The singer will be visiting our shores this month!
Image: Supplied.
As Splendour In The Grass month kicks off, we're celebrating by catching up with BIIG PIIG who will visit our shores to perform at the festival, and host a handful of headline shows!
The iconic Australian festival will make its grand return to Byron Bay later this month, taking place from July 22-24 2022. The stacked lineup features a number of artists who were set to appear at the 2020 edition before its cancellation.
With headliners the Gorillaz Tyler, The Creator and The Strokes announced last year, BIIG PIIG will be joined by a slew of Australian and international talent. Kacey Musgraves, Jack Harlow, Orville Peck, Yungblud, DMA's, Liam Gallagher, Amyl & the Sniffers, Aitch, Holly Humberstone, Chillinit, Northeast Party House, Sycco, Genesis Owusu, G Flip, Oliver Tree, Stella Donnelly, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and Ruel are just a handful of the incredible performers you'll be able to catch at the event.
Just in time for her Australian run of shows, BIIG PIIG has shared her latest single Fun, which she describes as a song “about bickering with a partner, and being sick of it. ‘FUN’ is also about how you can bring out a childish part of each other when no one else really gets that part of you, the good and the bad. No one gets under your skin or pushes your buttons like the ones you love the most.”
It's not long now till you visit our shores for your tour! You’ll be playing at Splendour In The Grass and a bunch of headline shows. What are you most looking forward to about performing at the festival?
I'm just excited to be on a stage, in the sun with some sick acts. I've heard it's an incredible festival, so I can't wait to play it.
Which other acts are you keen to catch while you're there?
So The Strokes I'm really excited to catch. JPEGMAFIA is gonna be sick. It's also just like, I feel like I saw the poster and I was like every single act on this is like, I don't know how they've booked everyone [laughs]. How did they get everyone that's sick? Like it's mad.
It's a killer lineup! Now, it’s been a rough few years for everyone and the live music industry was hit quite hard. but now that we’re back in the swing of things no restrictions - what are you bringing to your set not only at SITG but also your headline side shows to make it the ultimate BIIG PIIG live experience?
So basically I feel like my whole demeanour has changed on stage. I feel like the whole way that I've seen an approach [performing] live is in a whole different space. Just not being able to do it for so long and also having been on support tours last year and doing festivals again, I just was like, 'oh, do you know what? The music deserves to live in a space on stage where it comes to life and it's like a whole, it has the impact that it has when you're listening to it alone'. I used to be so shy on stage and used to be so like introverted and a bit like scared of the crowd and it's just like, I just feel like a whole new person off the back of the last year. And so I think, yeah, like going back to the drawing board with it and being like, 'okay, how do we build a live [set] so that it's got moments of like, oh, it just feels so good. It feels so good.' So I think, yeah, I'm just really excited to bring it with the live shows and like, to be honest, they're gonna be different shows too. I mean, the ones at the festivals will still have the same energy but they're gonna be like, I don't know, it's gonna be different to the headline shows. I feel like because you have more to play with a little bit with the headline shows, but still gonna be really, really good. Not to take my own horn [laughs]. I'm really excited for it.
Can't wait to see it! So looking at performing pre-2020 vs now, how do you think audiences are responding to live music in terms of that hunger to experience a live show? And also, what are your feelings towards it now?
I feel like people wanna go and they don't wanna just see you play tunes. I think they want you to really body it and like embody everything that you're doing. You know what I mean? Rather than just, I don't know. I think they really wanna feel connected. You know what I mean? They really wanna feel like immersed in that space. I think the best shows that I've ever seen are the ones from like the start to finish, you don't even have like a thought to go to the bathroom. It takes you away from everything that's going on for an hour, and then you come out the other end of it thinking like, 'oh my God, how did that happen?'. So I think that's kind of experience that a lot people are looking for. rather than something that doesn't feel...
Authentic?
Yeah. Authentic or just like, I dunno. I think people want to feel it.
How important is performing live for you in terms of making that in person connection with the audience who resonate with your music?
Oh yeah. Massively, massively important. It's also been like so long since I've played headline shows, I think it's been like since 2019. So to see people that have come out, especially to see us is gonna be fun. So yeah, really importantly to like actually meet people and get to chat to them. It's really cool.
