How Grief Unexpectedly Inspired Bishop Briggs' New Music With Travis Barker

Early 2000s pop punk music seems to be back in style these days, but for Bishop Briggs, the choice to lean into a new punk-leaning sound was personal.

“I really found myself being drawn to the music that my sister introduced me to growing up,” Briggs, 32, exclusively told Us Weekly’s Backstage Pass feature ahead of the Friday, October 18, release of her new album, Tell My Therapist I’m Fine. “I really unexpectedly lost my sister, and I wrote a lot of sad music, longing to feel close to her, and it just didn’t happen.”

Briggs continued: “When I wrote songs that I hoped would’ve been played at Warped Tour or Summer Sonic or maybe a collaboration with My Chemical Romance, then all of the sudden, I felt like I could see her screaming the lyrics with me and I felt closer than ever to her.”

Briggs, whose real name is Sarah Grace McLaughlin, grew up alongside her sister, Kate, in London, Tokyo — where she found her love for music in karaoke bars as a toddler — and Hong Kong before moving to Los Angeles to pursue music professionally.

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In 2021, Kate died at 30 years old after battling ovarian cancer. For Briggs, music became an outlet to work through her pain and grief.

“If it was any type of therapy, it would definitely be exposure therapy,” she told Us of making her most recent album in the wake of her sister’s passing. “There’s a song on the album called ‘Growing Pains,’ and it really is the theme of the whole album, which is just the experience of life has these pits of despair and sorrow and knowing that it comes in waves, and I think the biggest thing I’ve learned about grief is that it lives alongside you and you just find healthier coping mechanisms as you grow.”

To achieve that nostalgic, pop punk sound in honor of her sister, Briggs worked with Blink-182’s Travis Barker.

“I have no idea how Travis Barker got in contact with me,” she joked. “But somehow he did. And I didn’t keep it cool at all. I tried to, but it didn’t last long.”

“Isolated Love,” her song with Barker, 48, on the new album, was the first song she recorded, and it set the tone for the rest of the record.

“The album title is Tell My Therapist I’m Fine, and I do think that sums up the album,” Briggs explained to Us. “It really is, sort of, the experience of girlhood and human-hood.”

She continued: “I feel like I have found myself saying I’m fine when I’m not. And that has just felt like the universal experience of not only being a woman, but just being a human. And I would love to undo that, and I would love to change that and share how I really feel.”

Keep scrolling for more of the behind-the-scenes insight Briggs shared exclusively with Us Weekly’s Backstage Pass — including her craziest tour experience:

Tell My Therapist I’m Fine is out now.

Pre-Show Ritual

My pre-show ritual involves a lot of pacing back and forth, a lot of concerning questions. My anxiety is at an all-time high, and I really recommend that to anyone that wants to feel insane.

Ideal Dressing Room Vibes

Ideal dressing room vibes definitely include a spot for my baby to play. I had a venue do this one time, and they put a ball pit in the corner of the room, and I was like, ‘OK, maybe I need to request this.’

So I would say anything that is calm, chill. And I love a good M&M moment for after the show.

Craziest Tour Experience

One of the craziest concert experiences I had was — one of my songs is called “Wild Horses,” and it gets very exciting during the chorus, and I was in a very sweaty venue. We were all sweating, and I saw someone in front faint, and so I had security go over and make sure they were OK. And then another person on the other side fainted. And then there was a third person that fainted, which is the max I’ve ever had anyone faint at a show.

Thankfully, they were all fine, and I got to speak to them after, and they had a great time, so it was fine. But I would say that was up there with the very crazy experiences.

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Favorite Song to Perform Live

My favorite song to perform live would have to be, most recently, “Mona Lisa on a Mattress.” I get to talk about this situationship I was in and really, really go crazy on stage in honor of him — or in spite of him.

Ideal Afterparty

My ideal afterparty would include a maman curry and just hanging with my crew and eating food. For some reason there’s, like, multiple beverages. Like, we have a tea going, we have a water going. If I’m tour mode, it’s just all the liquids. Oh, a kombucha is thrown in there. That would be ideal.