Birthh Shares Shimmering Love Song “Puppy”
Brooklyn-based alt-pop artist Birthh shares shimmering love song “Puppy“ out everywhere now. The latest whirling, tender love song captures the distinct volatility that comes with the early stages of falling in love. Birthh’s forthcoming cinematic, kaleidoscopic third studio album Moonlanded is due out September 1 and available for pre-order now
Birthh’s world turned upside down when she met her current partner, and “Puppy,” the rhythmic, mellow love song out today, finds Birthh joyfully learning to navigate this life-altering experience. The exhilarating new relationship is one that causes Birthh to ask, as reflected in the lyrics, “Ooo shit, how could I deserve this?” On the song’s inspiration, Birthh reveals, “When we started dating I had no words to express the way they made me feel–the heat, the passion, the shimmering, iridescent, purple energy I feel around them.” Like many songs on the project, this one saw several changes to its style throughout its creation. Birthh continues, “Each version was made to express a different side of my feelings for them. At first it was a sweet ballad–I wrote it when we were 1,200 miles apart–then, after we reunited, I felt the need to make music she would want to dance to.” Ultimately, it became a track Birthh is truly proud of with a beat that lingers in her mind. “I kept the lyrics and made the beat you hear, probably one of the most fun rhythms I’ve ever made.”
The previously shared tracks “Hyperdrive” and “Jello” similarly dive into the depths of Birthh’s heart. What began as a slow, tender ballad filled with tension without any release turned into a sweeping, heartfelt euphoria with playful, upbeat vocals pitched up on “Hyperdrive.” The light track sees the artist open her heart in real time as the song flows out. Birthh reveals, “There was something that I loved so deeply about it–to this day it has probably some of my favorite lyrics I’ve ever written–but I could never find a way to finish it that felt true to the soul of the song.” Finally, after spending over a year adjusting it with her co-producer London O’Connor, the pair landed on a happier version with an energetic, cathartic release that seems to float through space and time. Birthh continues, “The chorus had no tension, just release, the beat was open and euphoric and it sounded just like my heart.”
The lovestruck, sweet track and video, “Jello” shines a light on the thrilling beginning of a new love. Eager to give love all around her, and to her all-encompassing crush, Birthh says, “I want to show you that part of me, I want to show you what it feels like to grow up in a place like Tuscany and to carry it in your heart. That’s how I want to love you.”Sonically, Birthh adds, “The string section in this song is how you make me feel. Feeling like I’m cruising over Italy on a warm sunny day.” In their Editor’s Pick list,Atwood Magazinewrote the trackis a “soul-stirring sensation of love manifest in song…a serene soundtrack to intimacy’s enchanting euphoria.”
The accompanying video shot and directed by Santiago Elliott is a queer love story that takes viewers from Brooklyn to Central Park alongside Birthh and her life partner Storm Higgins, who was also the video’s art director, makeup artist, and stylist. During the song’s dreamy string section, the video follows the pair for a romantic slow-motion jog down the beach at sunset. The sweet visual closes with the two moving into a new apartment and making their new house a home together, ultimately concluding with the best possible outcome of having a new crush. Birthh says about the video, “It was really important for Storm and I to show the evolution of our love through a sweet, dreamy lens because that’s what it felt like to us. Sapphic love is often either hypersexualized or dismissed. Coming from a more conservative culture like Italy, it hasn’t always been easy to express my queerness fearlessly. But we’re here, we’re proud, and representation really does matter. I wanted a video that would make 15-year-old me feel more comfortable in her skin.”
The forthcoming Odyssean LP Moonlanded invites listeners into Birthh’s world, where she revisits her childhood in the Tuscan countryside after unexpectedly starting a new life in Brooklyn. “When COVID hit it just felt like it was gonna be over in a couple months, I ended up not going back home for 2 and a half years. A lot of life happened in that timespan.” Over ten tracks, the rising alt-pop artist makes space for herself to begin to process the life-altering last three years, who she is now, and who she wishes to become. Birthh calls the project “warm, open, and ambitious”and adds,“This is my journey into what it feels like to be a sensitive human in their 20s in the 2020s, through all the pressure coming from within and from the world we were left with. Landing is finding a way to stay present and to love the process, it’s about creating space for ourselves and realizing that each of us is the protagonist in our own story.”
