new release – Downtown Magazine

Don’t care about who you know
Man, you’re old, you don’t scare me
Run down a rabbit hole
Your downfalls, I see you clearly now

Irish singer/rapper Jessica Smyth, aka Biig Piig, recently dropped Switch, her newest single from her recent EP No Place For Patience, Vol.3 (RCA). It is a banger.

Switch is percussive, glitchy, and dreamy, graced with Smyth’s ethereal vocals and a relentless bassline. The song defies any real genre, blending elements into an exciting new hybrid. Part confession, part resignation, and part determination, the song proved itself eerily prescient for a global lockdown.

Smyth got her artistic start in London with the NiNE8 Collective, a network of creatives which Jess founded with Lava La Rue. The name “Biig Piig” revealed itself when Smyth read it drunk off a pizza menu: a fitting origin story for an artist who displays continued optimism and determination whilst facing quarter-life crisis. The 22-year-old has since earned significant attention over the last couple of years. Billie Eilish is an ardent fan, and a strong presence on the British airwaves has launched Biig Piig into the limelight.

“Switch is about the tension, helplessness and pressure that the world is under right now. The beat and lyrics to me represents the fast pace of how the world is falling apart, and the anxious undertone of it all,” says Smyth.

Although the lyrics feel as if they’ve been ripped from a diary, the chaotic backbeats and spirited energy drive the tune into uncharted waters. It is the calming cup of tea for a stress migraine.

The video for Switch, which recently aired on MTV UK, depicts a fast-paced, fiery car chase of Jess (and several Nine8 friends) zipping through a a darkened, dystopian city. The piece is a collaborative triumph by British illustrators Alice Bloomfield (character animation) and Jack Solomon Smith (backgrounds). The stunning piece of art works well with the hypnotic, frenetic sound of Biig Piig. Smyth sings the praises of Bloomfield’s vibrant work:

“Alice is an incredible illustrator, I’m so happy we worked with her on this one…The whole ethos of Nine8 and the theme of the song are so intertwined, and she captured that perfectly.”

Sit back and enjoy Switch!

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By Alice Teeple

Photos by Alice Teeple

Christine Smith takes a drag from her well-deserved cigarette outside the Bowery Electric. She’s just wrapped a spectacular solo performance for her sophomore album release, Meet Me On The Far Side Of A Star. It’s fitting this album made its debut in the intimate Map Room: its twinkling, celestial backdrop placing Smith in a sort of netherworld somewhere between Weimar Berlin and Major Tom’s shuttle.

“Oh dear! Looks like I’m molting,” she chuckles, as several wisps of black marabou feathers float from her dress to the sidewalk. She stamps out her smoke, signs a CD for a fan, and warmly greets old friends who came to see the songstress on her former stomping grounds.

The Bowery is foggy, with a damp chill in the air: the kind of weather that reluctantly welcomes nostalgia and melancholy. This night, Smith served as the ferrywoman, steering the boat with electric piano keys and a small red Spanish accordion, through an emotive display of loss, longing, and regret. Christine Smith treads the line between days gone by and harsh modernity. She ruefully gazes back at the storms of the past with wry observation, hard-fought wisdom, and persistent optimism. She is a seasoned warrior armed with wit, poetic dreams and a delicious glass of red to calm those tides.

Smith’s seen her fair share of touring and recording over the last twenty years, having played with Crash Test Dummies, Jesse Malin, and Ryan Adams; as well as sharing the stage with Bruce Springsteen, Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan, Lenny Kaye of the Patti Smith Group, and H.R. of Bad Brains.

With such a punk/rock background, it’s astonishing to hear Smith’s own gentle, conversational voice and classic piano plucked straight out of a 1930s cabaret. It turns out that during her early days living as an ex-pat in London, Smith supported herself playing jazz standards. From there she served as the musical director for Newsrevue (London’s longest-running satire show).

There are strong elements of the Great American Songbook in this album, but Smith proudly wears her other influences on her sleeve – echoes of Petula Clark here, some Patti Smith there, some Simon LeBon flair, sprinkled with a bit of Angelo Badalamenti and 1950s doo-wop. She is a shining result of her eclectic tastes and influences. Her autobiography will be one hell of an incredible read one day.

Meet Me On The Far Side Of A Star began as a collaboration with Texas singer-songwriter Victor Camozzi, who shared Smith’s passion for 1930s-40s American classics. A year and some massive life shifts later, Smith’s “achingly beautiful” masterpiece was finished. Meet Me On The Far Side Of A Star is an artistic triumph. Rolling Stone recently praised her track Happily Never After (featuring Tommy Stinson of the Replacements) as a top ten Country/Americana song of 2019. One hopes that Christine Smith keeps exploring her own voice and draws more from her deep well of experience and compassion.

The album is available for purchase here.

It can also be streamed here: