Interview: Getting to know Bishat
Bishat is a rising Swedish artist, songwriter and producer with roots in Ethiopia and Eritrea. She has just released her latest single. We asked her to tell us about herself:
I am… Bishat, born and raised in Sweden by my Ethiopian/Eritrean mother and an older brother. I love tequila and hate when people are disappointed in me. I’ve known that music is what I wanted to do since I was about 4 and took it upon myself to provide in-flight entertainment with my little boom box to passengers on a trans-Atlantic flight singing my heart out in my very own interpretation of the English language.
I also have every intention of getting a pilot certificate one day.
Unholy Romance is… a song that XOV [Damien Ardestani] and I wrote about that reckless kind of infatuation that’s pretty destructive. A relationship heading for a crash and a rush that is addictive. When you’re in a bad place doing things that hurt you can sometimes feel good in a twisted kind of way and that was the state of mind I was in when writing it.
It’s also the fastest I’ve ever worked on a song. What you hear is basically the first draft. We wrote, produced and recorded it one night in Damian’s studio in the archipelago outside of Stockholm and said we’d finish it another time. It stayed with me and when the time came to put together my mixtape it was a given to use it but then Damian was in New York finishing his album and the project hadn’t saved properly so we had one day before my deadline to put the pieces back together. We decided to just keep it simple and that’s actually what I love most about it. It’s super conversational and intimate. Uncomplicated in its production. I left the complicated part for the theme instead haha.
My upcoming EP is… made up of 4 pretty personal tracks that reflect the mood I was in end of last year. It was a really challenging time in my life. Having just gone through a break-up and the feeling like I was spiralling was only really saved by having studio time and making music. I think I went through some sort of life crisis and started questioning everything and so the EP kind of goes through all the emotions I was going through from the big dramatic standing on a cliff in a storm wanting to scream kind of feeling to the super intimate and fragile state where you just stop running and allow yourself to hurt to then be able to heal. In short it’s the therapy I couldn’t afford.
Home is… something I don’t really have haha. My contract runs out in 2 weeks and I don’t know where I’m gonna live after that so yeah need to deal with that soon I think. I guess Stockholm and London are the place I feel most at home.. even if I don’t have a spot that’s all mine i’ve got my friends, favourite places and memories attached to them which is what home is to me. My family is spread out all over the world so I’ve become pretty good at making wherever I am home.
I spend too much time… in dive bars with my best friends and subsequently being hung over.
I’ve never… been in a physical fight
It might surprise people to learn that… I speak 4 languages and have lived in 5 countries and once flew a plane.
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Keep up to date with Bishat on Facebook.
Interview by Bobby Townsend.
