I meet Sienna Spiro in the lobby of the Ludlow Hotel on a hectic day. After being exiled from her room after staying (far) past the checkout time (“I thought they’d let me stay, but they kicked me out!”), she’s speaking to me, then running to a photo shoot, then finally flying home to London.
It’s no wonder she’s being pulled in all different directions: that’s what happens when you’re one of the most in-demand new names in music. It was only four years ago that Spiro dropped out of school to pursue singing and songwriting full-time; now, with 1.2 billion global streams already under her belt, the 20-year-old has released her debut album, Visitor, via Capitol Records. The project follows the runaway success of Spiro’s lead single, “Die on This Hill,” an aching, piano-driven ballad textured by her raspy contralto. (When Spiro performed it on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon earlier this year, she earned multiple applause breaks mid-song.)
Here, Spiro talks to Vogue about this magic moment.
Vogue: “Die on This Hill” is everywhere, your debut album is coming out, and you just sold out your world tour. Where is your head at these days?
Sienna Spiro: All I can think about right now is a chicken sandwich. [Laughs.] Since I’m visiting New York, Chick-fil-A is on my mind. But no, I’m just very, very grateful. I’m trying to be as present as I can and take it in, because I know this is not normal. I know this is not real life. It’s just very, very crazy.
Tell me about how “Die on This Hill” came to be, because I understand it was pretty much written by accident?
I was in LA and I was just scrolling, looking at YouTube videos, and I saw someone playing “Bohemian Rhapsody.” While I’m not amazing at the piano, I just felt the urge to learn it. I was trying to, and it just was not working at all, so I kind of gave up. The chords that I managed to figure out were wrong, but then I rearranged them, and then played those over and over again. Meanwhile, the phrase “die on this hill” was always something I wanted to write about, since it’s a saying, so I just started writing it over those chords. The next day, I remember I went into the studio with [producers] Omar Fedi and Michael [Pollack], who I met for the first time, and we ended up finishing it that day.
