The Shygirl revolution is coming.

Guest-starring in a Madonna video! On the big screen in Club Kid! Shygirl has been popping up all over pop culture this year. And now she’s releasing her much anticipated second album, Swallow!

Shygirl for Perfect Issue 11.

Photographer: Willy Vanderperre
Fashion Editor: Katie Grand
Writer: Murray Healy

Let the record show that this interview takes place on the hottest June day in British history. Out in the garden, in preparation for Operation Keep Shygirl Cool, the hose is being unwound and a paddling pool is ‘literally being blown up as we speak’. Not by Shygirl – she’s indoors, talking to me, enjoying the last day of a prolonged period at home in London, following a couple of years of seemingly endless travel which took her eminence truly international. In 2024 she supported Charli XCX and Troye Sivan on the North American leg of their joint tour, playing 22 stadium venues, before opening for Charli at arenas across the UK. And then in 2025 she took Club Shy – a Shygirl take on the ideal nightclub experience, fuelled by her two EPs of the same name – across five continents. In the midst of all this she found time to join the crew of indie cinema sensation Club Kid shooting in New York. So it has come as something of a culture shock, finally being home and staying in one place for the best part of four months. ‘It took me a second to acclimate,’ she says. ‘I was like, woooah, do I live here?!’ But not for much longer: tomorrow she’s flying off again, taking her Club Shy experience to San Francisco Pride.

And then she has a new album to promote. When we speak, it’s so early in the pre-release process that the preview link I’ve been sent is mysteriously labelled ‘SG LP2’, the title TBC. Its 11 tracks are of a markedly different texture to her Club Shy EPs and much of the electronic, dance floor-oriented output that preceded those. It’s as if she has stepped out of a hot, sweaty basement all-nighter into the dawn sunlight and fresh air of the British countryside. In parts you can almost picture her barefoot in the grass strumming a guitar. There are string quartets, choral arrangements, cathedral acoustics, the scratch of fingertip on fretboard, even the tinkle of what sounds like a harpsichord.

For all its indie-folky flavour, every track on the album still makes sense on the dance floor: she’s never going to leave the club entirely behind, she says, as ‘it’s kind of in the infrastructure of my music.’ Indeed, she’s been secretly road-testing some of her new material on audiences at Club Shy and other DJ sets. ‘The first track on the album, “Alyse”, I’ve actually played at Glastonbury two years in a row, a really early demo version. I was tweaking it and changing things, using the crowd to figure out what I needed from this song.’ Song, not track – significantly, she approached this album as an exercise in songwriting. As she notes, she has proven time and again that she knows how to write a killer hook. But this time she wanted to see if she could master song composition in a more formal sense – creating something that, if you stripped away the production and played it on piano or guitar, ‘you’d see that there’s a real song here’.

This focus on melody seems to have inspired a change in Shygirl’s voice too, in both its acoustic range and emotional scope. ‘I endeavoured to sing as much in my range as possible, so that when I’m live I don’t feel like I’m putting on effects, I’m really speaking from an earnest place.’ When she listens to the new album, ‘It sounds like me, you know. I’m not trying to be Mariah Carey, I’m not trying to be anyone else.’ The intimately personal nature of the lyrics demanded that she find her own voice. ‘Even when I’ve played it to my parents or my aunt or whoever, they’re like, “Oh, I can really hear you” – the person they know.’

I couldn’t help noticing that most of the lyrics on the new album are about romantic love.

Yeah, that was definitely my starting point. I was turning 30, I fell in love – like, a big love for that first time, and now I know what that even is and what that means for me. I think that’s in the heart of this record – me just speaking from that place and being like, it’s great to put yourself out there to say that you want love, that you want to be loved. And in all the ways, not just romantically. The things that got me here were my friendships and my family and the things I hold dear to me. And also, my perseverance for my own desires – that’s something I’ve spoken about in all my records and something I’ve really said never to be ashamed of. And this album is me saying, I have proof, you know (laughs) – it works!

There’s also a very ethereal, almost spiritual quality – in the music, in the lyrics and even in some of the titles: ‘Altar’, ‘Sublime’, ‘Eternal’, ‘Mantra’. Is that deliberate?

