Emerging Swedish talent Bishat is streaming her latest single, ‘Mine’. The track is the follow up to debut single ‘Sober’, which she self-released earlier this year, since accruing over 400,000 Spotify streams. Bishat made her original breakthrough in late 2015 with ‘Some Things’, a mash up of Daniel Johnston’s ‘Some Things Last A Long Time’ with the Weeknd’s ‘Often’ and Lykke Li’s ‘No Rest For The Wicked’. Skipping PR representation to mailing the track out herself, Bishat soon racked up over 30,000 plays and extensive blog support.
Hailing from Gothenburg- interspersed with a teenage stint pursuing performing arts in West London- Stockholm-based Bishat also has roots in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Whilst one of her earliest musical memories dates back to writing a song as a 13 year old with José González (Bishat’s older brother used be in cult band Junip along with González), it was actually during a patch of insomnia whilst staying with family in Ethiopia, that Bishat pieced ‘Mine’ together.
Exploring that confessional struggle to retain a sense of self within a relationship, the sparing co-production of ‘Mine’ from Tamokillme allows Bishat’s honeyed, multi-tracked vocal to weave through a lazy groove. Speaking about the track, Bishat says; “It’s about a relationship where the fears of repeating your mistakes are causing those same issues. I can be so bad at having those tough conversations about feelings- in the end it kills you if you don’t, but it’s so much easier for me to write about it.”
Though the track addresses that personal conflict, in wider terms ‘Mine’ finds Bishat with a harder-won sense of identity as an artist: ‘People used to try and box me into an RnB or Soul category, and it used to mess with my head. I felt this huge expectation that my voice should match my looks, and it just didn’t. I didn’t have this big, soulful voice. so it took me a while to understand and accept that although I love soul music, I don’t sound like that. And that’s fine.”
Perhaps it’s no chance, then, that the title ‘Mine’ seems to nod not only to an emotional turf war, but the arrival of a resourceful & dynamic, independent artist to watch.
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