Singer began journey young
When listening to Bishop Briggs’ minimalist, noirish electro-pop songs, one can hear the influences of American soul and British trip-hop. Though not as audible, the singer-songwriter’s time growing up in Asia is just as much a part of her origin story.
Briggs, who is on a diverse bill Thursday, Oct. 27, with Icelandic indie folk band Kaleo and the Austin neo-Americana duo the Wind + the Wave, was born Sarah Grace McLaughlin in London to Scottish parents. Her stage name is a nod to her family’s hometown, Bishopbriggs.
Moving to Japan when she 4, Briggs attended the all-girls International School of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo. While living the life of a so-called “third culture kid,” she was introduced to the world of karaoke and from that point knew she wanted to be a singer.
This wasn’t the drunken version of the popular pastime, but rather the Japanese pretween setting. “It was the go-to place if it was your eighth birthday,” she says. “So it was more Chuck E. Cheese than ‘Lost in Translation.’ ”
Karaoke gave her an early exposure to broad musical styles beyond the J-pop of the day, and the supportive atmosphere gave her a safe space to first start singing in public.
“It was incredible. They had these huge books that were full of every single genre that you can imagine,” she recalls, by phone from a tour stop in Minneapolis. Singing in front of friends, “you can definitely get your grounding, for sure.”
Another influential move came when Briggs’ family relocated to Hong Kong as she entered her middle school years. “It actually wasn’t too bad,” she says. “I really fell in love with Hong Kong quickly after moving there. And I started taking singing lessons, so it was a really exciting transition.”
She studied speech-level singing “every single Saturday for eight years” with a famed vocal instructor named Christine Samson. Upon graduating from Hong Kong International School, she continued her formal musical education at Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, where she now lives.
In making an impressively quick yet thoughtful ascent, Briggs has taken both traditional and 21st century steps to getting her music heard. She was discovered by George Robertson, a one-time A&R label representative, while gigging throughout Southern California. Then she was introduced to new fans when her song “Wild Horses” was featured in an Acura commercial, followed up by plenty of radio play of her hit “River.”
Releasing a series of singles leading up to a debut album that’s scheduled to be released next year by Island Records, Briggs has been posting her songs on Sound-Cloud, an online social music platform.
“Really early on, for me, it was super big in Hong Kong to just share and share what was going on social media,” she says. “I think when it came to music, it did feel quite natural because it was something that I was so passionate about. It really was all that I had going on in my life.
“And still it’s all I really have going on in my life,” she adds, with a laugh.
In concert, Briggs is known to be intense and focused. She doesn’t engage in much banter, which is odd when one speaks with her and quickly learns that she’s conversationally engaging and spirited.
“As you can tell, I have this Valley Girl accent, and I don’t know if that coincides as well with the dark, emo songs that I like to write,” she says. (Highenergy might be a less selfdeprecating description of her speaking style.)
“I also think there is something when you say less, the music does say more,” she continues. “It lets the lyrics linger in people’s heads — at least I hope so. But I’m not going to lie: I do love a good shout-out here and there to wherever I’m playing, depending on the place.”
As an opening act on the recent Coldplay tour (including a stop at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara over Labor Day weekend), Briggs says she didn’t change the style of her performance despite the massive setting. “When I was playing in coffee shops where the three people there would be looking away and checking their phones, I would be performing as if it was a huge stadium,” she says.