Piri

Sophie Leigh McBurnie[1] was born on 14 March 1999[2] to an Asda manager and a human resources manager,[3] and grew up in Rochdale.[4] Her mother was a fan of R&B and hip hop, while her father preferred rock and guitar-based music and neither could stand the others' tastes.[5] Growing up, she would compose songs on her guitar as a means of expression,[6]^: 64–67 and her favourite artist was the Arctic Monkeys.[7] Her stage name, which she stylises in lowercase,[8] was a truncated form of Pirickili, which she created for a Tumblr account, and later used on K-pop Twitter[9]^: 51:18 for a stan account;[4] she has stated that she came across it after using a random word generator, and that those interacting with her shortened it to Piri.[10]^: 5:06

She holds a degree in chemistry from Lancaster University, during which time she was inspired by her organic chemistry lecturer, and wanted to follow her into the profession.[4] She was a member of the pole fitness society, which she joined during her second year after attending a taster session with her housemate as a joke.[9]^: 53:00 Whilst at university, she idolised the swagger of Doja Cat and the K-pop group Red Velvet.[11] She has stated that she got into dance music after being introduced to it during her second year of university, and that she was in a tech house phase while writing her dissertation.[12]^: 3:30

After graduating, Piri had intended on taking a year out and then undertaking a Master's degree.[4] In May 2020,[13] after finding that she was £2,000[3] into her overdraft,[13] and that part time shifts at Asda were failing to clear her debt, she set up an OnlyFans account. She told The Times in November 2022 that she experienced less backlash than she was expecting, and that her account had "about 1,000 to 2,000 fans paying about $12 a month", which after the site had deducted its fees meant she earned "between $10,000 and $20,000 a month";[3] having found that she was making more money than she would have done as a graduate chemist,[4] she used her income to fund her music career, buy a computer and a microphone, and move to north London.[3]

Piri at Radio 1 Big Weekend

In 2020, just before the second United Kingdom COVID-19 lockdown,[14] Piri matched on Tinder with Tommy Villiers,[3] a member of the band Porij.[15] A couple of weeks later, one of the band's photographers retweeted one of their photoshoots, prompting her to find his Instagram account[9]^: 38:07 and ask him out.[16] Their first date was at Piccadilly Gardens, at which they bonded over a shared love of disco;[3] the pair later formed a support bubble in a student house[17] in Manchester.[9]^: 56:05 After it was realised that Piri could sing and Villiers could produce, they set about writing together; Villiers would later leave Porij to concentrate on Piri & Tommy.[18] The first song the pair recorded, "Sunlight",[19] was a house song,[20] and the first song the pair released was "It's a Match", a disco song, recorded after both experimented with numerous genres.[9]^: 25:11

On 4 June 2021, Piri and Villiers released the liquid drum and bass single "Soft Spot". The song went viral on TikTok and Spotify,[21] prompting EMI to sign them and re-release the song;[17] "Soft Spot" later spent a week at No. 20 on the UK Independent Singles Breakers Chart[22] and appeared at No. 59 on Rolling Stone's "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time" in July 2022.[23] They followed this with the jungle track "Beachin" on 28 January 2022[24] and the garage song "Words" on 22 April 2022,[25] following the latter with a three-day tour[26] which attracted stage invasions. In May 2022, the pair performed at a TikTok showcase at The Great Escape Festival, their first festival performance, and with a loop of their most watched TikTok videos playing on a screen to their right.[27] Also in May, Piri joined Loud LDN,[28] having befriended the collective's cofounder Maisi the following January,[29] and the following month, Piri and Villiers performed at Glastonbury.[30]

Piri and Villiers then signed to Polydor and released "On & On" on 28 July 2022,[31] which charted at No. 99 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 28 on the UK Dance Singles Chart,[32] and the following month, Piri and Villiers performed at Reading Festival.[33] In September 2022, the pair supported Charli XCX at a concert in Concorde 2 in Brighton;[34] later that month, Piri signed a solo publishing record deal with Warner Chappell Music.[35] On 21 October 2022, she and Villiers released the mixtape Froge.mp3,[36] which spent a week at No. 13 on the UK Dance Albums Chart in November 2022,[32] and was promoted with Froge.tour.[36]

