piri & tommy share their brand new single ‘words’
Photo credit: Melissa Gardner
piri & tommy
share their brand new single
‘words’
“Ambition and reinvention…reimagining classic UK club genres for a new, passionate generation of ravers” NME
“Sweet, poppy and very much addictive…Piri & Tommy are quickly cementing themselves as a duo to watch out for” Complex
“The Zoomer embrace of Drum ‘n’ Bass” Pitchfork
Hotly-tipped duo piri & tommy have today released brand new single ‘words’, available now on EMI. The track follows piri & tommy’s hit single ‘beachin’, which hit the B List playlist at Radio 1 after premiering as Clara Amfo’s Hottest Record in the World earlier this year, cementing piri & tommy as one of UK pop’s most exciting breakout stories. ‘beachin’ followed the incredible success of debut single ‘soft spot’ – which reached #1 on TikTok, has surpassed 11 million global streams and earned shout-outs ranging from Charli XCX, Bella Hadid, Rebecca Black, PinkPantheress + more.
piri & tommy’s carefree approach to writing dance-pop anthems is on full display in ‘words’ and encapsulates the dizzying emotions that shape the duo’s sound. Made during a period of turbulence and miscommunication in their relationship, writing the track became a form of catharsis for the pair: “words is about an earlier time in our relationship when our communication wasn’t quite as good as it is now (haha) and it’s kind of a commentary on different levels of maturity in relationships, particularly in young people. Despite this we still wanted to make it a really fun and dancey tune”, explains piri. Tommy adds, “with the beat I was going for disclosure meets old school speed garage, i wanted the chords to kind of feel a bit on edge and create a tension that keeps it driving forwards.”
Thrown together in a bubble at the start of the pandemic, piri & tommy’s own backgrounds proved oppositional, but complimentary. piri was studying Chemistry at university in Lancaster, idolising the brash charisma of Doja Cat or K-Pop superstars Red Velvet: tommy, meanwhile, was a self-confessed Soundcloud nerd originally from Essex, but living out his rock star fantasies in his then-band, Porij. Together, piri & tommy bonded over a mutual love of dance music, in particular the genre-fluid Kaytranada or Disclosure, and started out making tunes from their bedrooms. On ‘soft spot’ – a bashful banger about awkwardness, and a new crush – piri & tommy struck a nerve between the stasis of modern life, the high-energy of DNB, and the rapid pace of Tiktok culture: it soon proved inescapable, travelling far beyond the pair’s student house (“I’m amazed,” says tommy, “to see people showing the world their lives with our tune as a soundtrack”).
Almost entirely by accident, piri & tommy now find themselves at the front of a new wave in music, which assimilates everything from the DIY Dance explosion online to their generation’s relationship with nostalgia (both, as exploded by the pandemic). Soon to embark on their debut headline tour, piri & tommy will be playing their second ever London show at XOYO on April 28th as part of a run of dates which also includes their appearance at this year’s Great Escape Festival in May. Tickets are on sale here: http://www.piriandtommy.com
piri & tommy tour dates
26th Apr – Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham
27th Apr – The White Hotel, Manchester
28th Apr – XOYO, London
11-14 May – The Great Escape Festival, Brighton
‘words’ artwork