When Etta Marcus began writing the forthright, ferocious ‘Girls Are God’s Machines’ — the lead single from her new EP Devour — the 24-year-old South Londoner had no idea how much rage was pent up inside her. Until then, she had been expanding her richly evocative storytelling across indie, rock, folk and pop, most recently on 2024’s acclaimed mini album The Death of Summer & Other Promises, which explored gothic lyrical terrain from devotion to aging. But Devour was something quite different.

“It really surprised me when I wrote it,” she says. “There were a lot of experiences I’d had as a woman of feeling like I wasn’t being listened to… This is the female experience and I don’t want to settle for it.”

At the same time, Etta was also falling deeper in love — terrifying and vulnerable in an entirely different way. “There’s a dual aspect to the EP,” she explains, “being able to devour something in a really lovely way but also being devoured in a really horrific way.” She likens herself to a Pearl-like character, either hunting or being consumed.

Having left behind the rigidity of a prestigious jazz conservatoire, Etta has been unlearning restrictive parameters ever since, a defiance that has earned early support from BBC Radio 1, NME, DIY and more. Writing Devour during winter trips to Whitstable, she embraced a more self-sufficient approach and heavier, punk-leaning influences, drawing on artists from Nirvana and Radiohead to PJ Harvey and Fontaines DC.

Across the EP, her vocals fracture and intensify, her production grows bolder, and the themes veer between political anger, inner toxicity and hard-won understanding. Harnessing rage while making space for love, Devour feels like a true coming-of-age moment — gritty, fearless and alive — setting Etta Marcus up as a compelling new voice, ready for what comes next.