Between November 2022 and January 2023, the pair were featured on multiple 'ones to watch' lists.[note 1] One further single, "Unlock It", was released on 11 November 2022, and was a cover of the Charli XCX and Kim Petras song of the same name.[44] In November 2022, a week after the end of Froge.tour, Piri and Villiers split up, though they announced the breakup in January.[45]^: 44:20 After the break-up, she uploaded several solo compositions to her SoundCloud account.[5] On 20 January, the pair featured on MJ Cole's garage song "Feel It",[46] and four weeks later, they released the hyperpop song "Updown".[47] She later performed a series of pop-up shows.[48] In April, Piri was one of three cover stars of that spring's Polyester magazine, along with Cat Burns and Doechii. The magazine's editor, Ione Gamble, stated that she chose them as examples of women who had used the internet to their advantage, and found it "incredible to hear [Piri] speak so passionately about both [her music and OnlyFans] careers".[49] On 28 April 2023, Piri featured on the drum and bass song "Fumble" by Sudley,[50] and on 24 May 2023, she and Villiers released "Nice 2 Me",[51] a liquid drum and bass song.[52]

On 27 July 2023, Piri and Villiers released "Lovergirl", a garage song[53] about pride in putting effort into relationships,[54] which they released independently,[55]^: 1:19:39 and promoted with an animated video featuring avatars of them navigating a Mario Kart-inspired race course.[53] On 25 August 2023, she and Maisi released "Head",[56] a drum and bass song written about their feelings about success going to artists' heads, and which was promoted with a video directed, produced, and edited by Maisi.[29] The song was first played on 5 August on BBC Music Introducing with Jess Iszatt, who had to stop playing it halfway through after reading the track notes and finding it was not supposed to have been played until 11 August.[57]^: 1:35:26 On 20 September 2023, she and New York City-based producer Tomcbumpz released "C U Never",[58] a drum and bass song[59] written about breaking up with a partner by phone,[58] and later that month,[60] she and Venbee performed at Listen Out, an Australian festival.[61] In October, she and Villiers released "Bluetooth", a technology-themed drum and bass love song, which went viral on TikTok, and which she followed with a six-date tour.[62]

Piri has cited PinkPantheress as a big inspiration, saying that her use of drum and bass breaks was "massively influential" on the band's sound.[64] Piri & Tommy's "On & On"[65] and Froge.mp3 have both been compared to PinkPantheress, with the latter specifically compared with her 2021 mixtape To Hell with It.[66] Piri has also cited musical inspiration from the success of Nia Archives and Charli XCX, and from the experimentalism of Sophie.[67]^: 0:22 In addition, she has also named Beyoncé, Megan Thee Stallion, and Doja Cat as role models for feminity,[67]^: 4:59 and Charli XCX, Doja Cat, and burlesque routines featuring pole dancing as inspiration for her post-Piri & Tommy performances.[6]^: 64 In an August 2023 interview with Ticketmaster, Caity Baser cited Piri when asked who her inspirations were.[68]

Piri's voice has been noted for its neutral, untutored quality.[69] When "Soft Spot" came out, her voice was compared to that of Ariana Grande,[21] and when Kenya Grace entered the UK Singles Chart with "Strangers", the Official Charts Company described her voice as a combination of those of Piri, PinkPantheress, and Charli XCX.[70] Reviewing "Beachin", Matthew Perpetua used his Fluxblog to note that she "sings with very modern English R&B inflections – a lot of restraint and no showy runs, but with an elegant soulfulness in smaller moments".[71]

Piri's songwriting addresses experiences common to people of her generation, and has been noted for its bluntness.[72] She told Notion in March 2022 that she usually wrote about whatever was on her mind at the time, and that many of their tracks acted as snapshots of their relationship.[73] Piri & Tommy's works have been noted for their self-sufficiency, with Froge.mp3 written, produced, mixed, and mastered entirely within their bedrooms.[72] Cyclone Wehner of Australian music magazine Purple Sneakers wrote in October 2023 that Piri "blends airy female vocals, syncopated breakbeats and the sonic aesthetics of Timbaland's '90s avant'n'B, UKG, liquid funk and hyperpop".[61]

Piri pole dancing at Scala

On stage, she would refer to the band's fans as "Piri & Tommy nation", and when performing "Beachin", she would throw beach balls into the crowd.[74] Live Piri & Tommy shows featured Piri, Tommy, and a drummer,[75] while solo shows featured dancers and burlesque.[6]^: 64 At Piri & Tommy concerts, the pair were noted for dressing as casually as their fans.[75] A crocheted frog hat is a staple of her signature look; she told Dork in November 2022 that when she met Villiers, she was in a phase of drawing frogs and toads, and they started calling each other 'Froge' as a nickname. Her amphibian motif has appeared in music videos, with "On & On" seeing the pair eating psychedelic frogs.[19] She is also noted for her pole dancing, which she occasionally integrates into her live performances, such as during Froge.tour.[75]

• Froge.mp3 (2022)