Rising star Birthh, aka 22-year-old Italian singer, songwriter, producer and daydreamer Alice Bisi, is all about surprises. It’s what gets her up in the morning – the never-ending promise of beauty, of a vast blue sky to lose yourself in each day. It’s also seeped into the music she makes, with her forthcoming second album WHOA full of unexpected key changes, shifting tempos and playful twists and turns.
Following the release of previous singles, the pop-leaning opener ‘Supermarkets’ , the deeply personal ‘Parakeet’ about the loss of her beloved grandmother and the crisp beats of ‘Yello / Concrete’ , today Birthh shares the album’s closing track ‘Space Dog’ for fans. A hip-hop inspired track – it’s a song that picks up the tempo to discuss a desire to escape if a nuclear war starts, anchored by the deeply sarcastic “twenty-first century, what a time to be alive”. Her escape route? “I’m going to take my space ship and leave.” she laughs.
WHOA is an album that pulls the listener deep into its own world. “The songs are little planets,” she says, before keeping the space theme going by referring to the music she makes as ‘cosmic pop’. “I just do what the song requests in a way. I don’t want ever people to get bored.” Alice demoed the album in a nine-month burst of creativity in her makeshift bedroom studio before finishing it with Solange collaborator Lucius Page and the Grammy-winning Robert ‘LB’ Dorsey.
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 recently played a sold-out show at London’s Jazz Quarters and also performed for TIDAL and at a creative workshop / visual arts event hosted by Adidas Originals in Milan. Birthh is confirmed to play Live at Leeds on 2nd May.
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