INTERVIEW: Allie Sherlock discusses life on tour and new single ‘I Don’t Need Saving’

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us while you’re currently on tour! How’s it all going so far? 

No worries! Yeah, it’s going great. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s a lot of work. I’m tired at the moment, but it’s so worth it, getting to go on the stage every night. 

You’re currently in Europe but then you’ve got the UK leg starting next week – what can your UK fans expect from these shows?

A great time hopefully! I’ve been working on a lot of new music so there’s going to be some released original music, songs that are already out like my past four singles, but then I’ve got some unreleased music that I like to play as well. Then you know I always throw in a few covers because you know, it’s my thing, I’ve always been doing covers but this is kind of a stepping stone into transitioning from totally covers to covers and originals, but trying to focus on the original music. 

Absolutely, I guess it’s just a good chance to be able to try out new songs and things that fans haven’t heard yet?

Yeah, definitely. I always like to try out new songs and see how people react to them. If they have a good reaction, I release them and if they don’t then I’m just like “yup, throw that one in the bin” haha.

When you’re out on tour, what are some of the comforts that you need while you’re away from home?

The main thing for me is that I have some things from home, like simple things. I like to have my own pillows and duvet and just like my skincare and shampoo that I always use. Otherwise, I just feel like… I don’t even know the word for it. I just feel horrible all the time. I just need something to give me some comfort. That’s it really. I’m really not particular, like there’s nothing crazy on my rider. I just want some sparkling water and a little bit of chocolate!

That makes sense, especially when you’ve been on the road for a lot of this year! As well as your own tour, you’ve supported Tom Grennan and shared stages with the likes of The Script and Olly Murs. What would you say has been like your touring highlight of 2025? 

It’s all been amazing but I think my biggest achievement was supporting Macklemore because I had tickets to see him and then I got the email asking to support him. I was like, this is crazy! I was almost like, you know, the genres don’t really match, why do they want me? Is this a joke? Is it a scam? But it was real and it was insane. I got to play in my own city, Cork and in Dublin. But even The Script and Tom Grennan were amazing. Tom Grennan is genuinely so sweet and he was so good to us and I had the best time. They were all amazing!

You have spoken a bit about releasing new music, and you’ve just released your latest single, ‘I Don’t Need Saving’. Can you tell us a little bit about it and the inspiration behind it? 

I went into the studio that day and we were trying out so many different things. Nothing was really working. I was writing with Joey [Eighty] and Josh [Carruthers] and they were like, ‘tell me what’s been happening lately’. I started talking about this guy and how I’ve been [with him]. I’m a really hot and cold person, like one minute I love you and the next minute I want nothing to do with you. And it’s genuinely so bad on my part, but I’m so hot and cold and it’s really bad for me to do it to him.

So I was telling them this story, but then I was also saying that this guy is, I want to say love bombing…I don’t know if that’s the right way to say it, but he was so on top of me and he was like, “oh, I want you” and it was too much for how short of a time it was. And I was like, ‘I’m not having any of that’. In the chorus, it goes, “don’t tell me you love me, but don’t leave me”. It’s like I don’t want you to say that you love me, but I also don’t want you to go. But then I want you to go and then I don’t want you to go. So it’s very on and off. 

You said that you wrote the song with Josh Carruthers and Joey Eighty. Obviously you went into that particular process and you were talking about what’s going on in your life at the moment. Is that how your song writing process tends to go? That you just try and base it on what’s happening at the moment? 

It changes all the time, it depends [on the situation]. If I’m writing by myself, it could change, I could have had an idea already that’s kind of been going around in my head or I could have absolutely nothing in my mind and I go onto the piano or onto my guitar and I’ll just play around and see if I get anything. So it changes every time.

In songwriting sessions, usually it starts with the other writers. If I haven’t written with them before, they’ll be like, “oh, tell me about you. Like, what’s your story? Tell me what’s been happening”. And we kind of go from there. They might have an idea that they’ve already put down, like some melody ideas, or we’ll just start completely fresh. ‘I Don’t Need Saving’ was just a brand new, fresh idea and it turned out pretty good I would say. 

Absolutely. You’ve also got the music video coming out for it in collaboration with makeup artist Andrew Gallimore. Can you tell us about what we can expect from the video and how the concept came about? 

I love the video. I think it’s the most creative thing ever. The team that we worked with was incredible. Andrew genuinely is the most creative guy ever. In the video they wanted to get different ideas of people crying from different artworks. We had a film noir look, a very 50s Marilyn Monroe, so it was very dramatic.

We started with what we called natural Allie or original Allie which is just a very natural look and it feels very fresh and kind of vulnerable. We then went into what we call the smudged Allie look and the storm look, which is very dramatic and very emotional. We had a Man Ray look, which has diamonds kind of falling down like tears. We also had a Lichtenstein look, which is very cartoon crying. It was very, very dramatic with loads of different kinds of crying looks which I love.

What I get from the video is, you know you start feeling very vulnerable and raw, and as you go through it, it gets dramatic and very emotional, then towards the end you feel healed. I think it really describes the song and how I feel in it. It just really comes together at the end. 

I think you’re like a really great lyricist. Do you have a favourite lyric that you’ve ever penned? I think like for me personally, I really relate to one from ‘Damage Control’, which is “even when I’m lonely, I’ll be in the life and soul of the party”. 

