Birthh Shares New Single Supermarkets

The 22-year-old singer, songwriter and producer Birthh made a striking first impression with her debut track ‘Chlorine’. An emotionally charged cocktail of ethereal beauty and unrestrained anger, the track set Birthh on the path to over 600,000 streams. Another early track, ‘Queen of Failureland’, was highlighted by The 405, who described it as, “a spellbinding auditory fantasy and nightmare.” She subsequently played shows and festivals alongside the likes of PJ Harvey, Mac De Marco, Andrew Bird, Benjamin Clementine, Nick Murphy and, most recently, Imagine Dragons.

Having recently played two sets at Primavera Sound in Barcelona, Birthh returns with her brand new single ‘Supermarkets’. It’s a playful, pop-leaning track that marries folk-tinged songwriting, laidback jazz grooves and an undercurrent of glitchy electronica. Birthh demoed the song in her makeshift bedroom studio before completing it with Solange collaborator Lucius Page, Grammy-winning Robert ‘LB’ Dorsey and Grammy-winning Emily Lazar (David Bowie, The Killers, Goldfrapp).

Lyrically, it’s a reminder of our own limitations. As she explains, “I like that the first thing people hear is the line ‘people are just people, they don’t know what they’re after.’ It’s true. We don’t. I also like the imagery of routine, and how we rely on it to reveal existential stuff in life. Humans have a hard time just stopping and thinking about what’s happening in our lives.”

Birthh – real name Alice Bisi – was raised in Florence. When she was two her parents split up, and she’d spend the long journey to her dad’s house listening to the likes of Tom Waits, Bob Dylan and The Chieftains. She cherished the time she spent with her dad who taught her from a young age how to enjoy the little things in the music. Her dad, who himself used to be a musician, told her to focus on the guitar or piano – so she started playing music and wrote her first song at 8 years old.

Spending time between Italy and New York, her tastes split between pure pop and the soulful fusion between the electronic and the organic that was present in one of her favourite records; Corinne Bailey Rae’s 2006 self-titled debut. Despite amassing a handful of songs, Bisi kept her songwriting a secret while at school in Florence. A visit to her father, was the impetus to make her secret hobby her primary passion as her songs moved from SoundCloud to the stage.