London-based, Australian-born singer-songwriter Paris Irwin's newest single is titled 'Don't Bite', which drops this Friday.
The song came to be after a break up and hateful texts from an ex-partner. Irwin took her anguish and turned it into something creative, pouring every part of herself into the song to create something beautiful.
"It's one of those moments where when you go through a sh.t break up, you mourn the loss of somebody that you realised wasn't really there because the person that you really loved and respected wouldn't speak or treat you like that," Paris shares over Zoom from London.
"I remember being absolutely heartbroken and 'have I just wasted this time with this person?' Because they were so horrible in that moment. I got to Sydney a week and a half later, and I was meant to be doing some other work for another track.
"The producer, who's absolutely amazing, I was like, 'I'm gonna throw a curveball at you', mind you it was one of the first times we worked together, so we barely knew each other and I came in like a bloody ball of fire.
"I was like 'I've got a story and I need do something about it'. I needed to have the emotional exorcism that is writing a song and yeah, it fell out of my head so much to the point where I was 'have I nicked this melody from somewhere?'.
"Because it was so ingrained and I searched the high heavens and I haven't [nicked it]. That happens a lot with me with music, I call it musical brain vomit, it sort of [pours out].
"It's one of my favourite songs I've ever made. I love this song so much. I think it's very like cheeky. I still think it upholds a really interesting sort of poetic nuance. I try and call my sound or this new era of my sound, that I love so much, 'dance-pop-poetry'."
Irwin has been sitting on 'Don't Bite' for three years and has patiently kept it in her pocket, ready to unleash it into the world at the right moment. The single is the ushering in of a new era for Paris as she has a number of new songs to release that she believes match the same level of 'Don't Bite'. "I have sat on this song for yonks. It has gone through so many different iterations.
"That was the cool thing with 'Youth', my last release, it was exposure therapy-ing myself to put it out because that was literally a scratch track demo, sat down at the piano, front to back. That was meant to exist as something that wasn't ever meant to be put out.
"But with 'Don't Bite', I have tirelessly edited this noise, injected this little piece of ear candy to that point, then literally sat on it for years. So the fact that it's coming out, I feel like I've been pregnant for three years, I'm about to give birth to this three-year-old child, because it's lived inside my head for so long."
Although she's London based, Irwin will be returning home to Australia to see family in the new year and to play a couple of shows. "I will be coming back in February or January.
"I'm super excited. My brother's having a baby so I'm going to be an aunty. So I'm going to go see my family and then do a couple of shows, probably in Brisbane and Sydney."
'Don't Bite' is released 14 November; pre-order it.
