Bio
“There’s a special neurosis in middle kid syndrome.” Famous middle kids in fiction and nonfiction miss out on the attention, good and bad. Amazement for the trail-blazing oldest, adoration for the youngest. Middle kids tend to end up being chronically anxious, even morose. The feelings of being overlooked and under appreciated often make the middle kids work harder, with an attention to detail that borders on obsessive compulsive. For middle kids, the music industry is an especially harsh mistress.
Portland’s own Laryssa Birdseye makes middle kid syndrome for her. She hasn’t just overcome the ardors of chronic depression and anxiety—She’s leaning in.
Beautiful things come from this brain and these troubles. That’s why I’m a musician.
She lists suicidal confessional poets, Plath and Sexton, as some of her early writing influences. She finds inspiration in the Sisyphus myth. With a love for frank explorations of pain and anxiety, you’d expect shy, introverted guitar slogs with whispered vocals.
Far from it.
Laryssa Birdseye makes colossal sounds. On her latest EP, “Damages,” her vocals morph from soulfully clean to autotuned chordal harmony to thick unisons. It’s uptempo electro pop tinged with eerie psychedelics. Her 2021 single, “Shame,” revs from Alessia Caras “Here” to gargantuan gospel choruses. Like the last moments on He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named’s “Ultralight Beam.” Towards the end of the song, she’s wailing like “The Gossip’s” Beth Ditto on “Nite.”
“Treat me like I’m nothing and I promise I’ll come runnin’ It’s like something’s f*cking broken in me I can’t stop it.”
Hearing lyrics like these over such dancy production could be jarring, but Laryssa more than pulls it off. The soundscape is dark and spatial. Seductive, even.
Laryssa’s 2023 full length album “Chrysalis” is a deceptively poppy excavation of her depressive mind. Its got a world music beat, Genesis-adjacent detuned key-chords and huge harmonies on the hooks. It’s like Phoebe Bridgers lyrics over soulful electro pop that puts the needle in the red.
Who would’ve thought songs of agony and alienation could make you want to get up and move?
Laryssa Birdseye turns her neurosis into a planet-sized sound, and one can’t help but get stuck in its orbit.
A huge recommendation for middle kids and happy people alike.
In addition to her extensive music and video recording, Laryssa Birdseye is active on the concert scene, having performed extensively throughout New York, California, Minnesota, Utah, Hawaii and Pennsylvania.
The music of Laryssa Birdseye is intensely personal, ruthlessly introspective. She has never been afraid to ask herself the hard questions. “I’ve consistently been building a catalogue of music that explores grief, loss and the ways that we are transformed by them,” she says, “in the most brutal and triumphant of ways.” Laryssa Birdseye is fiercely and unapologetically her own muse. No one knows what the future holds for her, but you can be sure that the best is yet to come.