Birthh‘s latest release, “Puppy,” stands as a testament to the intoxicating thrill of newfound love. The Brooklyn-based alt-pop artist uses the track to depict the exhilarating and dizzying highs of her own love story. It masterfully embodies the heady feelings of falling in love, while simultaneously grappling with the doubts that accompany such deep affection.
Birthh’s journey of self-discovery is further illustrated in the previously released tracks “Hyperdrive” and “Jello.” In the former, she explores the emotional landscape of her heart in real-time, turning a once tentative ballad into an expressive, euphoric anthem. This song captures her skill of converting raw emotions into art, showcasing her dedication to authenticity and truth. The lyrics underscore the musician’s personal journey, chronicling her transformation into someone deeply in love and capable of great emotional depth.
“Jello,” a track celebrating the exhilaration of love’s early days, is both sweet and powerful. The song spotlights Birthh’s unique ability to channel her emotions into her music, making listeners feel as if they are part of the enchanting journey of her love story. Her vivid lyricism couples with a vibrant string section, creating a sunny, Italian dream-world ambiance that perfectly captures her overwhelming feelings of romance and joy.
Birthh’s forthcoming LP, Moonlanded, encapsulates her experiences and growth over the past two and a half years, merging her Tuscan roots with her new life in Brooklyn. The album serves as a reflection of the singer’s tumultuous life in the 2020s, exploring the myriad of emotions she’s experienced, from triumph to struggle. Self-written, recorded, and produced in her own apartment studio, the project encapsulates her journey of self-discovery and the unique perspective she has cultivated over the past few years.
From an enthusiastic girl performing at her grandmother’s house in Italy to a promising artist navigating love and life in New York, Birthh has truly landed, and she’s ready to take us on her odyssey. Ahead, we spoke with the singer-songwriter about “Puppy,” love, her upcoming album, and much more.
Hey Birthh! How is everything going for you at the moment?
Hey! I would say it’s going pretty intensely. Release time is always so busy, and I don’t feel like I’m even halfway through all the things I want to do. But overall, I’m grateful to be able to spend my life doing something I love so deeply.
Your latest single, “Puppy,” is an incredible record dedicated to your partner. I’d love to hear more about the process of creating it and hearing their first reaction to the song as well?
I actually met Storm in the last week of a work trip to New York. It was a two-month trip, and I met her right at the end. Once I got back to Italy, we ended up talking every day for months. I didn’t really think I could get so close to someone just over the phone, but it happened.
During that time, I wrote the first iteration of Puppy. It was a ballad with just guitar and vocals, a way for me to express that I would be there for them no matter what. When they heard it, they called me back sobbing, which surprised me a little.
Ultimately the distance became unbearable, and I went back to see her. It was six months after we met. It was a truly surreal time in my life, I’d never felt this way about anybody before. I would stay up at night just feeling so blessed and lucky to have found Storm. On one of those nights, I was up late at my Airbnb while she was sleeping. I sat down at the desk, put on my headphones, and wrote a beat. I wanted to make something she could dance to. And that’s how “Puppy” really came to be.
They’re sitting next to me right now, on our couch in our home in Brooklyn, working on their thing as we reminisce about those times, I asked what their first reaction to the finished song was, and they said they thought I was so cool. I really won this one.
Love can sometimes be a tricky topic, especially because it comes in many different forms. Having previously described your upcoming project as “what it feels like to be a sensitive human in their 20s,” how do you perceive love as an emotion?
I have a vivid memory from when I was maybe 5 or 6, I was on the couch with my mom, and I remember feeling this force radiating from my chest, it was an urge to hug her and say, “I love you.” So I did, and she hugged me back so tightly, and it felt so good, a feeling close to how it feels to close my eyes and fill my lungs with air on a breezy day at the beach.
I remember thinking: “I think I understand what it means to say I love you now.” That feeling is still there to this day. That is ultimately how I perceive love within my body. But then, as my awareness grew with me, I realized that love is not just that. At its core, I think that to love is to navigate life with intention, putting at the forefront the interconnectedness of everything and everyone.
While we’re talking about Moonlanded, I’d love to know why songs like “Jello” and “Hyperdrive” were the perfect predecessors for the album.
I wrote Jello at the end of 2018. The idea was to make a song and a small video in a day and just post it without thinking too much about it. The snippet ended up doing really well on Instagram, and it reached a new audience for me. Ever since then, people had been asking me when I was gonna release it, it felt only right to start the moonlanded journey with Jello and finally give people what they wanted. Hyperdrive just shows a different side of myself that I never shared with the world before, and I wanted to give a glimpse into that before the album came out.
How about the project’s title — how did you come up with it?
There’s a poem by Eva H.D. called Bonedog. I heard it in a Kaufman movie called “I’m thinking of ending things.” It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking piece, and that’s where I heard the expression “moon landed” used to describe a feeling for the first time. Something sparked in me as soon as I heard it.
I’d been using moon and space references throughout the demos already, though it was never really about sci-fi and space to me. Hearing her using it in such a human and personal way really connected the dots for me. The context and meaning behind the expression are completely different from the one in this poem, but I’m grateful it found me.
You’ve been in the industry for quite a few years now, releasing your debut album in 2016. What has been your biggest pinch-me moment so far?
Probably singing in front of 50,000 people while opening up for Imagine Dragons in Firenze. The craziest moment was when the crowd started singing the chorus of my song Supermarkets back at me, the song was fully unreleased too, which made it even crazier.
It’s no secret that music has its ups and its downs, regardless of whether you’re a fan or an artist. How do you think the industry could change going forward?
Ultimately, I think capitalism isn’t a system that serves us anymore. The music industry is not immune to that.
