Gen Z singer and songwriter piri infuses dance, drum and bass, house and pop music into her work. Her breakout hit, “Soft Spot,” which was created in partnership with producer Tommy Villiers, blew up on TikTok last summer; that’s how she caught the attention of Warner Chappell. Darryl Parkinson, senior A&R manager at WCM U.K., remembers: “I heard ‘Soft Spot’ in mid-2021 and saw it growing organically on TikTok and various DSPs. It just kept growing and growing, and I thought the song and her vocal were amazing.”
Parkinson reached out to piri’s management to find out more, then met the artist in tandem with the pubco’s head of A&R, Amber Davis. After they heard other impressive songs and witnessed her
“brilliant gig that felt like a rave” at London’s Seabright Arms, the deal was done. Piri formed piri & tommy with Villiers and has continued to release music to an ever-growing audience. This has led to their first U.K. tour and multiple festival shows, including spots at Glastonbury and Reading and Leeds.
Piri & tommy count fans like PinkPantheress
and Charli XCX and have had support from Radio 1 presenters. Recently, the duo signed to Polydor Records; their debut album, froge.mp3, released in October, has amassed 35m+ streams on Spotify. They are also working with other artists. “Piri is an exciting artist and writer whose audience is growing constantly,” says Parkinson. “She is very ambitious and very hardworking and she and Tommy have created a large catalog of songs already.”
- STATS
- Debut song “Soft Spot” went viral on TikTok and has 20m streams on Spotify
- Festival plays include Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds and Boomtown
- Nationwide tour earlier this year sold out (Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow and London)
- 46k followers on Instagram
TEAM
- Management: Greg Burnell and Georgina Fennessy, Palm Artists
- Label: Ben Mortimer, Polydor Records
- Live: Michael Harvey-Bray and Cris Hearn, Wasserman
- Publishing: Amber Davis and Darryl Parkinson,
- Warner Chappell Music
