For an artist who is yet to release her debut album, Sienna Spiro talks about the music industry with the air of an artist who has been around much longer.
“Women are absolutely not treated equally behind the scenes, in management, labels, studios, everywhere…” she said, in Music Week’s latest cover feature, as we met the artist the whole world is talking about.
“The term ‘boys club’ is very, very, true,” Spiro continued. “It’s really alarming to see, and the further I’ve gone in my journey, the more I’ve noticed it. I really hope [things will improve], and they have changed for women who are front-facing and in the public eye. But I think the way women get treated behind the scenes is just awful.”
Joined by manager Miriam Maslin, Capitol Music Group CEO and chairman Tom March and the company’s president Lillia Parsa, the London singer touched on a range of issues as part of a discussion of the huge campaign for Visitor, her debut record which arrives on July 3 via Capitol.
March, meanwhile, speaks exclusively in this month's edition of The Music Week Interview, which you can read in full here.
Also in Spiro's crosshairs, was AI.
“I think AI music is shit,” Spiro said. “Like, it’s just never going to be good. I’m not really sure why someone would use it, rather than just using their brain. Why would anyone want to listen to an AI song?”
Expanding on her point, the singer explained herself further.
“I love real instruments, real music, doing things that feel human,” she said. “In the music that I love, you can hear the mistakes, the human fuck-ups that AI would never be able to replicate, and that is what real music and musicianship is.”
This week, it was announced that Spiro has sold out her forthcoming My House world tour, which is set to hit North America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Europe.
All 135,000 tickets sold instantly during pre-sale last week, as did the further dates Spiro announced.
Her biggest UK hit remains No.9 smash Die On This Hill, which has 687,218 sales according to the Official Charts Company. The track also breached the Top 10 of Spotify’s global chart, while in March, Die On This Hill, The Visitor and You Stole The Show were in the Hot 100 in the US at the same time. Material Lover, meanwhile, is currently in the UK Top 20.
“This is in-credible, what’s happening in my life and in my career,” Spiro told Music Week of her rise. “I’m 20. This is not normal for a 20-year-old.”
Spiro’s rise has been fired by TikTok, where she has more than four million followers and 130.5m likes. The singer, who is a jazz aficionado, didn’t mince her words on the subject of social media, either.
“It’s just this generation, to be honest – my generation,” she said. “Everything’s so quick. But I don’t think that way; if you do, then you are fuelling the fire. It’s unhealthy for any musician to think that way.”
Spiro also told us that she “will always do my own personal social media just ’cause I’m a control freak”, and had some advice for her fellow artists.
“Make what you want, what you think will last, what you love, what you feel like you’ll never grow out of,” she said. “I think when you do that, people gravitate towards authenticity – they just do. We’re humans. It’s nature.”
Spiro also looked back on her path into the business, which began as a student at ELAM.
“I’ve known this is what I wanted to do my whole life, and that I would do anything to make it work,” she reflected. “After my GCSEs, I found ELAM, didn’t get in, then emailed them as many times as it took for me to be allowed in. Also, I had no other choice. I left my other school and I didn’t apply anywhere else, so I had to get in!”
While studying there, she met Miriam Maslin, who now manages Sprio at Method Music and discovered her on TikTok.
“I did a bunch of meetings the week she reached out, and I was chatting so much shit because I had no idea what I was talking about,” Spiro told us. “I’d just never met anyone like her. I knew I wanted to work with women, and she was so inspiring and hardworking, and our visions were so aligned.”
Spiro spoke about the importance of the relationship between artists and their managers.
“I think a lot of people sometimes get distracted by new, shiny things, and Miriam doesn’t,” she explained. “She’s completely my teammate and my equal. Maybe you just see my face in this, but it’s us two completely. Having someone there who protects and supports you, who is aligned with your vision and cares about you, the things around you and your artistry, is so important.”
Spiro is notably signed out of the US, where she is enjoying working with March, Parsa and the Capitol team.
“I mean, all my favourites were signed to Capitol – The Beatles, Frank Sinatra... I love all that,” she said. “And I really wanted [their logo] on my vinyl, you know?”
“I love that one of the heads is a woman in Lillia, that was a really big reason for me,” Spiro added. “I was very upfront about who I am and what I want to do, and they’ve allowed me to do what I want, and keep my vision. I’m very grateful for that.”
Now, Spiro and her team are looking ahead with hope that she can cement a position as another global breakthrough act from the UK.
The singer spoke of the “rise of amazing musicians who use real instrumentation and are very honest, a lot of whom are British”.
“It is refreshing to hear,” she added. “And British music is so important. Some of the greatest artists in the world have been British: The Beatles, Adele, Amy Winehouse… There’s an honesty and integrity to British music that is important. I really love when the world discovers a new British artist, and I feel very honoured to be British and be part of people recognising British music.”
Read the full interview in the new issue of Music Week, subscribers can find it online here.
PHOTOS: Amy Catarinozzi, Mathias Apap
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