Piri

Sophie Leigh McBurnie (born 14 March 1999), known professionally as Piri, is an English musician. Born in Rochdale in Greater Manchester, she is half of the band Piri & Tommy and an original member of the female and genderqueer collective Loud LDN.

Three of her works as half of Piri & Tommy have entered the UK charts: their 2021 single "Soft Spot" reached No. 20 on the UK Independent Singles Breakers Chart, their 2022 single "On & On" went to No. 99 on the UK Singles Chart, and their 2022 mixtape Froge.mp3 made No. 13 on the UK Dance Albums Chart. "Soft Spot" was ranked No. 59 on Rolling Stone's "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time" in July 2022, while their 2022 works "Words", "On & On", and Froge.mp3, and their cover of Charli XCX and Kim Petras's "Unlock It" all appeared on year-end best-of lists. In addition, she co-wrote the Illit song "Magnetic", which charted at No. 80 on the UK Singles Chart, and has been named as an influence by Caity Baser.

1999–2020: Early life
Piri was born Sophie Leigh McBurnie on 14 March 1999 and grew up in Rochdale in Greater Manchester. Her parents were an Asda manager and a human resources manager; her father was a fan of indie rock, while her mother preferred R&B and hip hop, and neither could stand the other's music tastes. While growing up, Piri composed songs on her guitar as a means of expression and often listened to Arctic Monkeys, Mary J. Blige, and later the Ting Tings and Owl City, to whom she learnt to harmonise.

Piri describes herself as a chronically online teenager, and would stay up all night playing Minecraft with people in other countries; she became interested in anime, through which she found J-pop. Towards the end of sixth form, she became obsessed with K-pop boy bands, including Exo, and then K-pop girl groups such as Blackpink, Red Velvet, and Twice. She created a stan account on K-pop Twitter; her username for which, Pirickili, stylised in lowercase, had been recycled from her Tumblr account, which in turn had been adopted after it was suggested to her by a random word generator.

She studied chemistry at Lancaster University, having first become interested in science in Year 5. She had planned to take biology before falling in love with chemistry at A-level. During her studies, she idolised the swagger of Doja Cat and Red Velvet, and was inspired by her organic chemistry lecturer, whom she considered following into the profession. During her second year, she joined the university's pole fitness society after attending a taster session as a joke with her housemate. She was introduced to dance music around this time, and was in a tech house phase while writing her dissertation. After graduating, Piri had intended to take a year away from education and then undertake a master's degree.

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. By May 2020, she was £2,000 into her overdraft and also owed a friend £800, with her part-time shifts at Asda failing to clear her debt. In response, she began uploading pornographic content to OnlyFans, a subscription-based social media platform. 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". She used the proceeds to fund her music career, buy a MacBook, Logic Pro, and a microphone, and move to north London.

2020–present: Piri & Tommy
In 2020, just before the second United Kingdom COVID-19 lockdown, Piri matched on Tinder with Tommy Villiers, a member of the band Porij. 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. Their first date was at Piccadilly Gardens, at which they bonded over a shared love of disco. She later moved into Porij's student house in Whalley Range in Manchester. After she realised that Villiers made beats, she asked if she could write on one; they later began writing together as Piri & Tommy. Villiers later left Porij to concentrate on Piri & Tommy. The first song the pair recorded, "Sunlight", was a house song, and the first song they released, "It's a Match", in March 2021, was a disco song, recorded after both had experimented with numerous genres.

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

Between November 2022 and January 2023, Piri & Tommy were featured on multiple "ones to watch" lists. They appeared on Vevo's Dscvr Artists to Watch 2023 list and MTV Push 2023 in November, and were longlisted for the BBC's Sound of 2023, an award ultimately won by Flo. They also appeared on TikTok's "Breakthrough Artists 2022", Montreux Jazz Festival's "Spotlight 20 Artists to Watch in 2023", Ticketmaster's 2023 "Breakthrough Artists" list, and Zane Lowe's "23 New Artists to Watch in 2023". One further single, "Unlock It", a cover of the Charli XCX and Kim Petras song of the same name, was released in November 2022. A week after the end of Froge.tour in late 2022, Piri & Tommy split up and did not talk to each other for several months, during which time they featured on MJ Cole's garage song "Feel It", and released the hyperpop song "Updown". They resumed working together in April 2023, releasing "Nice 2 Me", a liquid drum and bass song. They ended their contract with Polydor and then released "Lovergirl", a garage song, "Bluetooth", a drum and bass song, and "Christmas Time", a UK garage song.

2022–present: Other works
In January 2022, Piri became friends with Maisi, a London-based musician, who in May 2022 invited her to join Loud LDN, a collective Maisi and Coupdekat had set up for London-based women and genderqueer full-time musicians. Initially a group chat, the collective later expanded into hosting its own events. In September 2022, Piri signed a solo publishing record deal with Warner Chappell Music; after breaking up with Villiers in November, she uploaded several solo compositions to her SoundCloud account. She later performed her "Piri Pop Up Tour", which included a show at London's Moth Club. In April 2023, Piri was one of three cover stars of 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 that she found it "incredible to hear [Piri] speak so passionately about both [her music and OnlyFans] careers". Piri then featured on drum and bass songs by Sudley ("Fumble"), Maisi ("Head"), and New York City–based producer Tomcbumpz ("C U Never"). In September 2023, she and Venbee performed at Listen Out, an Australian festival. In October and November, she began her "Extra Hot" tour, which contained a mid-gig acoustic set and a guest spot from Villiers. She featured on Charlieeeee's "Easy" in January 2024, and co-wrote Illit's "Magnetic", which appeared on their March 2024 EP Super Real Me and charted at No. 80 on the UK Singles Chart. She then featured on "Luv Stuck", a track on Salute's True Magic.

