Macve’s musical roots go deep. Born in Galway, then raised in West Yorkshire, Holly was always surrounded by music. Her grandad was a classical composer. A singer herself, her mother imparted a love of blues and Bob Dylan before Holly discovered Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, Gillian Welch, and Nick Cave, among others. At 18, she moved to Brighton and worked in a café while singing on open mic nights and writing her debut album ''Golden Eagle', which was released in March, 2017.

“My vision was big,” says Brighton-based singer Holly Macve of the road to her second album. “I knew I wanted to do something more expansive than my first record.” With reach, feeling, storytelling power and a stop-you-dead voice, Macve sizes up to that mission boldly on Not The Girl, released May 2021. Following on from the rootsy saloon-noir conviction of her 2017 debut, Golden Eagle, Holly sets out for deeper, often darker territory with a firm, unhurried sense of direction on her second record: on all fronts, it’s an album that looks its upscaled ambitions in the eye fearlessly.