Toni Sancho

With her second EP Declare Me Dead!, Toni Sancho doesn't just explore emotional depth — she excavates it. Across five unflinching tracks, the London-based artist opens up about depression, heartbreak, spiritual drift, and the aching weight of simply existing in the world. This isn't a record that offers neat conclusions. Instead, it walks beside you in the dark and gently points toward the possibility of light.

For Toni, Declare Me Dead! isn't about closure — it's about transformation. "I think what I want people to realise is that this is actually the beginning of a really beautiful process," she says. "That the dark part of your life is not the end."

Following the release of her 2021 debut Heaven Knows, Toni took a deliberate step back from visibility. "Since my last EP, I decided to just pull back a little bit," she explains. "When so many people are perceiving you, you almost don't see yourself correctly… I definitely pulled back from being as open about my process."

That period of quiet introspection gave rise to the new EP — a project rooted not only in self-examination but in a wider understanding of the world. "This record is much more grounded," Toni says. "And I'm much more grounded now. These emotions aren't just about me and myself, but about how I operate in the world, and how I see the world as well."

Musically, Declare Me Dead! finds its footing in a warm, indie alternative sound with soulful roots. Working closely with producer Sam (aka Shrink), Toni leaned into analogue textures — acoustic guitars, vintage brass, gospel samples, and subtle nods to Nina Simone, Florence Welch, and classic soul. "Everything is grounded in real instruments," she says. "It sounds more soulful. More intentional."

Opening track "Sound of Dawn" is a gentle entry point — what Toni calls "a lullaby to myself." Written in the aftermath of trauma, it offers soft encouragement to anyone struggling to move forward. "One of the biggest things that allowed me to heal was to kind of talk to myself in the third person," she says. "The song calls for calm and reminds the listener that this hardship is passing and that there is beauty past all pain felt."

From there, the EP descends into darker, heavier terrain. The title track, "Declare Me Dead," serves as its emotional epicentre — a cinematic meditation on mental illness and isolation. "I felt very, very just… you know, this feeling of like you can't even find yourself," Toni says. "Like, you're so inconsequential. Right? You're not making any effect on the world, that you might as well just declare me dead."

The song's stark refrain — "I told the doctor not to keep me past a quarter five / And if it happens, please at least declare me dead" – emerged during a period of deep personal despair. "It's a really like do-or-die type of song," she says. "And it was the song that just made me kind of get up out of it. I remember feeling like a weight lifted off me. I was able to crack that code of: 'If you're gonna just lie down, just die — or get up and do it.'"

"The Road," Toni turns her gaze outward. "It was about this feeling of being left behind," she explains. "Using the homeless as an example of how we pass each other by when we are suffering." The song was sparked by a moment outside Liverpool Street Station, where she saw a man sitting silently between two lifts. "I just realised probably thousands of people were walking past this guy. And he was just looking down. I felt almost like I could wither away and nobody would notice."

The result is a rugged, percussive track that rages against societal callousness: "Better hope to God you're not scared / Get a load of this man — oh, he's colder than he can bear." Toni adds: "I wanted it to sound rough. There's a disinterest in music to explore these dirty parts of life."

"The Valley," a track steeped in spiritual reckoning. Sampling a church choir and quoting Psalm 23 — "As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" – it was written during a period of deep disillusionment. "I just couldn't really understand what I was doing it for anymore," she says. "I realised I needed to desperately realign with something wider than myself."

The EP closes with "Please," a raw and emotionally charged final note. Released as the first single, the track is steeped in pain, fury, and contradiction. "I wrote it shortly after going through quite a difficult heartbreak," Toni says. "It is pain disguised as anger. It's love disguised as hatred." She describes the song as an "immature version of myself," and admits the anger wasn't truly directed at the other person. "The anger is almost directed at myself for having been in this situation over and over again."

It serves as a rupture and release — a last explosive goodbye to the Toni who wrote Heaven Knows. "It's the beginning of these deeper thoughts," she says.

There's a quiet defiance running through Declare Me Dead! — a refusal to conform to expectations, especially those projected onto Black women in music. "These are melancholy feelings," Toni says. "They're not centred on my sexuality. They're not about what people expect a Black woman to write or sound like. And I feel proud that I've made a record that makes space for that — so someone else can see that's allowed."

What Toni Sancho has created with Declare Me Dead! is not just an EP — it's a reckoning. A tender, confrontational, spiritually driven journey through despair, with the door cracked open for whatever comes next.