With today's Song of the Day, KEXP is proud to premiere the track “Parakeet” from Italian artist BIRTHH, aka 22-year-old singer/songwriter Alice Bisi. Her forthcoming full-length, WHOA, continues where her 2016 debut LP Born in the Woods left off: with beautifully composed songs accompanying her confessional lyrics and expressive voice.
Today's featured track is particularly personal, inspired by the passing of her beloved grandmother. It was at her house one summer that Bisi wrote her first song. Bisi tells KEXP:
Growing up I used to spend a lot of time with my grandma. She was the silent type, definitely someone who showed her love
through action, not as much through words. She had two parakeets, her eyes watered a little when the first one died. She loved nougat and I don’t remember her ever yelling at me — or at anybody else for that matter. Two years ago I was touring around Europe supporting hein Cooper, my dad called me and said that nana just had a stroke, that she survived but wasn’t really the nonna Franca we were used to anymore. Before visiting her at the hospital I collected all the pictures and memories I had of my childhood with her, that’s how "Parakeet" was born. Every line is a memory, music is a time machine, I wrote this one for myself and myself only.
The song began to take shape shortly after that difficult phone call with her father, and then she demoed WHOA over what she calls a "nine month burst of creativity" in her bedroom studio before finishing it with Lucius Page (Solange, Boys II Men) and Robert 'LB' Dorsey (The Roots). The album will be released March 6th via Carosello Records. “I want to help people with this album,” Bisi said via a press release. If today's Song of the Day is any indication, she certainly will.
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Host Emily Fox and KEXP’s editorial team talk with artists about the stories behind their songs and the experiences that inform their work. Through each conversation, we uncover the humanity behind the music, allowing us to hear it in a whole new way.
