Cork-born popstar Biig Piig: ' It feels like a turning point for Irish culture'
Jessica Smyth aka Biig Piig. Picture: Yana Van Nuffell
Born in Cork and spending her life to date living a nomad life of sorts between Marbella, London and LA, musician Jessica Smyth — better known as Biig Piig — has lived a life. A biig life, if you will.
“ I love adventure, I love meeting strangers,” she beams through my laptop screen. “It’s in my nature to want to get to know everyone.”
Smyth is sitting on her couch in her London apartment, speaking to me over Zoom. Pigtail plaits frame her face, with a range of tattoos visible, from a delicate 11:11 on her arm to an inked snake which sits below her shoulder.
Connected or not to the title of her just-released album and the recent Chinese New Year, it doesn’t matter. The timing of this release feels serendipitous.
Three years in the making, captures the span of Smyth’s early twenties — exploring turbulent times, late nights, love, loss, and finding yourself in the process.
“It’s a series of reflections,” she says. “A lot of relationships were changing and I did a lot of writing in real-time. Sometimes you don’t really know what it is that you’re not dealing with, and writing will bring that out of you.”
Change seems to be an endemic part of Biig Piig’s life. (The moniker was adopted after spotting a similarly named dinner option.)
Beginning life in Cork, the singer’s family uprooted to Spain when the artist was four. During the crash, they returned to Ireland, spending time in Tralee and Ardmore, before she settled in London during her teenage years.
“Maybe subconsciously somehow I’ve navigated my life so that I’m on a career path now that is constantly moving. I’m always jumping around, flying from place to place,” she reflects.
Certainly, listening to her debut record, it feels like the 26-year-old is never tied down. Whether it’s to a place, a language, or simply a vibe.
‘4AM’, a dance anthem, captures solitude and longing on the album’s opening number. The lyrics ring “I know you don’t want to be alone, cause no one does, it’s no wonder”.
The song ‘9-5’ chronicles the up-and-down start of her relationship with London rapper Jelani Blackman, while ‘One Way Ticket’ explores the darker theme of death.
‘Decimal’ is a flirt, Spanish scattered throughout offering a sensual listen.
“I feel like it’s such a therapeutic way of working through life,” she says about the process of songwriting. “Some tracks still feel heavy when I play them live because it brings me back so closely to that emotion.”
But anyone who has seen Smyth live knows she isn’t one to let that hold her back from putting on the immersive show of a lifetime.
She hopes that people feel a catharsis from her emotional songs as much as they are inspired by her dance tracks.
“ The thing with music is that it always finds its way back to you,” she says. “There’s some real magic to it. It can pull you out of a place and bring you back to connection.”
While the young Smyth began her musical journey on the open mic circuit in London at 16, and is deeply involved in the creative scene there, she says her connection to the Emerald Isle remains muscular. And she is nothing but passionate about the country’s strong storytelling culture.
“It’s just a huge part of everything, do you know what I mean?” she announces resolutely. “It’s the way you hear stories, it’s the way that you keep songs. It’s gorgeous.
“And it’s the same in Spain,” she adds. “The amount that music means to people in the community there is massive.”
With a recent boom of Irish acts making it big in London and internationally, Smyth commends Fontaines DC and CMAT for encouraging an upsurge of Irish people trying their hand at public performance.
“ It feels like a turning point for Irish culture,” she says.
“The fashion and the music scenes are popping off. We’re showcasing our talent right now, which I love.” She’s excited to see what else is going to happen with this newfound grá and willingness for Irish people to pursue their passions.
“I think a lot more people will feel inspired,” she says. “When I grew up in Tralee, I remember it was a case of, “oh, you’re doing what?”, and I think that’s changing. I think people are allowing themselves to be more serious about it.”
Smyth has been part of London-based collective NiNE8 for a decade, following encouragement from friends as a teenager.
“ I’d been going through a really tough time,” she tells me, “and I was invited to this party. They had a cypher going on.”
At this point, she has to explain to me what a cypher is. “It’s basically where you put on a load of beats and pass around a mic,” she says ecstatically, memories of past experiences glinting in her eyes.
“It’s just the most free-flowing state that you could be in. It’s super vulnerable, at the same time you feel so safe in it.
“ The closest reference I could think of in Dublin is Chamomile Club,” she continues, referencing the music and event collective run by Aby Coulibaly (who played support to Coldplay over three nights in Croke Park last summer), Monjola, Moio, and friends.
The collective has been innovative in its pop-ups — planting a coffee truck on Fade Street, collaborating with brands to host street parties, and curating festival sets.
Their biggest stint to date was a day event titled Chamomile Garden which brought together the founders and their friends to share music, improvise and close the gap between musician and artist.
“They’re doing a lot,” Smyth continues. “They’re holding events and keeping the scene alive and exciting. They have the same attitude in saying ‘the world isn’t that small, let’s just make it more creative together’.”
As we start to wrap up our chat, I mention the Spanish lyrics that pepper Biig Piig’s output. I wonder aloud if she’d ever include a cúpla focail in her lyrics?
“I don’t actually speak Irish because I left Ireland when I was four and then came back when I was 12. By the time I got back, they were like, oh, you’re too late.” But the lack of primary school education hasn’t swayed her yearning.
“It’s popping off,” she says on the resurging popularity of the Irish language. “I’m trying to learn. I’ve got my Duolingo up.”
- Biig Piig’s is out now. She plays the Olympia on February 17
