1999–2020: Early life

Piri was born Sophie Leigh McBurnie on 14 March 1999,^{[note 1]} and grew up in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.^[4] Her parents were an Asda manager and a human resources manager;^[5] her father was a fan of indie rock,^[6]: 8:57 while her mother was a fan of R&B and hip hop and neither could stand the other's tastes.^[3] While growing up, she composed songs on her guitar as a means of expression,^{[7]: 64–67} and often listened to Arctic Monkeys, Mary J. Blige, and later the Ting Tings and then Owl City, to whom she learnt to harmonise.^[6]: 8:57

Piri was a chronically online teenager, and would stay up all night playing Minecraft with people in other countries;^[8] she became interested in anime, through which she became interested in J-pop. Towards the end of sixth form, she became obsessed with K-pop boybands, Exo first, before becoming a fan of K-pop girl groups such as Blackpink, Red Velvet, and Twice.^[6]: 10:29 She created a stan account on K-pop Twitter;^[4] her username for which, Pirickili, had been recycled from a Tumblr account,^{[note 2]} which in turn had been adopted after having it suggested by a random word generator,^[10]: 5:06 and is stylised in lowercase.^[11]

She studied chemistry at Lancaster University,^[4] having first become interested in science in Year 5. She had planned to take biology before falling in love with chemistry at A-level.^[6]: 7:57 During her studies, she idolised the swagger of Doja Cat and the K-pop group Red Velvet,^[12] and was inspired by her organic chemistry lecturer. She wanted to follow her into the profession.^[4] During her second year, she joined the university's pole fitness society after attending a taster session with her housemate as a joke.^[9]: 53:00 She was introduced to dance music around this time, and was in a tech house phase while writing her dissertation.^[13]: 3:30 After graduating, Piri had intended to take a year out and then undertake a Master's degree.^[4]

Piri struggled financially at university; her own parents' high income meant that she was only entitled to basic-rate student finance, and their debts meant that they were unable to contribute.^[6]: 44:55 By May 2020,^[14] she had run out of overdraft and also owed a friend £800,^[6]: 44:55 and her part-time shifts at Asda were failing to clear her £2,000 debt.^[5] In response, she began uploading pornographic content to OnlyFans,^[6]: 44:55 a subscription-based social media platform.^[14] 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".^{[5][note 3]} She used the proceeds to fund her music career,^[5] buy a MacBook, Logic Pro,^[6]: 49:09 and a microphone, and move to north London.^[5]

2020–present: Piri & Tommy

In 2020, just before the second United Kingdom COVID-19 lockdown,^[15] Piri matched on Tinder with Tommy Villiers,^[5] a member of the band Porij.^[16] A couple of weeks later, one of the band's photographers retweeted one of their photo-shoots, prompting her to find his Instagram account and ask him out.^[9]: 38:07 Their first date was at Piccadilly Gardens, at which they bonded over a shared love of disco.^[5] She later moved into Porij's student house in Whalley Range, Manchester.^{[note 4]} After she realised that Villiers made beats, she asked if she could write on one, and they later set about writing together as Piri & Tommy;^[18] Villiers later left Porij to concentrate on Piri & Tommy.^[19] The first song the pair recorded, "Sunlight",^[20] was a house song,^[18] and the first song they released, "It's a Match" on 12 March 2021, was a disco song,^[6]: 37:50 recorded after both experimented with numerous genres.^[9]: 25:11

Piri pole dancing at Scala

On 4 June 2021, they released the liquid drum and bass single "Soft Spot", which went viral on TikTok and Spotify,^[21] prompting EMI to sign them and re-release the song.^[22] "Soft Spot" later spent a week at No. 20 on the UK Independent Singles Breakers Chart and appeared at No. 59 on Rolling Stone's "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time" in July 2022.^{[note 5]} They followed this with the jungle track "Beachin" and the garage song "Words",^{[note 6]} following the latter with a three-day tour.^[27] In May 2022, the pair performed at a TikTok showcase at The Great Escape Festival, their first pop music festival performance.^[28] The following month, Piri and Villiers performed at Glastonbury.^[29] Piri and Villiers then signed to Polydor and released "On & On" on 28 July 2022,^[30] which reached No. 99 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 28 on the UK Dance Singles Chart.^[31] The following month, Piri and Villiers performed at Reading Festival.^[32] In September 2022, the pair supported Charli XCX at a concert in Concorde 2 in Brighton,^[33] and on 21 October 2022, she and Villiers released the mixtape Froge.mp3,^[34] which spent a week at No. 13 on the UK Dance Albums Chart in November 2022,^[31] and was promoted with Froge.tour.^[34]

