Briggs is a breath of fresh air, both on and off stage. She lives to perform and performs like it’s her last day on earth. With Bishop Briggs, what you see is what you get. “Honesty in what you do is so important – that’s why I can’t wait to come to Australia.
“My favourite thing about every Australian I’ve met, and every Australian music fan, is that they’re drawn to authenticity and vulnerability. There’s something about that that makes me so excited, and I hope that while I’m there an ever bigger connection is made.”
Briggs, AKA Sarah Grace McLaughlin, was born in Britain to Scottish parents (her stage name is inspired by the town outside Glasgow, where her parents are from). Briggs spent her early years in Tokyo where she made her debut public appearance. “I do think it’s an interesting rite of passage that the minute that you land in Japan you have to go to a karaoke bar,” she jokes. “That’s what my family did – and the first person to go up and sing was my dad. He would always sing Frank Sinatra – it was just something fun for him. But what was really exciting for me was to see how free he was.
“When I saw him on stage there was this energy about him that I was so drawn to. It’s funny, because for me the only time in my life when I truly feel free is when I’m on stage. We have a really amazing connection and I still feel it today which makes me really happy.”
When asked if she remembers the song she sang that first night at the karaoke bar, she says she remembers it like yesterday. “Oh, of course,” she laughs. “It was Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston. It was a very bad rendition but I had a lot of confidence for some reason, so I sang it all year round.”
At just 24 years old, Briggs is living her dream. With stars in her eyes, she left her family home in Hong Kong five years ago to pursue a music career and join her sister in the City of Angels. “I always had a glamorised view of Los Angeles as this glittering place where dreams could come true, and I also had a fascination with American culture,” she says. “The less glamorous reason was because my sister went to college there, and she’s my best friend so it just seemed like the right move. She was raving about the city and the music there, so I had to follow her.”
Briggs says that soon reality set in. She would play at a different bar every night to an audience of three people, but she didn’t let it faze her. “Sometimes it was terrible,” she says. “I think the glamorised view is something that’s in your head. I think the practicality of it is that it’s a tough place – it’s really the grind, and we’re all fighting to make our dreams come true. You believe in yourself first and foremost, and convince everyone around you that you are worth their time and energy, but I wouldn’t trade it at all.
“That being said, I’m still living there. I think that in Los Angeles there’s this glitter that surrounds it, but you have to wait find it.”
Before her trip Down Under she plans to spend the next few weeks back in LA in the studio. Briggs says the release of her first LP is so close she can taste it. “As much as it’s so fun to write on the road, and if you’re lucky you get to record on the road, there’s something about going back to where it all began – and in this instance it’s Los Angeles. But sometimes when I started putting pen to paper I realised how depressing my writing is,” Briggs says. “It’s a bit of a mix, but I love it so much I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It’s a huge goal of mine to have more music released this year, and if it was up to me it would be yesterday. There’s a lot of music that isn’t online that I’m so proud of and I can’t wait to share it.
“I will definitely be incorporating new music into the set when I come to Australia, and I can’t believe I get to play at Splendour in the Grass. I’m someone who’s wanted to go to this festival for such a long time, and to be actually playing it is surreal,” she says. “Also the lineup – of course I’m not talking about myself, but The xx, Sigur Rós, Maggie Rogers, Stormzy and Lil Yachty. I think I’m going to be as much of a fan as a performer.
“I try to do that at every festival – see at least a few people – but I do think Splendour in the Grass is going to be my normal experience on crack. I’m going to be in Australia around my birthday time, so there will be a lot of fun to be had. I think I might just escape to a karaoke bar, but I’ll have to talk to my sister about that.”
