Biography
Piroshka emerged toward the end of 2016 after Lush wrapped its reunion tour. Drummer Justin Welch, who had previously played with Elastica, contacted guitarist and vocalist Miki Berenyi to propose a new project that would also involve Modern English bassist Mick Conroy, the musician who had joined the group for its final Manchester date. Although that moment marked the band’s official start, the participants’ ties reached further back: Welch and Berenyi had remained close since the 1990s heyday of their earlier groups, Berenyi is partnered with Moose vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist KJ McKillop, and Conroy had played in a later version of McKillop’s band. The rapport they discovered while rehearsing for the Manchester show encouraged them to keep writing together, and they began trading demos that merged shoegaze, post-punk and guitar pop in fresh combinations unlike anything they had previously recorded. McKillop’s addition of keyboards, guitar and songwriting completed both the sound and the lineup. The quartet then signed with Bella Union, the label run by former Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde. Their debut album, the spiky, politically minded Brickbat, arrived in February 2019 and featured string arrangements by Fiona Brice along with brass courtesy of Terry Edwards. For the follow-up, July 2021’s Love Drips and Gathers, McKillop and Conroy took the creative reins on an introspective set of songs about relationships and memories, delivered in moody dream pop.
Albums