That's awesome. Which three songs do you love playing love, live the ultimate three that you want in every set list?
Oh my God. Don't make me pick favourites [laughs]. Like it's my kids and you're like, 'which are your favourites. Let me see. I feel like Switch is always one that just makes me like lose it on stage. I love playing that one. I love playing. Hmm. What else? Gold I always love playing. I love playing Feels Right as well. Are those three favourites? Yeah. You know what I think they are. Yeah. Yeah.
Great choices. So what do you have in store for the rest of 2022? Any like hints or teases you can give us...
Yeah. I'm making a lot making a lot recently. We have got something coming soon, coming very soon, which I also can't wait to stop playing live. Cause the energy of that is like, I don't know, I feel like live it's gonna just go off. So yeah, that's gonna come very, very soon and then yeah, just making a lot. So there'll be a lot to come this year I think.
RAPID FIRE
Biggest musical influences?
Erykah Badu comes to mind. Ben Harper comes to mind, even though I don't feel like a lot of my music represents that. I think he's just like the person that really me realise what music can do [laughs] to kid.
Dream collaboration?
Rick Ruben, for sure would love to work with him.
Album that has had the most impact on you?
Oh wow. You know what, that Voodoo album by D'Angelo is huge for me. The Big Thief Masterpiece album, that did a lot for me, just crying on the floor listening. Brent Faiyaz's album Fuck The World. That's a big one.
If you could create the soundtrack for any film, which one would it be?
Ooh, you know what I went to see yesterday was Everything Everywhere All at Once. Oh my God. Like one of the, like literally one of the best movies I've ever seen my whole life. I don't know about creating a soundtrack, because it's like a huge. It's like a big, big film, but I would love to have a go. I'd love to have a go to make the Trainspotting soundtrack. Yeah, those two, I think.
First concert you went to?
I think it was Gabrielle. My mum took me when I was super young. That was the first one I went to. The first one I took myself to, oh my God. So long ago it could been a Bowling For Soup concert. I remember going to that when I was really young [laughs]. It was definitely a phase. It was fun though. Oh my God, I remember running around there.
Best concert you have been to?
Let me have a think here. I think as an overall production of a show and also vocals and everything and energy of it, when I caught Billie Eilish at festivals, I was blown away. I was like, 'wow', just cause I feel like the energy that she brings on stage, as well as the production of the visuals, as well as, I don't know, just like the whole, the lineup of the songs and like, I dunno. I was really impressed with that. I was like, that's incredible.
Would you rather be a Spice Girl or a Backstreet Boy?
Oh, Spice Girl for sure.
If you were a Spice Girl, what would your spice nickname be?
Indecisive Spice [laughs].
An artist you think has had the most influence on the music industry?
Oh, that is a big one. You know what? Lil Nas X I think has had a huge influence. I think he's incredible and the way that like he's really taken the mainstream of like kind of pop and just flipped it on its head, made it punk, brought in so much. I just feel like he is changing the way that people see pop music, the way they see the mainstream. He's also made it like super visible to be gay in the mainstream. He's just doing the most. He's sick and his visuals are incredible. He just delivers every single time. I just think it's like, he's just really, great person.
What advice would your current self, give your future self, for a year from now?
I hope you've stuck your guns and if there's something that you're scared to do, run at it full force. You only get one chance, so a go for it. Don't lose track of who you are.
The moment you knew you wanted to be a musician?
Oh, you know what? When I was 14, I discovered this artist who doesn't at all, I guess I said it before, but Ben Harper. His music when I was like in the lowest point, I think ever, was the only thing that really ever like made me feel like maybe I wasn't an alien going through things on my own. And I think when that hit and my uncle got a guitar and I used to just like start putting my feelings down or like things that I was going through down secretly on like a little notepad and then I put it up on YouTube. I take it down from YouTube, then put it back up. And then going to an open mic the first time and meeting the community there of musicians, and singing about these things that I'd written in my room out into like them and them being welcoming with like open arms and having this home outside of home almost. That for me was like, 'oh, like there's a place for me here'. It just made sense. And I think I'd be completely lost without it, to be honest. Yeah, that was kind of the moment that I realised that I wanna do this for ever.