Sidney Gish (born March 18, 1997) is an American singer-songwriter.[1] She has released two albums, Ed Buys Houses and No Dogs Allowed.
Early and personal life
Sidney Gish was born on March 18, 1997,[sg 1] and grew up in a suburb in New Jersey.[2][3] She began composing songs in middle and high school and sang in her school choir.[3][2] Before focusing on her music, she attempted to go viral on Tumblr; she went viral in 2016 for creating doodles that her mother embroidered.[2] She attended Northeastern University in Boston, where she studied the music industry,[2] from 2015 to 2020.[4][sg 2] She was in the college's female a capella group as a beatboxer.[3]
Gish is bisexual.[4] She has perfect pitch, which she has said contributes to her melodic composition.[5][3]
Career
Early work and Ed Buys Houses
Gish started her career by uploading music on Bandcamp. Her first release was "don't call on me" in 2015, followed by "dummy parade" in 2016, but she did not consider these as albums.[2] She released an EP, "Merry Crisis", during the winter break of her first year of college.[1]
Gish's first full album, Ed Buys Houses, was self-released on Bandcamp in December 2016.[3] The album's title came from a sign Gish saw in New Jersey. It received coverage in local publications including Allston Pudding and DigBoston. She began performing concerts at venues in Boston through 2017.[3][4] The album was featured by Spotify in its "New Music Friday" playlist. The same week, Gish began a semester-long internship in the A&R department of Island Records in Manhattan, which involved finding new musicians, a coincidence that surprised her boss and was described by Gish as "extremely meta".[1][6]
No Dogs Allowed and Filming School
Her second album, No Dogs Allowed, was self-released on Bandcamp on December 31, 2017.[7][2] It received a 7.7 rating on Pitchfork[5][1] and a positive review by The Fader. Gish was covered in NPR Music's Slingshot, a series about new musicians.[2] No Dogs Allowed won Album of the Year at the 2018 Boston Music Awards.[8] Gish performed several shows in New York until the end of her internship.[4] She then went on a national tour with Camp Cope and Petal.[1]
Following the moderate internet success and media coverage of No Dogs Allowed, Gish joined the booking agency Agency for the Performing Arts. She opened for the New England shows in the 2018 tour by Mitski,[1] which contributed to Gish's fame.[6] In March 2019, she performed at South by Southwest and was featured on NPR Music's Austin 100.[6] She was listed as one of Stereogum's Best New Artists of 2018.[9] In 2019, she released a cover of "Somebody's Baby" by Jackson Browne as part of a split single in Cavetown's Animal Kingdom series.[10]
In 2023, Gish released two new songs, "Filming School" and "MFSOTSOTR", through the Sub Pop Singles Club.[11] The same year, she toured with The Beths in North America.[12][13] She also went on to tour with Jeff Rosenstock later in the fall of 2023.[14]
Style
Gish's music has been classified as indie rock, indie pop,[11] and bedroom pop.[2] She has described her composition process as "Frankensteining" melodies and lyrics that develop separately.[3] She records her music solo, playing electric guitar, percussion, piano, ukulele, and melodica, as well as MIDI instruments.[5][3] She produced her early music using the mobile app VoiceJam, before switching to Logic Pro by 2018.[2] In live shows, she uses a loop pedal to perform solo.[1] She has cited influences including Regina Spektor, Vampire Weekend, and of Montreal.[3]
Allston Pudding's Christine Varriale described Gish's music as "humorous pop that millennials can understand but that sounds timeless".[3] Pitchfork's Nina Corcoran described her works as "catchy, oddball songs", comparing her to Frankie Cosmos and Car Seat Headrest.[5] WBUR-FM described them as "mundane (or obscure) meanderings peppered by puns and brief, dazzling extrapolations". It also compared her to Car Seat Headrest, who similarly began his career on Bandcamp.[2]
Discography
Studio albums
Title | Album details |
---|---|
Ed Buys Houses |
|
No Dogs Allowed |
|
Singles
Title | Album details |
---|---|
Filming School |
|
Bandcamp exclusives
- don't call on me (2015)
- Merry Crisis EP (2016)
- dummy parade (2016)
Awards and nominations
Year | Organization | Award | Work | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | Boston Music Awards | Album of the Year | "No Dogs Allowed" | Won | [15] |
Unsigned Artist of the Year | Herself | Nominated | [16] | ||
Alt/Indie Artist of the Year | Nominated | ||||
Song of the Year | "Not but for You, Bunny" | Nominated | |||
2019 | Singer Songwriter of the Year | Herself | Won | [17] | |
Alt/Indie Artist of the Year | Nominated | [18] | |||
Song of the Year | "I'm So Sorry" (as featured artist) | Nominated |
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Milman, Lilly (July 18, 2018). "Meet Sidney Gish, the 21-Year-Old Singer-Songwriter Opening for Mitski". Billboard.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Mason, Amelia (March 28, 2018). "Sidney Gish, Boston's Bandcamp Phenom". WBUR News. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Feldberg, Isaac (September 19, 2017). "Emerging indie artist Sidney Gish is juggling classes and her career". The Boston Globe. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ a b c d Knight, Kristen (February 21, 2018). "Interview: Sidney Gish". Modern Girls. Archived from the original on March 20, 2023. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
- ^ a b c d Corcoran, Nina (January 11, 2018). "Sidney Gish: No Dogs Allowed Album Review". Pitchfork.
- ^ a b c Thompson, Stephen (March 5, 2019). "The Austin 100: Sidney Gish". NPR. Retrieved March 15, 2025.
- ^ a b Snapes, Laura (December 21, 2018). "Sidney Gish: No Dogs Allowed review – mordant, charming indie pop". The Guardian. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ Marotta, Michael (December 13, 2018). "Here are the winners from the 2018 Boston Music Awards". Vanyaland. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
- ^ "Stereogum's 40 Best New Bands Of 2018". Stereogum. October 29, 2018. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
- ^ Rettig, James (March 28, 2019). "Sidney Gish Covers Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby"". Stereogum. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
- ^ a b Deville, Chris (February 8, 2023). "Sidney Gish – "Filming School" & "MFSOTSOTR"". Stereogum. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ Tinker, Lena M. (March 9, 2023). "The Beths Concert Review: Nothing Fishy Here". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ Hudson, Alex (February 27, 2023). "Stand-Up Comedians the Beths Showed Toronto That They're Also Excellent Musicians". Exclaim!. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
- ^ "Jeff Rosenstock returns with new song and North American tour details". The FADER. Retrieved September 10, 2023.
- ^ "Boston Music Awards 2018". Boston Music Awards. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
- ^ "2018 Nominees". Boston Music Awards. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
- ^ "Boston Music Awards 2019". Boston Music Awards. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
- ^ "2019 Nominees". Boston Music Awards. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
Primary sources
- ^ Gish, Sidney [@sidneyg156] (March 18, 2020). "i'm 23" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ "Instagram". Archived from the original on December 26, 2021.
- ^ "Ed Buys Houses". Bandcamp. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
- ^ "Filming School, by Sidney Gish". Bandcamp. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
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