Moonlanded was written, recorded, and produced alongside collaborator London O’Connor in Birthh’s apartment studio, appropriately named The Moonbase. Never one to shy away from emotions, Birthh proudly wears her heart on her sleeve throughout the project, discovering what it means to truly be alive today. Birthh says, “We feel so much and so deeply. We feel the triumph of being alive as much as we feel the struggle that comes with it. All at once.” She adds,“This album is my mom. It’s my dad. It’s my love. It’s my home. It’s the grounding force of gravity and the dreams of escaping it.”
Birthh was born and raised in Tuscany, Italy, and at age 6 was gifted her first guitar. Two years later, she was already performing her own songs at her Nonna’s in Finale Emilia, a tiny village near Ferrara, Italy. By 16, she purchased a laptop and microphone to begin producing and arranging music out of her bedroom. By 2016, Birthh released her self-produced debut album at just 19 years old, Born in the Woods. In 2020, she shared her sophomore LP, the jazz-soul-folk-tinged WOAH. It was when Birthh travelled to Brooklyn, NY to meet her now life partner in March 2020 where the story of Moonlanded picks up. What was supposed to be two weeks turned into 2 and a half years, culminating in Birthh’s most self-assured work to date. The forthcoming LP transcends genres and geographic borders as it features a slew of orchestral instruments, and was deeply influenced by Italian music. The strings in the album were recorded in Milan by GRAMMY-winning sound engineer Tommaso Colliva and the album was mixed by GRAMMY winner Robert “LB” Dorsey, while lead vocals, beats, guitars, and keys were all captured from The Moonbase, Birthh’s bedroom recording studio in Brooklyn. The result is an intimate snapshot of the artist’s humanity – from a sudden new life, her nostalgia for her family-filled life in Italy left behind, and all the love and pain in between.
In 2016, Birthh shared her self-produced debut album Born in the Woods whichRolling Stone Italycalled “A jewel of rare luminosity..profound, poignant and delicate.” Upon the release of her collaboration “Infinite” with fellow Italian group YOY in 2018, Atwood Magazineraved about Birthh, writing, “Immensely talented…captivating singing, rich with emotive nuance and strong, subtle tone shifts, grounds the song’s ethereal lyricism with heartfelt and moving passion.” In 2020 came the jazz-soul-folk-tingedWOAH, Birthh’s self-produced sophomore album that was swiftly met with praise from several leading publications including American Songwriter who wrote, “That combination of wonder and invention…is beautifully blended into the music she makes. It is full of unexpected key changes, shifting tempos and playful twists and turns.” NPR included “Ultraviolet” featuring Ivy Sole, a cut from WOAH on their All Songs Considered Heat Check list and praised the singer’s voice, writing, “Birthh has the type of angelic tone that can help you temporarily float away from reality.” Seattle-based radio station and tastemaker KEXP named “Parakeet” their Song of the Day and called it “tender,” lauding Birthh’s “Beautifully composed songs accompanying her confessional lyrics and expressive voice.”
Birthh has played festivals around the world likePrimavera Sound Barcelona, SXSW, and has shared the stage with PJ Harvey, Mac DeMarco, The Temper Trap, and more. She’s also supported artists on their headlining tours and shows, including Imagine Dragons, Andrew Bird, Benjamin Clementine, Mika, and Nick Murphy.
Now, in 2023, Birthh looks ahead to introduce listeners to her own carefully built sonic story that chronicles the life left behind in Italy and the new life and love found in Brooklyn, NY as she begins to learn what it means to be alive.
The swirling, romantic track “Puppy” by Birthh is out everywhere now. The alt-pop musician’s vibrant, cinematic third album Moonlanded, is due out on September 1 and available to pre-order now. Connect with Birthh on Instagram and Facebook for more from the rising artist.
Photo credit: Allegra Toran