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1. Hi Molly, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?
Thank you so much for having me! I’ve been really good. It’s been a pretty crazy few weeks with releasing Eyes Wide Open, touring and seeing all the reaction to the EP. It’s been a long time coming, so I’m trying to actually take a minute to enjoy it all!
2. So you’re back with your new record Eyes Wide Open, which I read you’ve mentioned how it plays like a record about reaching a point where you finally see yourself and your life more clearly. Was there a specific moment or experience that made you realize you were entering this new chapter?
I don’t think there was one huge moment where everything suddenly changed. It was more a collection of experiences and getting a little older and wiser! I think I reached a point where I stopped worrying quite so much about what everyone else thought I should be doing, both in music and in life. I started trusting my own instincts more and realised that I actually know myself better than I thought I did. That’s really where Eyes Wide Open came from – seeing things for what they are and being more comfortable with who I am.
3. You describe this as your most honest and most “me” music yet. What did being completely honest with yourself look like when you were writing these five songs?
It meant not trying to make myself sound perfect. There are moments on this EP where I’m insecure, confused, completely in love, angry, empowered – all the things we probably feel but don’t always want to admit. I think in the past I might have filtered some of that or tried to wrap everything up neatly in a song. With these five tracks, I wanted to let each emotion be what it was. Musically, I also stopped overthinking where I fitted genre-wise and just followed what excited me. That’s probably why it feels the most “me” out of anything I’ve released.
4. The EP moves through self-doubt, love, vulnerability, empowerment, and acceptance. Did you intentionally build that emotional progression, or did the story of the EP reveal itself as you put the songs together?
It definitely revealed itself afterwards. I didn’t sit down and decide I was going to write an EP with this exact journey. The songs were written at different points and came from different experiences, but when we started putting them together, I realised there was this thread running through all of them. It almost documented my own growth without me consciously trying to do that. Once I saw that, the whole idea of Eyes Wide Open suddenly made sense.
5. “Am I The One For You?” and “Better Me” immediately suggest a tension between seeking validation and finding confidence within yourself. How has your relationship with external validation changed while making this record?
I think I’ve become much less reliant on it. When you’re younger – and especially when you work in music – it’s so easy to measure yourself by other people’s reactions. Streams, followers, playlists, what people think of a song, whether somebody in the industry likes you. Obviously those things still matter to me, but I’m much better now at separating them from how I actually feel about myself and my music. Am I The One For You? is almost asking someone else for that reassurance, whereas Better Me feels much more like recognising your own worth. That shift probably sums up a lot of the EP.
6. Your influences range from KT Tunstall and Fleetwood Mac to Florence + The Machine. What is it about the guitar that allows you to express emotions that perhaps your voice or lyrics alone can’t?
The guitar has always felt like an extension of songwriting for me. I started playing and performing when I was really young, so picking up a guitar is still one of the quickest ways for me to get an emotion out without overthinking it. Sometimes a chord progression or the way you play something can tell you what the song is about before you’ve even written the lyric. KT Tunstall has always been a huge inspiration to me for that reason – there’s so much personality and energy in the way she plays. Then I love the textures of Fleetwood Mac and the huge emotional feeling you get from Florence + The Machine. I think all of those influences have found their way into my sound in different ways.
7. You’ve spent years relentlessly gigging and have now played festivals like Kendal Calling and The Great Escape, as well as touring with Lucy Spraggan. How has performing these songs live influenced the way you write and record them?
Massively. Playing live is such a big part of who I am as an artist, so when I’m recording now I’m always thinking about how a song is going to feel in a room full of people. Touring with Lucy Spraggan and playing festivals like Kendal Calling has definitely made me want those bigger moments – the choruses people can sing back, the builds, the moments where the band really kicks in. You learn very quickly when you play live which parts connect with people. I still want the songs to feel intimate and honest, but I also love making something that can turn into this massive moment on stage.
8. You’ve said how the title Eyes Wide Open has a pretty powerful meaning, stopping yourself from seeing life through someone else’s perspective and finally seeing it through your own. Was that something you understood while writing the EP, or did you only recognize it once the songs were finished?
It was definitely something I recognised once the songs were together. I think I was living through that change while I was writing them without necessarily having the words for it. When I looked back at the five songs, I could suddenly see this journey from questioning myself and looking for answers elsewhere to becoming much more confident in my own perspective. Eyes Wide Open just summed that up perfectly. It’s about taking those blinkers off and realising that you don’t have to live your life through somebody else’s expectations.
9. “Shout Louder” seems like a particularly fitting title for a record centered around finding your voice and confidence. What does “shouting louder” mean to you personally at this point in your life?
For me it doesn’t necessarily mean being the loudest person in the room. It’s more about not making yourself smaller to make other people comfortable. Shout Louder came from that frustration of being spoken down to or feeling like your voice isn’t being taken seriously. At this point in my life, shouting louder means standing behind what I believe in, trusting myself and not being afraid to take up a bit of space. I think I’ve become much more comfortable doing that as I’ve got older.
10. You’ve built a following through years of live shows and now have more than a million streams. Has reaching that level of recognition changed what you expect from yourself creatively, or are you still approaching music with the same instincts you had when you started?
There’s definitely more pressure because you’re aware that people are actually waiting to hear what you do next, which is an amazing position to be in. But I try really hard not to let numbers into the room when I’m writing. I still want that feeling I had at the beginning where you pick up a guitar, find something that excites you and follow it. If anything, having people listen to the music has given me more confidence to trust those instincts rather than trying to chase what I think people want from me. The goal is still to write a song that makes me feel something first.
11. If Eyes Wide Open represents the clearest version of Molly Warburton so far, what do you think this version of yourself is finally ready to say that the Molly who wrote your earlier music wasn’t ready to say?
Probably: this is who I am, and I’m happy with that. I think earlier versions of me were still trying to work everything out – what kind of artist I should be, what people expected from me and whether I was doing things “right.” I don’t think I feel that same need anymore. I know the music I want to make, I know the kind of artist I want to be, and I’m much more comfortable admitting that I don’t have everything figured out either. Eyes Wide Open feels like me trusting myself enough to say all of that without apologising for it.
