Having just been signed to Matt Maltese‘s independent Last Recordings on Earth label, 21-year old singer-songwriter Hetta Falzon is a true rising star. Combining the tenderness and vulnerability of Norah Jones, Lizzy McAlpine, and Joni Mitchell in her music, Hetta is making her break into the industry, releasing her first two singles ‘Sobering‘ and ‘Freckles‘. With several new projects in the works, Hetta spoke about her music journey so far and discussed how she’s navigating these huge life changes at the same time as finishing her degree at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Whilst Hetta Falzon is no stranger to songwriting and performing, with nearly a decade of experience under her belt, this last year has seen her skyrocket into a world of recognition and remarkable success, reaching a notable career landmark in July as she released ‘Freckles’ under Matt Maltese’s Last Recordings on Earth. For Hetta, signing with a label was “just something I thought was never going to happen”, referring to her now-reality as “a pipe dream”. “When he [Maltese] launched the label, I was like, this is my dream label”, says Hetta, with palpable gratitude and surprise in her own achievements.
Her older sister, however, had seen the success coming, gifting Hetta with a bottle of prosecco when she moved to Manchester for her studies in 2022, labelled ‘for when you get signed’. After several years of believing it was “a waste of alcohol”, Hetta finally had the chance to crack open the bottle – celebrating this landmark achievement with her sister.
Hetta highlights the struggle for independent artists navigating the industry, initially trying to find a manager and thinking that “management will make things happen for me, which was so wrong… [because] I feel like management can only help you when you’re already making things happen for yourself”. Discussing her journey to getting signed, Hetta said that she felt stuck: “I was just like, I can’t do anything until I have a manager; I can’t release music until I have a manager. But, all the managers were just like ‘there’s nothing to manage'”.
As a self-proclaimed “fuck you” to those managers, Hetta decided to “give them something to manage”, posting snippets of her songs on TikTok and amassing a fanbase that was desperate for the release of her first single, ‘Sobering’. After independently releasing the track, which has already reached over 575,000 streams on Spotify, she experienced “the first point where people were reaching out”, and was launched into discussions with “industry people, and labels and management”.
Signing with Last Recordings on Earth occurred after Hetta was put into writing sessions with Maltese, who is the young artist’s “favourite songwriter in the world”. “Every single song that I love, I go on the credits and I’m like, of course Matt’s written this. He’s on everything that I love,” says Hetta, reminiscing on the incredible experience of writing with him, and reflecting on being mind-blown when signed to his label. “It was so hard to tell who was just talking the talk and who actually, like, cared. But, being signed to a label where my A&R [Artists and Repertoire representative] is an artist whose taste I love, visually and sonically, I was just like ‘I trust you and I trust your instincts’… it’s mad, I actually can’t believe it”.
Whilst Hetta is continuing her studies, about to start her final year in Popular Music at RNCM, she’s just recently moved to London. Avoiding the cliché of ‘making it in the big city’, Hetta says, “I haven’t moved to London because I think I’m gonna make it. I’m moving to London because I’ve been down here every day since January, and I was going crazy not going back to my own bed and not feeling like I was living in a stable environment. I’m just moving because it’s where I am and I need to stay sane”.
Despite these huge career milestones, Hetta seems surprisingly relaxed in her demeanour, grateful that she has friends who are also navigating these changes with her, such as artist Hamish who has recently supported Cults and JP Cooper. “It’s so great because I’m working but I feel like I’m still at uni; I’m still surrounded by people I know”.
Hetta also cites a weekly hour of yoga as another “rogue” trick to keep her sane, saying “I started going to yoga because I was like, I need an hour a week where I’m not checking my phone and where I’m just prioritising myself. It’s made such a big difference to me feeling stable… I very much do it for the mindfulness, not for the exercise”.
Along with moving to London, getting signed, and releasing music, Hetta has also been busy supporting other artists such as Tom Odell, Cian Ducrot, and Matilda Mann, just to name a few. With her rising success and popularity, it’s no surprise that Hetta is now playing these bigger venues – her favourite in Manchester being the O2 Ritz where she supported Joshua Bassett. “It’s been wild,” Hetta comments, expressing her gratitude for these new and exciting opportunities.
With each new gig being “different every time”, it’s fair to say that opening isn’t always the easiest experience; “being the opener, I don’t expect people to listen to me…but my music is very much like, if you talk over it, I’m gonna hear you”. However, Hetta says that she’s “not a dweller” when it comes to difficult gigs, which might be a surprise to hear considering her incredibly self-reflective style of music; “as long as I had a good time and did a good job, I don’t really mind how the audience receive it. What I hate is when I feel like I haven’t done a good job”.
