NoSpace Spotlight: PIERI
While you’re reading, listen to this playlist, curated by PIERI, for your listening pleasure.
All photos courtesy of Dylan Pearce.
PIERI is a firecracker, a forward-thinker, an arthouse reggaeton visionary, mixing her Mexican roots with influences from the Spanish club scene and a crash course in swagger from the Philadelphia creative underground. In October of 2019, she released her debut single ‘Pa Que Lo Sientas’; this killer track, featuring a mariachi sample and reggaeton beat, started stirring up some buzz. Most recently, however, she left a clear, PIERI-shaped mark on the Philly scene with smash bop, carefree and unattached, night-out anthem, ‘Kitican’ and the accompanying video that had everyone and their mother clamoring to Google to find out… who the fuck is PIERI?
We first discovered Daniela Pieri, Mexican-born, Philly-based artist and musician at Harvest Fest 2019: a strange, secretive, beautiful music, arts and w**d festival on the Philadelphia Main Line. She tore that little festival stage to the ground with her attitude and energy. Before moving to The States, Daniela took music lessons as an early teen in Mexico, always knowing that music was going to be a big part of her life. Once she graduated from college in Philly, she decided that she didn’t want to spend her days doing something she hated.
“My whole life music has just been there, it’s always been a part of me… I don’t want to live if I can’t do what I want to do”
She linked up with her current producer Murillo El Grillo, the chemistry was immediate, and the pair began churning out tunes and hitting the basement show scene hard. She wanted to channel the energy of “pure artists” like Bad Gyal and Rosalia, who she lists as some of her core influences. Bad Gyal epitomizes a “pure artist” to PIERI, someone who creates not only engaging and original music but also an outrageous character and an authentic experience. That “purity” is something PIERI really values and seeks to emulate. Other artists that made the influences list were Playboy Carti and Philly-local superstar Lil Uzi Vert.
We started off our interview with a discussion of PIERI vs Daniela, and if they were alter egos or one in the same. “I love to dress up.. right now when I’m chilling at home it’s not so much but when I go out, that is who you saw in the video”. Since starting the PIERI project, she has enlisted the help of long-time friend and classmate Lili Burch, a visual artist and stylist, who helped develop her unique and powerful sense of style, playing with androgyneity and bringing masculine energy to feminine pieces. “I don’t have any fashion icons” she says, “I just go more for the vibe… for Kitican for example, the music is so overblown, extravagant and exaggerated, pushing into the experimental, I wanted my style in the video to reflect that”.
We moved on to discuss the process of putting together her new single ‘Kitican’. She describes the beat as “really overwhelming but exciting”, so much so that she “didn’t know how to handle it”. It started off as a hyper-emotional, focused story but it didn’t feel natural or pure, “If it doesn’t feel pure, I don’t want to do it”. After 15 drafts, it still wasn’t making sense. She stepped out of the studio, stressed about her first ever show in NYC approaching, deleted the lyrics she had written, came up with the hook, and the rest of the song just fell out of her. “Kitican doesn’t actually mean anything, but that is just the purity of it… it’s all about just having fun” It’s about going out for a night, embracing the feeling of getting ready, pregaming and stirring up energy and mischief with your friends.
Of course, the times we are currently living in are far from the days of being able to go out and have a carefree night with friends. We discussed the unfortunate results of the global pandemic and the recent strong and glorious resurgence of BLM. PIERI has been super vocal about emploring the Latinx community to support the Black Lives Matter movement. She said “Latin America has a lot of similar issues to the US but not quite, and a lot of Latin people will say that these problems don’t exist because we are a minority in The States, always feeling like they’re the victim… I can’t even believe all the systematic brutality against POC, and there’s no way of escaping it, Latin people need to be standing up for Black people in this country… As a white girl, I have a lot of privilege, when you see me, I look white but I try to always support, I’ve been donating what I can and I listen, not talk over or assume… I don’t have a voice to tell you you’re wrong or invalidate your experiences as a Black person in this country. I believe in reparations, there were reparations in other places, they should be here too”. She wants to be a voice, speaking to these issues in Spanish, to Spanish speakers, in hopes that it will hit home and convey the importance of solidarity across cultural lines.
The PIERI team is now prepping a set of singles, the first of which will be coming out early fall 2020 and a mixtape for summer 2021. “I want to throw Latin parties in Philly, whenever I can do that, I’ll bring DJs from Spain and Latin America and bridge the gap here in Philly”. When these parties do happen, you can expect the entire NoSpace team to be in attendance; we’ll see you there. In the meantime go stream ‘Kitican’ on all streaming platforms and follow PIERI on her socials to keep up to date. Until next time, stay safe and healthy out there everybody.
