A self-effacing bedroom songstress shrouded in anonymity.

Coat by REISS and dress by FRENCH CONNECTION

It isn’t everyday one gets their musical talents discovered by losing a USB stick on the tube. But then Honor isn’t your everyday pop star.

YouTuber LukeIsNotSexy, who was the unexpected recipient of the lost property, used his 500,000 followers to try to find the girl behind the beautiful voice. Honor, who was born in Switzerland and is now 25, was eventually identified and quickly picked up by an impressed Spaceship Management. With her limited English and ethereal beauty, Honor is naturally shy and rarely shows her face to the public. Photo shoots, for example, usually consist of her face being covered up. However, Honor insists it’s all part of the plan.

“I’m happy that my songs and my stories come before my face as nowadays people are influenced by everything other than the music,” she says of her absence from the tragic love story present in the LA-shot “Never Off” – her first ever music video, which has over 200,000 views. “The mystery among female artists gets lost and it can just be about bodies,” she refreshingly quips like some sort of anti-Rita Ora. Describing her sound as “therapeutic dream pop,” Honor got into music after being exposed to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones during long countryside drives with her father as a child.

But when her dad tragically passed away after falling ill, Honor stepped up her songwriting and turned her bedroom into a mini studio. “I remember I was on the train and I was crying coming back from the hospital where my father was. I just picked up a piece of paper and started writing my thoughts. Whenever I am sad or in a bad moment, the lyrics come.” Being discovered in such an intrusive way was also a bit of a shock. “I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t thinking about releasing anything when it all happened. I was making songs on the classical piano in my bedroom and hitting record on my laptop; music was just therapy at that point.”

However, she insists that she’s thankful for the unconventional route to fame. Honor will release a live session video before the year’s out, a bold step considering her lack of live music experience. She won’t be wearing a balaclava either: “I hope people get to know me from the live sessions. But it is nice and important to keep privacy as everything is more interesting for people when they discover an artist little by little.”

And what about the name? “I feel like there is always honour in music so long as the songs are personal to the artist.” I even push my luck and ask what her real name is. “If I were to share such a personal detail it would defeat the purpose of Honor,” she retorts with a smile.

Fashion: Kamran Rajput

Photographer: Stephanie Wilson

Grooming: Martina Lattanzi @ One Represents

Words: Thomas Hobbs