Yeah, because it felt biblical! In that way where you’re like, oh my God, I understand why Shakespeare writes like this. I understand how people can think they’ve heard the word of God and can believe blindly in something. It felt big and dramatic, and the only thing I know that feels as big or sometimes unbelievable as that is religion. Like, oh God, I’m in this cult of being in love now!

Who else have you got singing on the album? I can hear other voices in some of the tracks, but I can’t place them.

So on ‘Alyse’, er… my boyfriend’s actually singing. Which is no small thing, to invite someone you’re dating onto a track. (Laughs) He’s an actor, he’s never sung before, officially – obviously I’ve heard him singing in the shower. We were working on that song in LA, and I don’t like people just hanging around the studio if they’re not doing something. I was like, ‘Here, take the mic, I’ve written this’ – and the first take is what we used. On ‘Eternal’, the broader melodies are from Cosha, the ones that kind of sound like Madonna’s ‘Frozen’-esque vocals. On ‘Mantra’, the high, high chorals are [the album’s producer] Karma Kid’s. But yeah, everything else is me and my own vocal range and exploration.

Is there a title yet for the album?

Yeah, it’s called Swallow! Like, ‘swallow’ as an action. I wanted this to feel like an action, not just to be sitting in my feelings; that there’s a forward motion somehow towards something, towards the future.

How far along are you with planning its rollout? Have you decided which song will be the first single yet?

Yeah, it’s ‘Alyse’. Actually, that used to be called ‘Alice’, but ‘Alyse’ felt a bit more pagan and Old English. I think this record really does reflect my identity as a Brit, and what it means to be British. There’s a real British, Britpop influence in this record, especially with ‘Mantra’ and ‘Lucky’ and ‘Eternal’. They really feel like what I imagine to be British in music. And some of the titling was kind of around that, about feeling ye olde English.

And a tour soon?

Yeah, hopefully a tour next year. I feel like I’ve been at home for the most part of this year, so I’m ready to be outside (laughs).

At the start of this year it felt like you’d been touring for ages. Before Club Shy, you were supporting Charli and Troye on their joint international arena tour.

Yeah. I was literally never home! I’d come home, change my suitcase and go.

Was the Club Shy project informed by playing those massive stadium venues?

For sure – I’d never been in those environments. I hadn’t been to many arena shows – my scene is way more underground. I’d only been to see like Rosalía and Lady Gaga. So being on the other side of that was really interesting. I never really imagined myself performing in arenas or being that type of artist. I never imagined any of this, to be honest. I’m pretty much just taking it as it comes. So that experience has kind of broadened what I can think of for myself.

You always seem so confident and relaxed on stage. Was it nerve-wracking, suddenly playing to crowds of 20,000+?

No – because I was support! That’s really helpful, to be honest – I was like, I’m just having fun. Also, when it’s that big, you can’t even see everyone. I did another arena performance in Paris for an Adidas partnership [in September 2025] and being able to have huge production and flames and screens, it’s like being at your own Disneyland. In that respect, you’re like, woooo! Like, you actually have to do less, which is interesting. But I love that my style of performance is carved out from the smaller spaces, from the intimacy, because that is what I try to cultivate in that bigger space. It’s a nice challenge.

It can’t be easy to make that shift in scale.

Yeah. When I’ve been thinking about touring this album, what I want from that performance for myself, I want to feel like I’m one of the audience, I want to enjoy it just like everyone else. Like, I want to be more on the ground, in the middle. I want to feel totally surrounded and overindulged – that’s what I get from this album, so I want to recreate that viscerally.

And you’ve taken performing to new places by acting in Club Kid.

Yeah… (Laughs) I wouldn’t say I was acting, I was pretty much playing myself – it wasn’t a heavy lift. But it’s definitely something I’ve been excited about exploring. When you’re the front-facing artist, it’s hard, because you’re the one that has to be accountable – it’s your face when it comes to your music. So honestly, it’s so nice to be able to dabble in someone else’s world.