Influences, voice, and songwriting
Piri has cited PinkPantheress as a big inspiration, saying that her use of drum and bass breaks was "massively influential" on her own sound. Her "Extra Hot" tour incorporated a medley of Sweet Female Attitude's "Flowers", PinkPantheress' "Pain", Jorja Smith's "On My Mind", and Crystal Waters' "Gypsy Woman"; "Pain" sampled "Flowers", while "Gypsy Woman" had been sampled by PinkPantheress for "I Must Apologise". Many reviewers compared the works of Piri & Tommy to those of PinkPantheress; Alison Craig of The Forty Five likened Piri & Tommy's "On & On" to PinkPantheress's works, AllMusic's Paul Simpson compared Froge.mp3 to PinkPantheress's 2021 mixtape To Hell with It, Alexis Petridis used a review of a Froge.tour concert to file Piri & Tommy alongside PinkPantheress, and Colin Joyce used a Pitchfork review of PinkPantheress' 2023 debut album Heaven Knows to describe Piri & Tommy and Yunè Pinku as "nostalgia-pop peers".

Piri has also cited musical inspiration from the success of Nia Archives and Charli XCX, and from the experimentalism of Sophie. She has credited Archives and Pinku for inspiring her to be a music producer, as she had previously felt that being a woman would stop her from doing so. In addition, she has also named Beyoncé, Megan Thee Stallion, and Doja Cat as role models for femininity, and Charli XCX, Doja Cat, and burlesque routines featuring pole dancing as inspiration for her post–Piri & Tommy performances. Additionally, when "It's a Match" came out, Anna Runa Umbrasko of Safe and Sound noted that Piri's sound had been "inspired by artists like Doja Cat and Dua Lipa". In an interview with Ticketmaster in August 2023, Caity Baser cited Piri when asked who her inspirations were.

Petridis noted that Piri sings in an "unaffected, untutored" voice, while Matthew Perpetua said in a Fluxblog review of "Beachin" 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". Reviewing "Luv Stuck", Margaret Farrell of Pitchfork described Piri sung with a "cherubic tone". When "Soft Spot" came out, Cat Zhang of Pitchfork compared Piri's voice to that of Ariana Grande, 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.

Piri's songwriting addresses experiences common to people of her generation, and has been noted for its bluntness. She told Notion in March 2022 that she usually wrote about whatever was on her mind at the time, and that many of Piri & Tommy's tracks acted as snapshots of their relationship. Runa Umbrasko 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". Piri & Tommy's works have been noted for their self-sufficiency, with Froge.mp3 written, produced, mixed, and mastered entirely within their bedrooms. 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 avant'n'B, UKG, liquid funk and hyperpop".

Music videos and stage
On stage, she referred to the band's fans as "Piri & Tommy nation", and when performing "Beachin", she threw beach balls into the crowd. Live Piri & Tommy shows featured Piri, Tommy, and a drummer, while solo shows featured dancers and burlesque. At Piri & Tommy concerts, the pair were noted for dressing as casually as their fans. The Scala gig of Piri & Tommy's Froge.tour incorporated a pole routine, which Alex Rigotti of Gigwise described as "a nice alternative from a typical dance choreo". A crocheted frog hat is a staple of Piri's 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 depicted the pair eating psychedelic frogs. In January 2024, Safi Bugel of The Guardian noted that Piri's crew for her solo live show comprised entirely "women, non-binary and LGBTQ+ people", and that she was urging other artists to follow suit.

Personal life
According to The Times in November 2022, she had over 419,000 followers on TikTok. She uses her account to upload videos of her dancing to her songs, and of her pole dancing. As of May 2022, she was uploading an average of two videos per day. Piri is noted for sharing her personal life with her followers more openly than past performers, which The Times described as a "refreshing change". She used a June 2023 edition of Gauchoworld to note that this sharing was motivated by wanting her followers to understand her experiences. Her openness extends to the way she addresses live audiences, with a September 2022 Brighton & Hove News review enjoying "the candid way" Piri addressed her audience.

Awards and accolades
Piri has been nominated for a number of awards and accolades. "Soft Spot" was listed at No. 59 on Rolling Stone's "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time" in July 2022, and Piri & Tommy's works "Words", "On & On", Froge.mp3, and "Unlock It" have all appeared on year-end best-of lists.

Headlining

 * Piri & Tommy (Piri & Tommy) (2022)
 * Froge.tour (Piri & Tommy) (2022)
 * Piri Pop Up Tour (Piri) (2023)
 * Extra Hot (Piri) (2023)

Supporting

 * Charli XCX – Music Venue Trust & The National Lottery’s Revive Tour (2022; one show)
 * Bbno$ – Bbnoeuro Tour (2023; two shows)