Tamara Hendin has released her debut EP Festival, a four-track introduction shaped by some particularly familiar teenage frustrations: wanting a place in music, watching other people appear to move ahead and trying to work your own way out of feeling stuck.
Released on 28th August 2026, the EP contains ‘Lip Service’, ‘Festival’, ‘Sophia’ and the single version of ‘Traffic Jam’. Across its four tracks, Festival runs for just under 15 minutes, with a sound that at times reaches back towards 90s alternative pop without becoming tied to one particular style.
The 19-year-old Tamara Hendin is a University of Bristol student whose own reference points include Maggie Rogers, Fiona Apple and Juliana Hatfield. Those singer-songwriter influences sit alongside a brighter indie-pop sensibility, while parts of the EP also hint at the more direct, slightly unvarnished character associated with artists such as Liz Phair and Heather Nova.
The festival became a stand-in for the music industry
The title track came from an opportunity Hendin wanted but could not take up: a place at the BRIT School. ‘Festival’ grew from the jealousy she felt knowing that peers with similar ambitions would be able to progress with their music at a young age while she watched from elsewhere, and the song deliberately leans into that self-pity rather than trying to make the reaction sound nobler than it was.
The festival itself became a metaphor for the music industry and the place Hendin wanted to reach: everybody else appears to be inside, surrounded by music, while she is looking towards it from the outside. There is ambition buried inside the resentment too, with the image eventually turning around to imagine Hendin performing there while the people she once envied are watching.
‘Traffic Jam’ approaches a different kind of frustration. Hendin has described the song as being about feeling in a rut and getting out of it, shifting the EP away from one specific missed opportunity and towards the wider problem of what happens when ambition starts turning inward.
Together, those ideas make Festival less about one missed opportunity and more about momentum. Sometimes Hendin is looking at people moving faster than she is; elsewhere, the problem is finding a way to start moving at all.
Festival Review
Festival works best when Hendin’s direct writing meets its slightly nostalgic indie-pop character. ‘Lip Service’ has the strongest early-2000s pop-rock flavour, at points recalling Avril Lavigne, while the title track leans more towards the dry, conversational 90s alternative-pop feel of Liz Phair, with hints of Heather Nova in its softer singer-songwriter shading. Those reference points appear in flashes rather than defining the whole EP, which leaves Hendin space to shape something more individual around them.
Four songs are enough to establish the pattern without overstating the case. ‘Festival’ gives the EP its strongest concept, ‘Traffic Jam’ broadens that into the feeling of being stuck, while ‘Lip Service’ shows Hendin at her most immediate and pop-facing. Festival feels like an early picture of an artist beginning to connect indie-pop accessibility with candid writing, occasional 90s alternative-pop textures and a willingness to admit that ambition can be awkward, jealous and motivating all at once.
Listen to Tamara Hendin on Spotify and follow her on Instagram.
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