Bishop Ivy
Bishop Ivy has been defying the norm with his innovative, indie pop music. This style, exemplified in songs like “Ghosts”, combines soft melodies with emotional vocals. His debut single, “15”, was a hit with 678K streams on Spotify alone. In May 2020, he released his debut EP LIMBO, which included some of his most popular music to date, such as “Ivy Dreams” and “In Spring.” In just two years of releasing music, he amassed a following of over 20K monthly listeners on Spotify and a growing fanbase. In addition, he’s been featured on Spotify’s Fresh Finds: Pop and Mellow Meaning playlists. With all that said, it’s hard not to be excited about the future of his career. We recently spoke with Bishop Ivy about the beginnings of his career, his musical inspirations, and more!
How did you start making music?
I’ve been singing as long as I can remember and have been trying to augment that every few years. Initially I was listening to all top-40. I wanted to be like Bruno Mars or Adele. At 9 I started guitar and piano, 12/13 it was writing and producing, 14 it was street performing, 16 it was releasing music, and now it’s learning the business. I keep finding more jobs that need to be done to create a record and try to learn those things. I started to go at it more intensely after moving to Boston, where my guitar teacher inspired me to spend more time with music than I had before.
When did you decide to pursue a career in music?
I’ve been wanting to since before I really knew what that actually meant. I wanted to be a pop star when I was a kid. I’ve just been learning more and more about what it requires and what it looks like. I became more serious when meeting other musicians who wanted a career. It wasn’t for a long time that I found a group of people who actually were that invested, and once I saw others pursuing it, I took it onto myself. Nowadays it’s not really about being a professional singer but emphasis on being a songwriter/producer. I’m passionate about creating music more than performing it.
What’s your favorite thing to do when you aren’t making music?
I’m relatively new to Pittsburgh, so exploring what I haven’t seen is fun. I’ll just find something that looks interesting on satellite images and head over there. During quarantine I now have more pictures from that than anything else. That’s what I did when my family moved to Boston. I have to get out of the house every day or two.
Which song of yours was the hardest to write and why?
The ones that are harder for me are the more braggadocious ones. It’s usually pretty easy to write about more vulnerable topics for me. That ends up being stream-of-conscious. Though, whenever I try to brag or act tough in a song, it feels like I’m just pretending, perhaps because I am. It feels silly to look at those lyrics. I think Nomadic falls into that category.
Who’s someone that inspires you?
I’m inspired by my friends that are still pursuing this after knowing them for years. I’ve been practicing for long enough that I’ll meet people through music, but now they’ve moved on to other things. I’ve found that anyone in the industry that I’ve known for long enough has made leaps of progress since when I first met them. I’m inspired when they create art that I really find beautiful, regardless of me being close to them. My friend who releases under Julius Black has been killing it recently; he inspired me to start reaching out to press.
If you could go and tour with any artist, who would you choose?
James Blake.
What can fans look forward to from you in the future?
The project I’m working on right now is my favorite so far. Everything I’ve released so far has been really eclectic; each song goes in a different direction than the last. It was never intentional; I just happened to write songs all over the place, but the next batch all have a consistent aesthetic that I like. It’s the most conceptual I’ve gone with an EP. I’m looking to release this year.
