photograph by Martyn - @gingerdope

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Born and raised in Stratford upon Avon, Perkie has been writing music for almost 3 decades, debuting angry material about school and biscuits  from the age of 5. A natural performer, they embodied the punk spirit from a young age, performing to friends and family and were raised on a self-professed  diet of 'dad music' adorned with female writers and vocalists (Stevie Nicks, Shania Twain and Annie Lennox were all early influences).

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Inspired to make people dance by visits to the theatre and buskers on the street, they picked up their first plastic guitar aged 7 (featured on the cover of new album A Part of Everything), soon graduating to a red Fender in homage to Rancid's Tim Armstrong (and fellow pop punk heroes Greenday and Avril Lavigne). Although they didn't revisit the guitar for a few years, Perkie nurtured a passion for writing and singing, eventually accompanying themselves on piano, more interested in penning their own songs than music theory. After leaving school at 14 to study Vocal Tech at BIMM, they soon adopted the school nickname of Perkie and released their debut EP. Quickly gaining interest on MySpace with their songs Chickenshit and Tell that Girlfriend of Yours, these early tracks became a blueprint for Perkie's unique marriage of punk ideals with a tender underbelly of love, loss and grief at their core, and introduced their music to the wider world.

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With a fresh appetite for writing and recording and their tastes leaning towards the anarchic side of punk, Perkie's music inhabited spaces between bedroom recordings and house shows, quickly leading to shows with the likes of Subhumans and The Skints (as a solo artist and with their first band, Resolution 242). After brief involvement with The King Blues (and sharing the stage with The Specials, Blink-182 and Paramore), Perkie moved on to nurture their solo career and collaborate with other emerging punks including Ren (Petrol Girls), Gecko and members of Colour Me Wednesday and The Tuts. Some of these collaborators came to form Perkie & The Perkettes and contributed to their debut album Time Machines (Dovetown Recordings, 2014). After flirting with offers from major labels (and advice from Frank Turner), Perkie chose to stick to their roots and stay independent, touring their solo material on the UK DIY scene as well as joining anarcho-dub collective Autonomads and indie punks FERALUS. Despite this punk authenticity and an aversion to the mainstream, Run (the first track from Time Machines) received Radio 1 airplay and gained fans across Europe, the USA and the UK.

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After parting ways with Dovetown and touring with Autonomads for the next half a decade (as well as more shows with Subhumans, Queen Zee and Crywank , Perkie's solo material began to blossom just in time for the first UK lockdown. In this time, they also trained as a massage therapist, interested in the healing and meditative properties that music and writing could have alongside this practice. Adopting a new pace and sense of stillness, Perkie embodied a state of tenderness and self-care that continues to course through their music. More recent collaborations with producer Joe Yorke (and as a producer in their own right) showcase this newfound clarity, with 2018's Lone Wolf and The Storm demonstrating a diversity in musicality and production values. Subsequent releases have found their roots in folk and pop sounds in the vein of Waxahatchee, Adrianne Lenker and Florist (as well as fragments of blues and motown). Recent years have also seen Perkie showcase their vocal talents with The Co-operators on ska track Concrete, Steel & Stone (Waggle Dance Records). Working with other solo artists to organise independent shows and tours has been the backbone of Perkie's musical career, with a focus on DIY organisation and mutual support systems still at the forefront of their work and life.

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With a firmer autonomy and confidence in their craft, Perkie now looks past this year of isolation and reflection to what lies ahead, composing music destined for Film and TV and setting up an independent label for non-binary artists, neurodivergent women and trauma survivors. From this place of cinematic vision, healing and affirmation, Perkie plans to release their sophomore album A Part of Everything in 2023 and continues to share their stories of love, loss and hope with a loving embrace and quiet strength.

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