Gina birch - trouble.. - third man records

Known for a wildly diverse artistic career that includes co-founding the iconic British post-punk band, The Raincoats, Gina Birch had an undeniable and outspoken hand in shaping the UK’s independent music scene. Trouble continues that ever-evolving mission with 11 fiery-yet-deeply introspective new songs, fusing post-punk, dub, experimental rock, and more into a singular statement of intent, expressing her lifelong commitment to uninhibited creativity and an artist’s purpose in letting her audience in on her wildest thoughts and innermost emotions.

The album sees Birch teaming up once again with GRAMMY® Award-winning producer and Killing Joke founding member Youth (Paul McCartney, The Orb, The Verve) and engineer/mixer Michael Rendall (Peter Murphy, The Jesus and Mary Chain) – the same duo who helped capture the rugged-yet-refined sound of her critically acclaimed 2023 solo debut, I Play My Bass Loud. Recorded on the top floor of Youth’s London home and fueled by “plenty of tea and toast,” the sessions also included participation from musicians Jenny Green and Marie Merlet – both of whom play in Gina’s live band, The Unreasonables – as well as longtime collaborator Helen McCookerybook, who has worked with her on various film and concert projects throughout the years. Songs like “I’m Going To Live Forever” and the electro-and-dub-tinged “Keep to the Left” are not only eclectic in sonic genre, but play like stitched-together narrative vignettes, fly-on-the-wall scenes in which Birch describes meeting a stranger on a train, or a flare up with her teenage daughter, or the nostalgia of driving past a certain part of your neighborhood that’s been unchanged for as long as you can remember. Fueled by the politics of the everyday, Trouble stands proudly as a feminist work of art not because of slogans or placards, but rather in its candid portrayal of a forward-thinking female artist simply existing.

“The record title refers to all the mini revolutions that have occurred in my life,” says Gina Birch, “not following the usual paths, falling down holes, making the same mistakes over and over, trouble of being a young woman at a time our options were generally secretary, mother or sex worker. Trouble I’ve caused and trouble I’m in…

The album is also an antidote to this by celebrating everything I can while recognizing behaviors that may be disordered or strange. It’s a journey through my brain, thoughts, memories, conversations…while I’m sitting with my bass, loops, guitar, and laptop. I don’t censor subjects, I just write them down and see where they take me. The pleasure is in untangling the thoughts and finding a way through.”