Apple Music Home Session: Biig Piig

Biig Piig’s Apple Music Home Session features a cover of a song the Irish-born singer and rapper listens to every single day: Big Thief’s 2016 track “Masterpiece.” “I wake up with it and start my day with it,” Biig Piig, real name Jess Smyth, tells Apple Music. “I think the lyrics are so beautiful and I was interested to hear how it would sound on piano. It sounds really pretty, and even though it’s a really dark song, it’s got something lovely and light about it. I’ve always loved music like that.” It’s a gorgeous, floating cover, joined by piano-led versions of the singer’s 2020 track “Oh No” and “American Beauty,” which is taken from her 2021 EP *The Sky Is Bleeding*. Stripped of the singer’s preferred hazy melodies and heavy beats, they’re given a haunting, intimate new edge. “With ‘Oh No,’ I forgot how heavy that tune is in the lyrics, and I guess in the format it is originally there’s a lot going on in it,” says Smyth. “Stripping it back to just the keys, there’s a vulnerability where there’s not much to hide behind.” Like so many artists, Smyth has found the enforced time spent at home in 2020 and 2021 an enlightening experience. “The space has been a real time to reflect on how much we have to value and appreciate each other,” she says. “I think music as a means to do that is just beautiful.”