Robert Pattinson<\/a>, who she met at a star-studded L.A. game night in 2018. \u201cAnd, yeah, we stayed out till 7 a.m.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tHighlights of the Met Gala included catching up with \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d breakout Connor Storrie, who recently comforted her on a turbulent plane ride \u2014 \u201cI was sort of clutching onto him the whole time,\u201d she says \u2014 and seeing Stevie Nicks perform.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI said hi to Stevie Nicks! That\u2019s obviously a huge moment,\u201d exclaims Waterhouse, who starred in the 2023 Amazon series \u201cDaisy Jones & the Six,\u201d which was loosely based on Fleetwood Mac\u2019s recording of \u201cRumours.\u201d She was also pranked by \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d star Marcello Hernandez when he introduced Bad Bunny \u2014 who was made up like an old man for the occasion \u2014 to her as his uncle. \u201cHe totally got me,\u201d she laughs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThough Waterhouse\u2019s life now seems the picture of glamour \u2014 moving from place to place with her little family based on film shoots and tour dates \u2014 back in the part of town where she spent her early adulthood, it feels like nothing has changed. \u201cWhenever I come here, it brings me right back to who I was,\u201d she says wistfully. \u201cGrowing up, Notting Hill was always this vision I had in my head of where I was going to become a woman. And that very much was the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWaterhouse was scouted as a model in high school, plucked from the affluent West London suburb of Chiswick, where she grew up with her plastic surgeon father, nurse mother and three siblings. Still, diving headfirst into the city and a competitive industry was a shock. (She has since modeled for Tommy Hilfiger, appeared on five Vogue covers and walked the runway for Burberry and Balenciaga.) \u201cThat changed my life a lot, and was quite surprising,\u201d she says, grabbing a handful of fries. \u201cMore than the work itself, it was a cultural exploration of London and the nightlife and the people, and suddenly being able to look around and put these pieces together of what it was like to be an artist. It completely blew my world open.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAnyone who was on Tumblr in the 2010s likely first stumbled across Waterhouse as one of the London \u201cit\u201d girls alongside Alexa Chung and Georgia May Jagger, posing in miniskirts at all the best parties next to their rock-star boyfriends (hers was indie rock artist Miles Kane). But she felt destined for more. Acting came first, with Waterhouse scoring small roles in the 2014 rom-com \u201cLove, Rosie,\u201d 2015\u2019s \u201cInsurgent\u201d and 2016\u2019s \u201cPride and Prejudice and Zombies.\u201d And behind the scenes, she was also starting to write music of her own.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Notting Hill apartment was \u201cwhere I had my mattress on the floor and my first piano and guitar, and where I first had that solitude to start writing,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s where I would take the wild from outside and hibernate within myself. So many stories developed here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tShe released her first single in 2016 \u2014 the lo-fi heartbreak ballad \u201cBrutally\u201d \u2014 followed by three more in the next three years, refining her jangly DIY indie-pop sound more with each song. But it wasn\u2019t until she played a musician in \u201cDaisy Jones\u201d \u2014 the keyboardist Karen Sirko, inspired by Christine McVie \u2014 that Waterhouse decided to give music a real shot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI was suddenly learning piano in a very serious way for hours and hours a day. And then the pandemic happened, and I was back in London, stuck here for a year with all those new tools in front of me,\u201d she says. \u201cI had that moment of realizing, I really want to finally put together my first piece of work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWaterhouse has now released two acclaimed albums \u2014 2022\u2019s \u201cI Can\u2019t Let Go\u201d and 2024\u2019s \u201cMemoir of a Sparklemuffin,\u201d both via indie label Sub Pop Records \u2014 graduating from touring with Father John Misty to commanding festival stages and opening for Taylor Swift\u2019s \u201cEras Tour\u201d in London.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tOf Swift, Waterhouse says, \u201cThe coolest thing about her is she gives other artists these insane opportunities that really change people\u2019s lives. Knowing her as a friend, she\u2019s actually been through so much. And I think the thing I always see in her is how she pulls herself through every time, and how everything that\u2019s ever happened to her becomes another piece of art that becomes part of the legacy. That\u2019s so inspiring \u2014 that\u2019s the artist that you want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn a landscape that can seem oversaturated with cookie-cutter pop stars, Waterhouse delivers something different: a swaggering rock \u2019n\u2019 roll edge that recalls \u201970s icons like her new friend Nicks. But as Waterhouse\u2019s star was rising, she was also going through something even more life-changing: motherhood. In early 2024, she gave birth to a daughter. Just over a month later, she played Coachella for the first time.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt was like a fugue. It was a dream. When I had her, I had so many incredible things going on,\u201d she says. \u201cMaybe if I have another one, it will be a more peaceful moment. But I just knew that this time it was going to be a whirlwind. And I think as a result, everything has been so real that it hurts. It\u2019s been amusing and so tender and fragile and hilarious and all the things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBalancing family life with her burgeoning career is one of the main topics of \u201cLoveland,\u201d Waterhouse\u2019s third album, which comes out on July 10. It\u2019s her first release after signing with Island Records, the label that\u2019s home to reigning pop girlies like Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Olivia Dean.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen her contract with Sub Pop ended, Waterhouse says there was \u201ca fascination for me of, what\u2019s it like to be signed to a major label? I wanted to go on that ride and see for myself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tSo far, so good. Waterhouse\u2019s collaborators on \u201cLoveland\u201d include \u201cEspresso\u201d hitmaker Amy Allen, Taylor Swift go-to Aaron Dessner and Lorde producer Joel Little, in addition to the musical partners who have been there from the start, Natalie Findlay and Jules Apollinaire. \u201cFor the first time, I had the option to work with some of the biggest people in the industry, and it\u2019s kind of crazy,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m like, really?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tThe 14-track \u201cLoveland\u201d \u2014 for which Waterhouse cites the Stone Roses, PJ Harvey and the Replacements as sonic inspiration \u2014 thematically swings between nostalgia for the wild days and nights of her youth and longing to be settled with her family. \u201cThere\u2019s this kind of recklessness and abandon, which is always the feeling that I want to chase,\u201d she admits. \u201cAnd then there\u2019s also this part of me that\u2019s very much missing and yearning for the intimate, cozy moments in my life. They\u2019re all very equally true to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThere\u2019s even a track named for Notting Hill \u2014 a groovy piano-led love letter to \u201crunning around with a hangover in my early 20s\u201d and wondering when you\u2019ll meet your own Hugh Grant, just like in the Richard Curtis classic. Turns out, her apartment across the street is also \u201creally where I fell in love with Rob,\u201d she says, blushing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe music that I was making when I first started was very much in reaction to toxic relationships and heartbreak and that painful rollercoaster of girlhood,\u201d Waterhouse adds. \u201cAnd it\u2019s been interesting this time around to have my heart cracked open in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s not hard to tell that on \u201cLoveland,\u201d Pattinson is Waterhouse\u2019s muse. The album\u2019s opening song and lead single, \u201cBack in Love,\u201d is a joyous trumpet-backed ode to getting her own spark back postpartum, as well as in their relationship.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI felt like my identity had been cut open in becoming a mother and also having a lot of expectations on myself. Internally, there\u2019s been quite a lot of turmoil and just wondering if I\u2019m doing the right thing. And especially, oh my God, the hormones right after you have a baby are so intense,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s like [I got] belief back in myself, and then also being \u2026 I don\u2019t want to say back in love with my partner, because it sounds like I was out of it, which I was never. But it\u2019s also a new relationship. Your old relationship has been wiped out, and so it\u2019s building that new one and kind of celebrating the beauty in that, like, we\u2019ve survived this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n