British singer-songwriter Freya Ridings is back, but the journey to her third album, Mother of Pearl, was nearly derailed by a "toxic" professional environment and a crushing crisis of identity. In an intimate interview with BBC News, the "Lost Without You" star opened up about the defiance required to save her career.
Despite the success of her 2017 debut and her 2023 Top 10 album Blood Orange, Ridings revealed to the BBC that she felt "petrified" during previous recording sessions. Pressured into working with A-list producers in "masculine-dominated" studios, she felt her creative instincts were ignored. "I got hammered a little bit," she admitted. "It kind of broke my spirit."
The situation hit a breaking point when her label downsized and her relationship with her manager soured. Ridings describes a "full-on breakdown" during which she was dropped by her label—an experience she shared candidly with fans on Instagram.
The turning point came when Ridings discovered her management had discouraged a collaboration with Jen Decilveo (producer for Hozier), despite mutual interest. In a moment of rebellion, Ridings bought her own plane ticket to Los Angeles. "I felt like a naughty schoolchild," she told the BBC, "because this was the first time in a long time where I hadn't done exactly what I was told."
That year in LA served as a rebuilding period. Ridings road-tested new material in small cafés, refined her sound, and eventually partnered with a new team at BMG. The resulting album, Mother of Pearl (set for release on 29 May 2026), moves away from her signature sad ballads toward "rebellious" anthems like "Wild Horse" and "Euphoria."
While she hasn't entirely abandoned her heartfelt roots—including a song about how her parents met—Ridings tells the BBC she has finally found her "thunderstorm" again. The panic attacks have dissolved, replaced by a reclaimed sense of authority over her own art.