Yeah, you know what? I was thinking of that lyric when you were asking me that question. That lyric is so me. The whole song is about not talking about your feelings, and I’m genuinely awful for that. I’m always holding everything inside, which is so bad, and I shouldn’t be doing it. But I guess I get it out when I’m writing songs, so I’m fine haha. But even when I’m feeling down, I still feel like I need to be the life and soul of the party. I feel like I always need to be positive. I’ll always say, “no, I’m good. I’m great. I’m not feeling bad at all”. So, yeah, that is probably one of my favourite lyrics. 

A lot of your music is incredibly personal. What do you kind of hope that people will take away from it when they listen to it? 

I hope that everybody can take something away from the songs. Every song has something different, like you can take so many different things away from it. I guess I like all of my songs to be relatable and, you know, they could be about anything. Like if you’re breaking up with your boyfriend or going through a hard time with a friend, it could be anything.

I love when I can relate to songs that way so I always want people to just feel something when they listen to the song. Hopefully it’s positive feelings or even if it’s not even positive…they could be sad, but hopefully they don’t hate the song, that’s the only feeling I don’t want them to feel! As long as they take something away from it and can relate to the lyrics somehow, that’s good enough for me. 

As well as your amazing original material, you’re known for your incredible covers. Who would you say are some of your current favorite artists or songs to sing?

Right now, I love ‘Black Friday’ by Tom Odell. He genuinely is just such an amazing songwriter and that song just makes me feel… I can relate to so many of the lyrics. I love him and Benson Boone and Alex Warren. There’s so many right now. I listen to a lot of different music that I wouldn’t really sing, like completely different genres. I love Eminem and sometimes I’ll pull out an Eminem song. The other day I was playing in Munich and I mentioned something about how I pull out ‘Lose Yourself’ by Eminem every so often when I’m in a really good mood and everyone was like “sing it, sing it, sing it” so then my rap alter ego came out and I rapped ‘Lose Yourself’, it was a moment. 

I love that. If roles were reversed, if you could have any other artist cover one of your tracks, who would it be and why? 

I think a lot of my songs have quite big vocals in them. If I were to get anybody to cover it, I would have someone who had big vocals. So again, Benson Boone, Alex Warren, they’ve got those big vocals. I feel like a boy version of those songs would be kind of cool. But if I could pick a girl, Lauren Spencer-Smith. I think she would really do a good job on those songs. I think she has such powerful vocals. 

One of the things that you’re most known for is busking and you’ve gone viral many times while busking in Grafton Street. Over the years, you’ve been joined by lots of famous faces but also strangers as well. Do you have a particular favourite memory of something that’s happened while you’ve been busking? 

I mean the biggest thing that has happened is when Tom Grennan joined me. He was walking down the street and I was singing his Christmas song and he joined in! It was crazy. The street was so packed. It was insane. I was such a huge fan of Tom Grennan for ages so when he joined, it was so much fun. He actually knew my song as well, ‘How Love Works’ and we sang that together which was crazy. He heard it when I played it on The Late Late Show in Ireland! That’s my favourite moment of busking ever, I think. But there’s been so many… crazy good and bad things have happened on Grafton Street, but mostly good!

You’ve obviously been pursuing music for a number of years now. What would you say has been the most useful piece of advice that you’ve been given? 

This is always a difficult question because there’s so much advice. But I think if you want to start social media, my first thing to say is ignore the comments. Ignore any negative comments. I would advise not to even look at any comments. For years, my dad did all of my social media, and he would never, ever let me look at any comments, and I think that was the best thing he could have done for me.

Now that I do more of my social media, he still focuses on YouTube and Facebook, and I will do TikTok and Instagram, I now will look at the comments and I hate it. Those negative comments… now there isn’t many negative comments, it’s mostly positive, but you know those negative comments will stand out so my advice to anybody starting social media is don’t look at the comments, just don’t look at them! 

You’ve also been in the spotlight since you were 12 years old, which is such a young age. How does it feel to have grown up in the public eye? 

You know, I’m very used to it now. It was definitely weird at the start. It slowly progressed – it wasn’t like this one moment that it just went ‘boom’ and everyone was following. The whole taking pictures with me thing, when I’m on the street and they come up and ask for a photo, was definitely weird at the time. I’m like, you want a photo with me? You want me to take a photo for you? And then they were like, no, I want a photo with you. I was like, oh, OK. It was definitely something to get used to. 

It was amazing as well, getting to do all the things that I did, like going to L.A. and writing with huge writers and producers and meeting all these famous people and going on the Ellen Show when I was 12, 13, 14. It was insane. It’s an insane thing to do at 12 years old. It’s amazing, I mean I definitely never expected anything from starting to go busking. It was just something I wanted to do for fun and one day somebody advised my dad that he should post this up to Facebook. Back then my dad still had a Nokia block phone. He was very behind the times with his phone so he then got a smartphone and took a video and put it up to Facebook and then moved on to YouTube, Instagram and then TikTok and then here we are today. We never expected anything from it. Anything. So it was a crazy, crazy experience. A roller coaster. 

I can imagine. My final question for you – with 2026 fast approaching, what are your goals or dreams for the year ahead?

I guess my goal in life is just to release music, have lots of people listen to it, play shows, and hopefully the shows get bigger and bigger. That’s the goal. I mean, my goal is to play the 3 Arena in Dublin. I supported Tom Grennan last month and I played the 3 Arena, but I want to headline it. That’s the goal. If not 2026, then 2027, 2028, one time, I believe it, I’ll do it. But yeah, I’m just going to work hard, release the music, play the shows and can’t do more than that. So we’ll see how it goes from there!