Abby Roberts tells us about new single ‘Volatile’

As Abby Roberts returns with her new track ‘Volatile’, the rising star has told Rolling Stone UK about the genesis of the track – a friendship break-up banger of sorts.

Released today (8th December), the latest track from the TikTok star turned musician sees Abby ruminating on the experience of a friendship running its course and coming to a sad end.

Speaking to Rolling Stone UK, Roberts explained how she’d been sitting on the track for several years, but wanted to perfect it – owing to the track’s emotional subject matter.

“It’s one that I really just wanted to get perfect and there’s been a lot of back and forth and working with people to finish different parts and get this one right,” she explained.

“It’s essentially me telling the story of this friendship, breakup and the whole kind of aftermath of that and my feelings surrounding that. And I really wanted the lyrics first of all to really represent like that situation as accurately as possible. And I think I was quite nervous for people to hear that when I started teasing it and eventually releasing it and people are reading into that. So that’s been something that I really have spent a lot of time going over for sure.”

She went on: “It’s about this ex best friend, which I’ve explained in shows when I performed it before. Which is worse than a relationship breakup because we were best friends for a very long time and things ended in a really very messy way, as I think as you can tell by the lyrics in the song.

“I think it was like a build up of a lot of things, that had been happening in this friendship caused by this person, dragging me into dramatic situations and I was like, I don’t need this drama in my life anymore.”

On production duties, meanwhile, is Rob Milton – who has previously worked with the likes of The 1975 and Holly Humberstone.

“His production is a lot more stripped back and that allowed me to be more vulnerable with my lyrics and we worked together to figure out how we could do this song in a way that doesn’t come across as bratty and petty, because there was definitely a lot of real meaning behind what I was trying to put out there,” she said.

Going forward, Roberts explained that the anthemic sound of the track would inform her future output.

“It feels like I’m now only just letting people into this world that I’ve like been in for such a long time,” she said.

“I just think performing that kind of music in a live setting is so much more fun than doing the slow ones. Like, I love a good hair flip. I love running about the stage and like expressing that in a performance. So you can expect a lot more high energy stuff I think from my next project.”