raised, getting support from the team in London is just amazing. Playing this German festival, I had a couple of fans who had come to see me — I think, at this stage, you don’t always think many people whowould do that. That made me think that I can’t wait to keep growing this.
Next step is really solidifying my live set-up. I’ve now got a band for the first time, which is amazing, so it’s not just me and piano. It’s drums and track, guitar to try and really emulate the tracks a bit better. Cause not all the songs are super sad and ballady. Having a track and drums to bring the energy, so the set feels like it’s got dynamics. I think an EP two is the next step, for sure.
