“I don’t wear dresses normally, they make me feel uncomfortable,” Røry frowns, flicking through her phone gallery to showus what she wore for her wedding. When it’s time for the grand reveal, we’re met with a pearl-encrusted Frankenstein’s creationof an outfit, constructed from the scraps of a beautiful vintage frock and a bargain corset. In the photo, Røry is glowing with joy – and has an extra few inches of height, thanks to her beat-up New Rocks.
Prior to her wedding, the 41-year-old never thought she’d be the type to marry. Take her 2023 pop-punk track, Black Hearse, which sees Røry vowing, ‘I’m only getting married if I’m leaving in a black hearse!’ But she’s since learned to let love in, which involved walking down the aisle to Blink-182’s First Date and treating guests to a classy marital feast of pie and chips.
As Røry’s 2025 euphoric alt rock cut Sorry I’m Late proclaims, it’s taken a while for her to get her life on track, both personally and professionally. While there were early signs of musical interest, with a young Røry loving the piano, guitar, clarinet, and even writing a few songs, she initially tried to pursue a “proper” job.
“My parents both grew up on council estates, and worked hard to become teachers,” she explains. “So I went to uni, got a degree in Politics and Philosophy, then got a graduate job as an accountant.”
But life had other plans. When Røry was 22, her mum died from cancer.
“I couldn’t cope,” the singer. “I left my accountancy job, moved home… then I reconnected with writing to work through the grief.”
That’s when a friend suggested she should hit up a local open
mic night with her new music – a decision that would change everything.
“I got signed pretty quickly, and my very first album was in
my 20s,” Røry explains.
“It was very folky and acoustic,” she continues. “It was nothing like what I do now… then the label went bust.”
Rather than give up, Røry opted to self-fund her release, something she says was “very traumatic” at the time but, upon reflection, “very chaotically on brand” for her.
“I was left in so much debt, but my focus was on the music,” she recalls. “I’d given up everything just to make it work.”
However, the folk career didn’t take off. More success was found “networking” her way through the London rave scene on three-day benders – before taking on a proper songwriting job, five days a week. That’s when Røry’s chaotic mess of a life started levelling out.
“Suddenly I was writing dance songs for people like Charli XCX. Who knew when you take the cocaine away and actually start working hard, things start looking up?” she jokes.
In her 30s, Røry had essentially given up on being an artist in her own right.
“I kept thinking I’m too old to be an artist, and I’m not talented enough,” Røry says. “I tried before, I’d never do it again… but then I met my partner in 2020, and I finally had someone that believed in me.”
When the singer released her first single in 2021, the notion of starting her music career from scratch again was “fucking scary” – but it’s certainly paid off. With a mouth like a sailor and a vivid mane of blue hair, Røry is stomping through the rock scene, proudly performing on Download’s stages in 2024 and 2026 as the resident “delusional, old, ADHD bitch” – a label she proudly cackles about with glee – and has just dropped her second album, Bloodletting.
Many of Røry’s songs detail the darker episodes of her life, and depressive, self-hating spirals – though she often delivers her lyrics with a tongue-in-cheek flair. The video for 2025 single Dead Girl Walking sees her sprawled on a Tracey Emin-style ‘depression pit’ bed, wearing a Jesus-like crown of cigarettes, singing that she’s ‘back from the dead’.
“I love heavy music, and I take my art very seriously, but I’m also a clown,” Røry explains.
An equal serving of sarcastic clownery can be found on more recent single Kids These Days, which sees Røry mocking the meat-headed bigotry of “old boomers that don’t believe in ADHD” or how debilitating it can be. Røry has jokingly pushed the track as some kind of hilarious Reform national anthem, using real comments on her posts for the lyrics – the result includes rebranding the diagnosis as ‘entitled coddled brat syndrome’.
While Røry has spent most of her life thinking she’s a “fuck-up”, her debut record, 2025’s Restoration, hit the UK Top 10. However, she struggles to allow herself to feel truly proud.
“It hit me so hard. I’ve been chasing this dream for 20 years; the chasing kept me alive… It kind of made me crash out. I mean, what the fuck am I supposed to do now?”
The answer? Write. Music saved her back in her 20s, and it’s still there for her now.
“The music I’m writing now is much darker, much heavier… because the crash was just so horrendous,” she admits, with a self-deprecating ‘Who would’ve guessed?’ sigh. As a result, Bloodletting’s singles, such as Degradation, serve up Røry’s heaviest, screechiest, most cut-throat metal sound
to date – and there’s plenty more to come.
“No matter how bad it gets, you can really drag yourself out of the gutter and create something out of the absolute dregs of your own life… I’m a late fucking bloomer, baby, but I’m here!” Røry triumphantly proclaims, face splitting into a mischievous grin. “I’ve been late my entire life, but now it really feels like I’m right on fucking time.”
Bloodletting is out now via SadcØre