Talking of dabbling in someone else’s world, I have to ask you about being in Madonna’s Confessions II video – you were in the studio being shot for Perfect when you saw the finished film for the first time.

Yeah, which is really funny, because you just have to like trust. I’d worked with Torso Solutions [directors David Toro and Solomon Chase] before and it was so nice: there were so many people on set who I knew and loved, like Archie Madekwe. I was actually sat in the make-up chair next to Benedict Cumberbatch, which is not someone I knew before that moment – it was so funny. And who else was behind me? Cole Palmer. It was just so random. Only someone like Madonna can bring all these people in the same room and be all aligned, you know? And also just blindly trust. Half of us didn’t even know what we were going to be doing until we got there. But when someone of that calibre calls, you just turn up. And everyone knows that her music has been such an influence for me. She was honestly really lovely, so welcoming, and made everyone feel so comfortable.

How did you get involved? Was it a formal invitation that came to you from her people, or did someone just text you?

Yeah, [Madonna’s stylist] Mel Ottenberg actually sent me a voice note being like, ‘Oh, Madonna’s been trying to get in touch with you – are you ignoring her?’ Which is funny, because I’m also good friends with [Madonna’s daughter] Lola. So I’ve been to the house before for dinner and stuff, but that feels way more like going to your mate’s house and seeing your mate’s mum. But when it comes to work, we do go through the formal channels sometimes, to respect that life-work separation. But yeah, it came through Mel Ottenberg. I was like, ‘No, I’m not ignoring her. I have not received that message!’ (Laughs) ‘But it’s fine.’

It’s 10 years almost to the day since you released your first track, isn’t it?

I know – I didn’t realise that until the other day. I was like, God, it goes by so quick.

You kind of fell into all of this almost by accident, didn’t you?

Yeah – I mean, (profound whisper) there’s never any accidents… (Laughs) But yeah, I just was having fun. I wasn’t being like, oh, I want to be an artist. I was like, I just want to make music, I just want to have a go. I’ve always been around musicians – at school I had a lot of friends that were at BRIT School. I didn’t go to BRIT School, but I lived in South London and everyone was hanging out with each other. I went to loads of open nights, but I would usually be the one photographing or videoing things. That was my main interest before music, being a videographer and editing. I was working at a model agency when Sega [Bodega] asked me, ‘Do you want to record this?’ Because I’d been bugging him, like, ‘I want to hang out in the studio, I want to see what you do and just record some shit, it’ll be fun.’ And he asked me, and then I just never stopped. So yeah. Everyone gets that imposter syndrome, but I really do feel like a civilian that just walked off the street.

Has there been a point – especially when you’re playing those big stadium audiences – where you think, oh my God, I’ve become this global pop star?

Nooo! I feel like such a Del Boy character. I’m like, ‘Woooo! This is so fun!’ Literally, I feel like someone who works at Butlin’s – that’s how I feel in my head. I’m always thinking about my own enjoyment, of me having fun. [And if] someone’s passed me the mic, it’s so easy to sing my own songs. Like, I rarely ever do karaoke – I hate covering other people’s songs. Then it really feels like you’re trying to be an artist, right? But when I’m doing my own songs, I’m just being me.

As your career as a musical artist has developed, have any specific ambitions emerged that you still want to achieve?

No, I think I’m just open. I’m constantly just pulling the thread of my interests, and the more I uncover, the more there is to have fun with. I never thought I could make a record like [Swallow!] when I first started. And for me, this record really sounds, like, real. (Laughs) Like, this is real music, in a weird way. And I don’t know why – the other stuff is as well. But I think it’s because that was so unintentional, and this is way more intentional: I was like, I want to hear the strings like this, I want to hear the guitar like this, I want to play this. In the last couple of months I’ve been working on a film score as well. There’s so many things now where I’m like, OK, I’m actually someone who makes music. (Laughs) In no way do I feel… qualified still. I don’t know – I think someone listening to this record would never think that I’d never studied music in my life, you know, that I’d just done it on the job. And I feel really proud about that. I feel really happy, and I just want to keep challenging myself and making sure I’m putting myself in the right spaces to be challenged.