HOLLY NICHOLSON ENTERS A NEW ERA WITH RAW, UNFILTERED SINGLE i forget we’re friends

UK pop-rock riser Holly Nicholson opens 2026 with the emotional gut-punch i forget we’re friends — a track built on raw honesty, angsty guitars and unfiltered vulnerability. Already a fan favourite at live shows, the single signals a bold step away from heartbreak era, pushing into grittier pop-rock territory while doubling down on emotionally direct storytelling.

Written in a single burst of instinct and emotion, the track captures the isolating tension of loving someone you can’t have — setting the tone for a more personal, more fearless creative chapter as Holly builds toward her sophomore EP.

Below, Holly talks about the emotion behind the song, the instinctive writing process, her evolving sound and what this next era means for 2026.

“i forget we’re friends” captures a very specific kind of ache — loving someone you can’t have. What made you want to explore that tension between desire and restraint in this song?

I never set out to write this song, it doesn’t have any previous iterations. This song is a pure unfiltered look into what I was going through at the time. I was at war with myself and my thoughts became loud. I hoped that writing this song would help bring some clarity to the thoughts that overwhelmed me and help me decide what to do, but it didn’t. The tension you feel in the song is a direct representation of what I was feeling.

You’ve said the track came out in a single, thirty-minute rush. How did writing so instinctively change the way you connected to the song compared to more considered writing sessions?

I’m usually very prone to overthinking but I never got a chance to do that in writing this, I just let the lyrics pour out, I couldn’t shy away from my feelings. I find that there’s an honesty in moments like that that you can’t get when you sit down to explicitly write a song. I momentarily disconnected with reality and I think it's immediately clear when you listen that this song was written differently.

Sonically, this feels like a shift toward a grittier pop-rock edge. How intentional was this move, and how does it reflect the sound you want to claim as your own going forward?

I love how unapologetic and sharp rock music can be, and how delicate yet powerful pop music can be, especially lyrically. It was always the big guitars I loved whilst building ‘heartbreak era’, and I knew going into ‘i forget we’re friends’ and my sophomore EP that I wanted to bring them to the forefront and lean into more of a rock edge. Going forward, you can definitely expect a lot more of everything ‘i forget we’re friends’ encompasses.

The song has already become a fan favourite at live shows. How does performing something this emotionally raw in front of an audience change the way you experience it?

It’s hard to be so blatantly honest and vulnerable on stage, especially when sharing something new with a room full of people. I know what the song means to me, but seeing the new meanings fans have given it and their reactions to it, has changed everything for me. I’m always in awe of how many people connect with the lyrics and the displays of emotion throughout the crowds. It’s made it a lot easier to share my vulnerabilities and look forward to everything that comes next. Witnessing different interpretations of songs is a beautiful thing, everyone takes something different from each lyric and that’s very inspiring to me, it makes me feel much less alone.

As this single opens the door to a new era and your sophomore EP, what do you want listeners to understand about where you’re headed creatively in 2026?

To me, this song is very clearly separated from ‘heartbreak era’, it’s doing something new, and my upcoming music will keep this going. The writing sessions for my second record have already become a lot more emotionally raw and personal, it’s going to explore more intimate topics that I’d usually be a little terrified of talking about, but this song and its acceptance has given me the confidence to open up. The honesty of ‘i forget we’re friends’ is unmistakable in my new music.

I’m also working in a new way for my next record, ‘heartbreak era’ initially came together in a live setting whereas this next EP is being created entirely in the studio. We’re working on every track from a blank canvas, which is allowing us to be more creative in how we work. I’m really excited to start sharing more of what I’ve been working on. I have shared an acoustic version of one of the songs a couple of times, but no one knows where it’ll end up. ‘i forget we’re friends’ gave us an opportunity to explore a new sound ahead of the second EP, it's definitely something that will become more associated with me going forward.