Gina Birch

British musician Gina Birch, who also works as a visual artist and filmmaker, helped establish the Raincoats, the post-punk outfit widely regarded as immensely important. During periods when that group was on hiatus she lent her efforts to projects such as the Red Krayola and Dorothy, along with numerous additional ensembles. Birch issued her earliest solo recordings in the late 2010s; her first full-length solo statement, I Play My Bass Loud, arrived in 2023 via Third Man Records.

Born in Nottingham in 1955, Birch joined Ana da Silva to launch the Raincoats in 1977. Within the group she handled vocals and bass, shaping a run of singles and three studio albums that remained active until the band’s 1984 dissolution. A short stint alongside the Red Krayola followed, after which she assembled Dorothy alongside former Raincoats violinist Vicky Aspinall. The new outfit issued several dance-oriented 12" singles before its brief existence ended. In the mid-’90s the Raincoats reconvened, spurred by acclaim from successive waves of alternative and independent punk acts that had named them as primary influences. Those reunions were confined to occasional, carefully chosen performances, while Birch concurrently participated in the short-lived alt-rock outfit the Hangovers. Across subsequent decades the Raincoats maintained a pattern of intermittent touring; Birch meanwhile directed her attention toward films, music videos, and paintings, occasionally collaborating with her later group the Gluts. She unveiled the standalone solo track “I Play My Bass Loud” in 2018 as one side of a digital split single shared with the She-Punks. September 2021 brought a 7" single featuring the new solo piece “Feminist Song,” on which da Silva contributed synth and Youth supplied the mix. Birch’s debut solo album, also titled I Play My Bass Loud, appeared on Third Man Records in February 2023. Youth again produced the set, which incorporated contributions from Thurston Moore as well as appearances by the Modettes’ Jane Crockford and Angel Olsen bassist Emily Elhaj.