The art of energy in a gig is super important ” “

As Jessica Smyth prepares to play a Saturday slot at this year’s Connect festival, Kevin Fullerton talks to the artist known as Biig Piig about avoiding a sesh, creating mixtapes, and the art of putting together a perfect set

For London-based Irish musician Biig Piig (aka Jessica Smyth), this is a summer to embrace the energy of festival crowds. ‘We’ve got the set to a place I’m really happy with now,’ she says proudly. ‘With some of the tracks, I feel like we’ve put them into a live setting and made them bigger than they are on record. Playing our first festival last week, I thought, “this is sick”. It was the best feeling in the world.’

It makes sense that her debut mixtape Bubblegum is resonating with festival audiences. Featuring a mixture of garage beats, glistening pop shimmers and Biig Piig’s silken voice, Bubblegum’s stratospheric sound blasts out of speakers like rays of sunshine. ‘It was never supposed to be a mixtape. It was just me making tracks hoping to figure out where I was going to go with an album. Looking at it now, there are so many different pockets it sits in sonically because of the producers I worked with. I think it was a stepping stone, helping me test the waters to see that you can have different songs in a project and still make it fluid. That’s what I want the album to be when it’s done.’

A highlight of the mixtape, ‘Picking Up’ hits on the fluidity and variation Smyth is discussing, veering wildly from slow guitar-picking to hyperactive drum & bass rhythms, the underlying melancholia of her lyrics offset by dancefloor-filler music and glitchy sound samples. Made in collaboration with Deb Never, Smyth describes the song as having, ‘this alternative side to it. The production team fleshed out the feeling, and the lyrics just came out. Then me and Debs went on a night out after that. It’s one of those tracks I don’t listen to too much, to be honest, because whenever I do, it perpetuates me going out on a sesh.’

The unabashed energy of ‘Picking Up’, a heart-racer of a song that’ll set festival crowds alight, is only one part of the alchemy of performing. ‘The art of energy in a gig is super important. I want the same feeling to happen in a night-time slot and a daytime slot. A good set works anywhere. The set just now starts summery then goes into a darker mood; things get a bit heavier in the older tracks. And then it picks up around tracks four or five, before ending in total party mode.’

Biig Piig, Royal Highland Showgrounds, 26 August; Connect runs 25–27 August.

CATO

ADAM FROST • MAGGIE O’FARRELL • HAMZA YASSIN PATRICK GRANT • SIR ROBIN KNOX-JOHNSTON

MARK BEAUMONT • VIGGO VENN • ALISTAIR DARLING

SUSIE MCCABE • DENISE MINA • CAL MAJOR • WILLIAM DALRYMPLE

HOLLIE MCNISH, MICHAEL PEDERSON & WITHERED HAND • SEAN LUSK

JEAN-LUC BARBANNEAU • BOOZY BOOK CLUB – KAREN CAMPBELL

MEGAN MCCUBBIN • ELEANOR TUCKER • GRAEME MACRAE BURNET

SALLY MAGNUSON • GILES & MARY ON COUNTRY LIFE

SPLASH TEST DUMMIES • DICK V DOM DJ BATTLE

INTERNATIONAL FILM ORCHESTRA PRESENTS THE SPECTACULAR MUSIC OF HARRY POTTER

ROALD DAHL’S THE THREE LITTLE PIGS ON TOUR ARTIE’S SINGING KETTLE

MR BOOM • SKYE MCKENNA • ALEXANDER THE GREAT • HELEN PETERS

ABI ELPHINSTONE • MONSKI MOUSE BABY DISCO • SILENT DISCO

THINK CIRCUS TAKEOVER • KEVIN QUANTUM: AND FOR MY NEXT TRICK

A WHALE OF A TIME WITH MISS GOOGIEPANTS • CEILIDH KIDS

All nestled in the beautiful Lodge Grounds, North Berwick, with delicious street food, Coulters Makers Market and the Lighthouse Live music stage.

MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO EDINBURGH

Back for another year of talks, exhibitions, live music and more, the Festival Of Politics proves it's certainly not all debates and drivel. Jessica Matthewson is first past the post with a look at this year’s expansive programme

From the ethics of artificial intelligence to discussions about Scotland’s arts sector, the 19th annual Festival Of Politics promises to be an exciting and informative three-day event. Hosted by the Scottish Government at Holyrood (with a few events at The Hub), expect panels covering politics, current affairs and environmental issues paired with a lively programme of music, dance and exhibitions in the café bar.

For the first time in the festival’s history, it will partner with Edinburgh International Festival for a number of events surrounding EIF’s central 2023 theme, ‘where do we go from here?’, inspired by the writings of Martin Luther King. Highlights from this line-up include two In Conversation With sessions: one with world-renowned percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie (9 August) and another with Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel (25 August). These will take place in Holyrood’s debating chamber and are set to be hosted by broadcaster and former MP Michael Portillo.

There are also three free-to-access exhibitions to explore. Grit And Diamonds, presented in partnership with Glasgow Women’s Library, is an archive of materials showcasing how women contributed to Glasgow’s cultural history throughout the 80s and 90s. Mental Health And Wellbeing Amongst People Navigating The Asylum Process, created with Maryhill Integration Network, unveils the personal mental-health stories of those seeking asylum in Scotland. And World Press Photo winners will also have work on display, highlighting the climate crisis and the impact of war on civilians, among other subjects.

Festival Of Politics, Scottish Parliament & The Hub, 9–11, 25 August.