We talk to BSHP about Disciples, writing for other people and following the numbers…

Hearing the soaring vocals on upbeat dance track Solid Gold by house music giants Disciples was the moment we knew we had to get in contact with featured artist bshp (@bshp).

Hailing from Orpington, Gabriella Bishop is an RnB rocket who’s readying herself for blast-off. As the nine million Spotify streams ticks closer on Solid Gold, another three million have been accrued on her cover of Des’ree’s I’m Kissing You and there are more in the pipeline, with 2022 set to be a year littered with bshp releases. We got in touch to find out more.

On removing all the vowels from her name…

I wish there was a cool reason. There was an artist called Bishop Briggs and on the same label as me at that time, and you know how difficult it is to claim names and stuff. But it has actually grown on me a lot now. I mean, it’s hilarious trying to get people to pronounce it, but I quite like it.

On discovering she could sing…

It was through dance. I went to this dance school and they would have this annual competition, with a dance category, an acting category and a singing category. And I decided to sing - I’d never sung in public before. I’d always be pottering around the house singing, but it wasn’t until that moment - and I was pretty young - and I got people’s acknowledgement that I could sing.

On entering the industry…

I always knew I wanted to do music. But since being in the industry you realise there’s a whole world of songwriting or being a featured artist and all this stuff I didn’t know about. It has always been a hobby.

I’ve only been writing for about five years. As soon as I made my first song, which was terrible, and started to actively record in the studio, whether it was covers or new material I had written, I realised I wanted to be an artist. It was in such a short period. I got management and stuff and it all just went from there. Until I quit my job - it was at a university and I hated it - I never realised the possibilities of actually making a living out of it.

On signing to Island Records and then leaving…

I was really lucky, it all happened within a year of me writing and recording and starting to go out and gig.

I was with Island but became independent last year, which was quite daunting at the time, but I’m actually really enjoying it for many different reasons. But being with a major [record label] at the start, I don’t know what I would have done without them because they gave me that opportunity to see what was out there.

On writing music for other people…

The writing has never really stopped, to be honest. And now I’ve signed my publishing [deal], I’m writing for pitch and other artists, which I hadn’t done before.

It takes years to focus on your own project and find out what you’re writing about and what your genre is. So it’s been in the last year that I have been writing for all different things.

The features that I’ve written for Disciples and Duvall (which she appears on) were not written for me, it was in mind for them.

And I’m getting more into writing for pitch for the dance world, and we’ve got a couple of exciting cuts coming out hopefully. In regard to my own project, it’s written and ready to go.

On her own project and not getting pigeonholed…

I wish I could switch between them [music genres] more freely. When it comes to writing features, you’re given a bit of leeway, but as an artist, my stuff will always stem from R&B and soul. That element is always going to come through.

It’s a tough market to crack in the UK. But I’m leaning towards pop - I love listening to it and making it, so those R&B influences are always going to come through my voice and topline naturally.

But dance music, I love writing it. It’s just so fun. I wish I could feature on more stuff, but it’s very easy to be put in a box after you do that.

On working with Duvall from Disciples…

A friend of mine put in a good word for me. And they put on a writing camp and said they were looking for Disciples records. I didn’t connect the two between Disciples and Duvall.

I wrote Every Song, which went on to be Duvall’s first solo single. And there was a lot of interest in that. From there, I just formed an amazing relationship with Duvall. And I then realised that he sang On My Mind [by Disciples] and I was totally fangirling over him.

I was in the studio with Duvall and a friend of mine, Joe Killington, who writes a lot for my project, and we wrote Solid Gold. The Disciples boys heard it and loved it.

On analysing the streaming numbers…

The industry is heavily driven by the numbers because people can choose to listen to whatever they want. That puts a lot of pressure on us as artists and it’s very hard to acknowledge the wins because there’s so much pressure.

When a release comes out and there’s a buzz about it, I do follow those numbers and I do get very excited.

What’s crazy is that for some artists now, a million streams is not deemed a lot, but for me the first million streams I got was on a cover of Des’ree’s I’m Kissing You and my close friends, who aren’t in music, couldn’t believe it had a million streams, and that was such a nice moment to acknowledge.

On 2022…

Releases are my main focus this year. There will definitely be performances of unreleased music, but it’s about getting the music out (check out bshp’s new single STFU). It’s looking really positive and I’m so eager to get it done because it has been over a year since I released a piece of my work. I wrote a lot of music to pitch out last year, too, so I’m hoping that will come out with some great artists as well.