The Raincoats’ Gina Birch announces debut solo LP
Legendary post-punk bassist Gina Birch, best known as a co-founder of The Raincoats, has announced plans to release her debut solo full-length LP, I Play My Bass Loud.
“The album distills my years of musical, political, and artistic life with these genre-breaking songs,” Birch says in a statement. “It’s a personal diary using sounds and lyrics, full of fun, rage, and storytelling.”
As a preview, Birch has shared a brand new single, ‘Wish I Was You’. As the album title promises, Brich’s bass comes thundering through the speakers at maximum volume. Behind her, a wall of fuzzy guitars, pounding drums, and some sugary melodies create an alt-rock call to action, one that Birch hopes keeps the torch burning for her fellow women in the industry.
“There’s the whole thing about women playing their music and wanting to be heard, wanting acknowledgment or the space to do it,” Birch says. “The bass is sometimes assigned as a lesser instrument, and yet because of reggae and the creativity of a lot of women players, it has always been a creative and phenomenal instrument.”
“I always thought, if I open my big bay window upstairs and play my bass, I’m not some groovy young rapper,” Birch adds. “I’m this old white woman playing my bass guitar out of my window. I just want to stick my head out and yell down the street: ‘Hell, I’m here, and I’m playing my bass loud!’”
“It’s like a dream come true,” Birch concludes about the album. “I’ve been working hard in my artists garret, mostly painting, but always writing songs. An idea forms in my head and I write it or paint it, and now it seems, these ideas are blooming wildly, reaching over the wall! I have a solo album coming out and a solo painting show. Almost simultaneously. It is so great.”
Check out ‘Wish I Was You’, plus the tracklisting for I Play My Bass Loud, down below. I Play My Bass Loud is set for a Feburary 24th release.
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