Released: 24/02/23
Gina Birch, one-half of the Raincoats since 1977, is a punk icon with a pop edge—an artist who’s painted, filmed, and made music on her own terms for over four decades. Her first solo album, I Play My Bass Loud, brings her history together, asserting both her distinctive playing style and her refusal to stay in the background.
She debuted her first solo single, “Feminist Song,” in 2021 for the opening of Third Man Records’ London shop. In 2023, Third Man released her full-length solo debut, I Play My Bass Loud, produced with Martin “Youth” Glover of Killing Joke and featuring Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth.
Most songs were written before Birch teamed with Youth—known for working with punk legends like Poly Styrene and Viv Albertine—who added structure and helped shape new material. Some tracks emerged more spontaneously: “I Am Rage” evolved from a whispered poem into a pop song, while “Wish I Was You” and its companion piece “And Then It Happened” explore a woman growing into her power. “Wish I Was You” began as a joke, Birch says—but, as she admits, every joke contains a bit of truth.