Birthh - Pop among the stars

International in both DNA and sound, BIRTHH is one of the most interesting artists on the Italian underground scene and beyond. "WHOA" is her latest work, a success with both audiences and critics that will soon bring her back on stage. With the coronavirus lockdown leaving her in stand-by in the United States, she gave us this interview from there…

Your latest work, "WHOA", has been widely acclaimed abroad and is winning over both audiences and critics in Italy too. What inspired you while writing it?

Everything around me inspired me in one way or another - it's a process of absorbing and reworking, I like chasing beauty in all its forms, and I think that influences my writing enormously.

You've said that "WHOA" is a kind of expression of wonder: from wonder at a star to wonder at a good pizza. How much of this album is grounded in the concrete, and how much is ethereal?

Finding the balance between these two dimensions was one of the main goals - I'd like to think I found it, so I'd say it's a 50/50 split.

Your sound has been described as "cosmic pop" - can you put that into context for us?

I'm hugely passionate about anything to do with the universe and the cosmic dimension of things - in my lyrics I often talk about planets, constellations, flying, and it's something I look for in production too, one way or another. At the same time, though, a lot of my melodies still have a pop backbone, so, well, cosmic pop seems like a good way to sum up something I find hard to put into words.

You've said: "I don't want the listener to get bored." That's a premise you seem to have fully embraced on this record, given how dynamic and varied the tracks are. What's the key element of this album?

Maybe exactly that - I really tried to make the unpredictability flow as smoothly as possible, and the dynamics help a lot with that.

BIRTHH as in birth (spelled with two h's to dodge Google's scattershot search results): why is the starting point so important to Alice Bisi?

For me it's not so much the starting point itself that matters, but the fact that there is a start at all - the fact that, one way or another, we're here, we're alive, and we get to explore, listen, discover, and so on.

You've performed at shows and festivals alongside artists of the caliber of PJ Harvey, Mac DeMarco, Andrew Bird, Benjamin Clementine, Nick Murphy and Imagine Dragons. Who do you dream of performing with, and which experience left the deepest mark on you?

I don't have big expectations on that front, although I'd love to have a chat with Stevie Wonder after one of his live shows. Generally speaking, you learn an incredible amount from other musicians' concerts. Benjamin Clementine has stayed close to my heart - we spent hours talking after his concert, about films, music, life in general. He's truly an extraordinary artist.

"Birth is never as certain as death. And that is the reason why being born is not enough. We are born in order to be reborn," said Pablo Neruda. Do you agree?

I think death and birth are necessary in the same way - death is essentially the contract we sign with life when we're born, and the fact that we have a limited amount of time to live on Earth is exactly what makes living so precious. So yes, I agree with Neruda: being born isn't enough, you have to live knowing that one day you'll die.

Right now, in this moment of great chaos, you're in the United States - how is the Coronavirus emergency being experienced on the music scene over there, and when will we get you back in Italy for the new tour?

Here in New York the streets are deserted, although it still seems to me that not everyone has grasped the severity of the situation we're in. The tour has been pushed back to autumn and I'm very hopeful!

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