Between November 2022 and January 2023, the pair were featured on multiple 'ones to watch' lists.^{[note 7]} 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.^[42] A week after the end of Froge.tour, Piri and Villiers split up, though they announced the break-up in January, just after performing a Sound of... show, and did not talk to each other for several months afterwards,^[6]: 44:20during which time they featured on MJ Cole's garage song "Feel It",^[43] and they later released the hyperpop song "Updown".^[44] They resumed working together in April,^[6]: 44:20 and then released "Nice 2 Me",^[45] a liquid drum and bass song,^[46] before splitting from Polydor,^{[47]: 1:19:39} and then released "Lovergirl", a garage song,^[48] "Bluetooth", a drum and bass song,^[49] and "Christmas Time", a UK garage song.^[50]

2022–present: Other works

In January 2022, Piri became friends with Maisi, a London-based musician,^[51] who in May 2022 invited her to join Loud LDN, a collective she and Coupdekat had set up for London-based women and genderqueer full-time musicians. Initially a group chat, the collective later expanded into its own events.^[52] In September 2022, Piri signed a solo publishing record deal with Warner Chappell Music;^[53] after breaking up with Villiers in November, she uploaded several solo compositions to her SoundCloud account.^[3] She later performed a series of pop-up shows.^[54] In April 2023, 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".^[55] She then featured on drum and bass songs by Sudley ("Fumble"),^[56] Maisi ("Head"),^[57] and New York City-based producer Tomcbumpz ("C U Never").^[58] In September,^[59] she and Venbee performed at Listen Out, an Australian festival.^[60] In October and November, she undertook her "Extra Hot" tour,^[49] which contained a mid-gig acoustic set and a guest spot from Villiers.^[61]

Influences, voice, and songwriting

Piri on stage at Glastonbury

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;^[62] many reviewers compared the works of Piri & Tommy to those of her.^{[note 8]} Piri has also cited musical inspiration from the success of Nia Archives and Charli XCX, and from the experimentalism of Sophie,^[66]: 0:22 and has credited Archives and Yunè Pinku for inspiring her to be a music producer.^[67] In addition, she has also named Beyoncé, Megan Thee Stallion, and Doja Cat as role models for femininity,^[66]: 4:59 and Charli XCX, Doja Cat, and burlesque routines featuring pole dancing as inspiration for her post-Piri & Tommy performances.^[7]: 64 In an interview with Ticketmaster in August 2023, Caity Baser cited Piri when asked who her inspirations were.^[68]

Petridis noted that Piri sings in an "unaffected, untutored" voice,^[65] while Matthew Perpetua used a Fluxblog review of "Beachin" 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".^[69] When "Soft Spot" came out, Cat Zhang of Pitchfork compared Piri's voice 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]

Piri's songwriting addresses experiences common to people of her generation, and has been noted for its bluntness.^[71] 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.^[72] When "It's a Match" came out, Anna Runa Umbrasko of Safe and Sound likened Piri's "soft songwriting and innocent, kawaii aesthetic elements" to those of "a Manchester version of Clairo", and found her lyricism "genuine and humble".^[73] Piri & Tommy's works have been noted for their self-sufficiency, with Froge.mp3 written, produced, mixed, and mastered entirely within their bedrooms.^[71] 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".^[60]

Music videos and stage

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.^[7]: 64 At Piri & Tommy concerts, the pair were noted for dressing as casually as their fans.^[75] The Scala gig of Piri & Tommy's Froge.tour incorporated a pole routine,^[6]: 30:31 which Alex Rigotti of Gigwise described as "a nice alternative from a typical dance choreo".^[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 appeared in the music video for "On & On", which saw the pair eating psychedelic frogs.^[20] In January 2024, Safi Bugel of The Guardian noted that Piri's crew for her solo live show comprised entirely of "women, non-binary and LGBTQ+ people", and that she was urging other artists to follow suit.^[67]

Listicles

Mixtapes

• Froge.mp3 (2022)

Singles