As of late, despite her apparent calmness in the face of these huge life changes, Hetta admits she has been personally struggling with her own voice in an unexpected and candid self-dissection. “At the moment, I’m kind of struggling… I’m not like loving my voice or my performance as much as normal. I think it’s just a phase, but I’m listening back to recordings and being like, ‘I don’t like what I’m doing’. I don’t know how to fix it and that’s just something I haven’t figured out how to manage yet… My voice changes depending on my menstrual cycle. So, some gigs, pitching is harder and I’m like ‘what?’ I can’t even do anything about that. I think I’ll learn how to… I’ll get there”.
This seems particularly challenging for an artist for whom the performance-side of music is incredibly important when it comes to trialling and perfecting their work. “I sort of write the tune or the song so it’s finished, and then I’ll play it live and then that’s kind of where it find its dynamic shape, and the way I deliver it is something I can only really discover live”. It therefore made sense to record ‘Freckles’, released in July 2025, in just four live takes, although the song had been circulating for a while already.
Alongside her singles, Hetta has been performing an incredible set of songs for several years now, with the tunes often taking on different shapes and forms, such as in jazz or orchestral variations. When it came to making more permanent iterations of her songs, Hetta decided that she wanted each single to be “the purest version”, hopefully allowing her to release alternate versions in the future, which would be her “dream”. The artist also dreams of collaborating with music icons such as Loyle Carner or Fred again.., saying “I love that music but I would never make it, so that’s the dream”.
Finally releasing ‘Freckles’ after writing the song in her first year of university, Hetta said “putting it out has been amazing, but I’m just like such a different person musically… it’s kind of the case with a lot of these first songs, they’re all quite old and I’ve been finding ways to re-fall in love with them. It’s quite a weird thing to be putting it on Spotify because it feels like I’m saying ‘this is me now’, but not very many of the songs I’m putting out are ones that I still really resonate with. They’ll feel new to other people, but they feel so old to me”.
That’s why, for Hetta, her second project, which she’s been writing this summer, is “so exciting… it’s a lot more me and like real, I think”. To hear that there are two more projects coming out is very exciting for listeners, for whom all of Hetta’s music feels incredibly real; she is capable of writing some truly gut-wrenching lyrics, and the intimacy and vulnerability of her music is a standout element of her artistry. Hetta perfectly captures what it is like to be a yearning, twenty-something year old, and whilst she may only have released two songs as of yet, she’s been writing similarly introspective music since she was in her early teens. “All of the songs are [still] about boys, but they’re a lot more about, like, how I process things. They’re all very self-reflective and inward looking… I feel like they’re all just actually about me”.
Although her material might not’ve changed too much, it’s taken a while for Hetta to settle on her sound, which is surprising to hear from an artist who has such a cohesive and well-honed repertoire. “At school, I used to write the kind of stuff that I’m doing now, but then I got to uni and was like ‘whoa, musicians! I guess I have to utilise them’, and I started making like neo-soul, jazz pop, upbeat songs… but now I’m completely back where I started, which is such a weird thing to me”.
Finding her voice again and returning to her roots of tender and intimate song-writing, Hetta’s music is a true practice in self-reflection. Many of her unreleased songs such as ‘Get a Grip’ and ‘I Hope You Notice Me’ are particularly raw and self-reflective, with fans hoping they’ll be on the upcoming releases. Hetta cites her more vulnerable songs as her “favourite ones to talk about and [her] favourite ones to play live”; “the more vulnerable I am in the song, the more joy it brings me to play or the more therapeutic it is for me”. She is a self-proclaimed Notes app lover, and explains that song-writing has always been a way for her to process things.
Whilst some song-writers might claim to write music for their audiences, Hetta is honest in saying that “I’m a very selfish musician. I never really write songs thinking about how it’s going to affect people. I’m very much like ‘what does this make me feel?'”. It’s likely for this reason that her music is able to be so raw and honest, which in turn is what the audience connects with most.
Writing such sensitive music, and performing them for people to have their own interpretations and opinions is something that the artist enjoys, but is also still adjusting to as her following increases; “I’m writing a song at the moment which is so vulnerable and I’m like ‘I can’t post this’. But, I feel like that’s when I should because other people like, need to hear it or can connect with it…but also other people can perceive it in a different way and like, that’s the only thing with the vulnerable songs is that everyone’s got their own perception with it and everyone can run with it”.
As she navigates the progression in her career, Hetta clearly believes that there is still a lot for her to learn, honest in her struggles whilst also proud of her achievements. Maturing musically and artistically, Hetta continues to write beautifully candid music which is able to strike a chord with so many listeners, even if you’ve not had your heart broken recently. It’ll be exciting to hear Hetta’s new projects over the coming months. It’s incredibly special to be able to watch a star be born in real time, and, in a few years, it’s certain there’ll be no need for introduction; there’s no doubt that Hetta Falzon will continue to shine brightly in the singer-songwriter scene.
