Last year saw the Italian artist and songwriter Birthh begin to make headway in the UK with her tracks ‘Supermarkets’ and ‘Yello / Concrete’ as well as a debut London headline show at the Servant Jazz Quarters. Now she wastes no time in plotting a bigger 2020 as she shares the new single ‘Parakeet’ and also announces the releases of her sophomore album ‘WHOA’.
While Birthh’s recent tracks are rich with creative production embellishments, ‘Parakeet’ takes a more intimate approach. Initially Birthh’s soulful vocals are accompanied by spacious instrumentation – folky acoustic guitar adorned with some graceful piano. And Birthh never loses that intimacy as the song scales up with textural synths, uplifting brass and soaring vocal harmonies.
Birthh finds herself reflecting on brief snapshots from her childhood, creating what feels like a faded photo collage from twenty-plus years ago. The ‘Parakeet’ packshot builds on the song’s theme by featuring a photo of Birthh as a child. Birthh wrote ‘Parakeet’ while on tour in Canada and it became the first song for her new album ‘WHOA’, albeit under tragic circumstances. Whilst on tour, BIrthh received news from home that her grandmother was gravely ill.
“I’d basically grown-up with my Nan and she pretty much raised me,” says Birthh. “She’d had a stroke so she wasn’t really there, and that was heartbreaking for me. I wrote ‘Parakeet’ before seeing her and just wanted to put all my childhood memories into a song. To me it’s a special song, because it’s basically my life and my childhood. I was selfish with this one, I didn’t care if people really understood it.”
Also included on the new album will be previous singles, the pop-leaning opener ‘Supermarkets’ and ‘Yello/Concrete’, plus new songs inlcuding the breezy, pocket symphony of ‘Ultraviolet’ featuring Philadelphia-raised rapper Ivy Sole and the hip-hop inspired closing song ‘Space Dogs’.
Raised in Florence, Birthh (real name Alice Bisi) was first inspired to play music by her father’s love of Tom Waits and Bob Dylan. She started writing songs as a child and that ability flourished as she grew up. Her love of pop, soul, electronica and organic sounds provided the foundations that we now hear in her work.
Birthh has played shows and festivals alongside an eclectic range of artists including PJ Harvey, Mac DeMarco, Andrew Bird, Benjamin Clementine, Nick Murphy and Imagine Dragons. She’s also performed for TIDAL and at a creative workshop / visual arts event hosted by Adidas Originals in Milan.
Birthh’s music is often other-worldly, a constantly shifting mood that feels simultaneously unknowable and yet rooted in humanity. A head in the clouds but with one foot on the ground. With ‘WHOA’ she’s crafted an intricate, consistently compelling suite of immersive alt-pop that shifts wilfully between genres – jazz, folk, soul, hip-hop, you name it – while taking you on a journey you don’t want to end.
“I just hope people who listen to my music feel something from it,” Birthh says. “I want to help people with this album. At the end of the day, I hope it has some positivity to it.”
It’s what the world needs.
The full tracklisting is:
1. Supermarkets
2. Yello/Concrete
3. Draw
4. audio 1
5. Ultraviolet
6. audio 2
7. Parakeet
8. Human Stuff
9. reprise
10. Elephants Sing Backwards
11. Space Dog