Ask Biig Piig – aka Irish alt-pop star Jessica Smyth – to describe the influences that fed into her debut album ’11:11′, and she’s just as likely to list off visceral feelings (like the excitement of “going full throttle in a new relationship” or that feel “very London: busy city and fast energy”) as she is sonic inspiration.
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Take the sun-drenched finale ‘Brighter Day’ – a song crammed full of nostalgic influences that evoke artists like Nelly Furtado – that the artist wanted to “feel like a memory”. With its woozy instrumentals, trip-hop-flecked beats and pitch-shifted vocals, it’s a wistful cut that feels like a memory, just as Smyth intended. Throughout ‘11:11’, big feelings and Smyth’s life experiences are the guiding thread.
The songs push genre boundaries, acting as vehicles to convey the “joyous” and “not so joyous” moments of her life over the past few years. In some ways, its creation was reminiscent of how Smyth first started writing under the Biig Piig moniker. “I’d find beats that I was like, ‘This speaks to this part of myself’,” she reminisces, sitting in a cosy corner of a cafe in her label’s London offices. “Then the instrumental brings the tone and sets the mood, and the lyrics tell the story.”
It’s an electric collection. Fizzing floor-fillers (‘Decimal’, ‘Ponytail’) and funky pop earworms (‘Favourite Girl’) cosy up against emotive stripped-back acoustic moments (‘One Way Ticket’), all while Smyth’s own unique viewpoint and life shines through. Take ‘Stay Home’, a “really warm” track inspired by the love of family and friends, featuring cosy group vocals from her nearest and dearest on the chorus. Or ‘9-5’, a sugar-rush of infatuation written in Paris, drawing from “rose-tinted” moments of romance. Simply put, it’s been worth the wait.
Born in Cork, Smyth spent time living in Marbella as a child before moving to London with her family in her teens. It was there she first met her NiNE8 collaborators, the brilliantly creative musical collective founded by Lava La Rue. “They’re the whole reason I make music under Biig Piig really,” she reflects of the group, which also counts Smyth’s long-time collaborator Mac Wetha.
“He was the first person to ever encourage me to put music out,” Smyth says of her relationship with Wetha, who worked with her on the ‘11:11’ track ‘Ponytail’. The creative process of NiNE8, which often began with a jam or a cypher, has also bled into her solo music. “It’s such a beautiful way to figure it out,” says Smyth. “It’s a stream-of-consciousness [approach] and [means you’re] not being scared to explore.”
“I would love to think that someone who’s going through the things that I’m going through in ’11:11′ can really find company in it”
It was in 2016 that Smyth first started to share music under the name Biig Piig, but she cites an experience the following year as the moment she thought it could be a full-time gig. “I never thought it was a thing I was able to do professionally. I think when I touched down to do COLORS in Berlin [in 2017], I was like: ‘Woah, wait, this could actually be something that transports me [to a different level]’,” she smiles.
The performance was a smash. In the years that followed, that epiphany started to become reality as she shared a handful of EPs (including 2021’s excellent ‘The Sky Is Bleeding’, a collection of grunge-infused cuts), a mixtape (2023’s ‘Bubblegum’, which NME said “hones in on a neon-hued dance sound”), toured with Glass Animals and Aurora, and collaborated with Metronomy – all these different musical experiences feeding into ‘11:11’.
All the while, Smyth has been stalling over making a full-length project “for a long time”. “I’ve been talking about doing albums literally since 2019, and it’s never felt right,” she shares Where some of her previous projects have felt like they’ve had the potential to grow into an album, she says she “never wanted to force it”.
Creation started in earnest for ‘11:11’ after Smyth created the record’s opener ‘4AM’ – an unravelling of complex post-night out feelings set over squelchy synth-led euphoria – a couple of years ago. Something clicked into place with that track and, since then, the direction has taken “so many different turns” – from something more dance-heavy to the final product, which meshes rave-ready sounds with moments of quiet contemplation.
It’s reflective of the wider music scene, where artists are less constrained by genre than in the past, as well as the constantly evolving dance music world and how it rubs off on the mainstream. ‘4AM’ opened the door to this kind of exploration in the musical world of ‘11:11’. ‘One Way Ticket’, for example, is more acoustic – a nod to the 15-year-old version of Smyth and the open mics she would play – and standing sonically aside from the more uptempo numbers on the album.
That song is also one of the more poignant moments on the album. “It’s about someone who passed in my life, and it’s something I haven’t been able to resolve, to be honest. Through that song, I felt a bit like I was talking to him, which is nice and a bit like I could share with him what was going on,” Smyth explains. “It’s something I was a bit scared of doing in the record initially,” she says of diving deep into her experiences. “Even ‘4AM’ was quite confessional, but it can’t be helped. I love figuring it out through music.”
““I’d find beats that I was like, ‘This speaks to this part of myself’. Then the instrumental brings the tone and sets the mood, and the lyrics tell the story”
This magic Smyth finds in songwriting, and her ability to let her emotions guide her through different situations, is a theme throughout our conversation – and throughout ‘11:11’. It’s there in ‘Silhouette’, a breezy cut of funk-fuelled synth-pop. “That was a really hard one to write. I was going through a really hard time in my relationship. It was shit,” she says. “I was really trying to hold it together, and we were in [legendary Paris studio] Motorbass – that fucking studio saw me through so many phases of my life.”
These songs will take on another life when Smyth takes them on the road later this year. Currently in rehearsals, she’s using what she learned on the road supporting Aurora to help inform her live show. “[Aurora’s] show is unbelievable, it’s unreal. Her vocals are incredible. She’s such a light, and her band are amazing. The vocals are crazy. Really, I was like. ‘I need to stop smoking’. I came off that tour and was like, ‘Fuck’,” she laughs.
For now, though, habit-kicking will have to take a backseat as Smyth gears up to finally share her debut album after almost a decade of making music as Biig Piig. “I want it to do what tracks did for me growing up, and I would love to think that someone who’s going through the things that I’m going through in that project, can find somewhere that they feel seen in and really find company in it,” says.
Ultimately, it’s a record she hopes fans will feel held by. “I would love [listeners] to be able to have that same relationship that I had with music, as a debut record. That’s what music means to me: companionship, and it’s a tool to be able to navigate through shit times and through amazing times.” Full of big hooks and even bigger feelings, ‘11:11’ is exactly the record to help you do just that.
Biig Piig’s debut album ’11:11′ is out February 7 via RCA Records.