Bishop Briggs

Early life

Briggs was born in London to Scottish parents from Bishopbriggs, Scotland, which inspired her professional name. At age four, she moved to Tokyo with her parents. She sang in public for the first time at a Tokyo karaoke bar, and immediately realized she wanted to continue performing throughout her life. Growing up with the city's karaoke bar traditions and hearing music from Motown musicians to The Beatles at home also influenced her to pursue music. She started writing her own songs at age seven, which she would perform for her family. She moved to Hong Kong at age 10, where she lived until she was 18. After graduating from Hong Kong International School she moved to Los Angeles, California, and attended college at Musician's Institute.

2015–present: Debut singles

After moving to Los Angeles, Briggs started her career by playing in any venue that asked her to perform, often for crowds as small as three people. Shortly after a 2015 performance in a local bar that gained the attention of former A&R representative George Robertson, Briggs recorded her first single "Wild Horses" under the name Bishop. The song was produced by Mark Jackson and Ian Scott. Many users found Briggs via Shazam when seeing an Acura commercial which features the song. In late 2016, "Wild Horses" began climbing the charts again, entering the top 30 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and top 13 on the Billboard Twitter Emerging Artist charts. In December 2016, it entered the Top 20 on iTunes Alternative Charts.

In January 2016, Briggs released the single "River" and changed her recording name to Bishop Briggs to avoid confusion with a heavy metal band of the same name. The song was a commercial success. Shortly after its release, the song quickly made it to number 1 on Hype Machine's Popular charts and reached number 1 on Spotify's US Viral 50 and #2 on the Global Viral 50. It also received an Honorable Mention on Shazam's predicted Songs of the Summer 2016, which was featured in Billboard. As of May 2016, "River" was steadily climbing the Shazam Future Hits charts. "River" climbed into the top 3 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and top 10 on the Billboard Hot Rock, Rock Airplay and Twitter Emerging Artist charts, and spent months in the top 5 of iTunes Alternative charts.

In May 2016, she released her third single, "The Way I Do". It was also announced that she would open for Coldplay in the fall of 2016 on nine of their tour dates, as well as open for Kaleo throughout their fall tour. Briggs made her television debut on August 1, 2016, performing "River" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She released her fourth single, "Pray (Empty Gun)" on August 12, 2016. The song was featured in the season 2 finale of the MTV show Scream. On September 23, 2016, Briggs released the single "Be Your Love". Her first physical release was a self-titled 12" vinyl EP in a limited edition run of 1,200 copies, released on Record Store Day Black Friday in 2016.

In December 2016, Briggs released the official video for "Wild Horses" through W Magazine.

Bishop Briggs is included on the line-up for Coachella 2017. Briggs contributed to the soundtrack of xXx: Return of Xander Cage with her song "Mercy".

Artistry

Briggs has stated that she uses her piano skills frequently when writing songs. When performing live, she does not talk to the audience much—in her words, "our whole goal is to make people really listen to the music and the lyrics and take their own interpretation from it."

EPs