Just last year we were blasting her debut album, Church of Scars, and today the alt-pop rockstar, Bishop Briggs, is hitting the ALTer EGO main stage. Briggs, aka. Sarah Grace McLaughlin stepped into the Musicians Institute Lounge to declare her gratefulness to spend the last year touring and meeting fans who connected with her music on a deeper level.

The gritty artist whose music tends to lean towards the heavier gloomier side explained the reasoning for her artistic choices. Her smash debut hit River captured fans by storm as we listened to Briggs detail the passionate emotions of falling out of love paired with the thunderous gospel hand clap gospel. Briggs Briggs diverted away from her classic sound with her hit Baby, that typically wasn't her vibe, but knew that the song had to be made.

When asked if we can expect to hear more songs like Baby which was wide-open and allowed a female-centric dialogue about sex to hit our airwaves.

"Lyrically, that was just so exciting to release something so direct. And then also open the conversation about the fact that that [sex] is something that all women talk about, just the same as all men talk about.

So far with the writing, there has still been a lot of like heaviness and soulful melodies and gospel vocals. I still want to keep that hip-hop influence underneath it all too."

Briggs thanks her music for allowing her to be more open and honest with it.

"Doing something like Baby, definitely, it opened a door to myself of being like, 'you know I need to be more honest.' And that was the same with Water too."

Men and woman alike have given a good response to the candor of her music, "making light of those darker moments" that we don't see on average. She believes that people want to see that realness in a world full of filters and effects. Due to open accessibility of a quick internet image booster, realness is a diamond in the rough and coming across one is something to appreciate.

"So far I have gone that route of just being so much more direct and not really hiding behind my own poetry and my own metaphors. I think that sometimes can happen in the mix of it all. Lyrically I would love to continue that way."

Bishop did disclose a fun fact about her musical inspiration for it all - Destiny's Child! Briggs was discovered in a karaoke lounge and her go to songs - "Say My Name" and TLC's "No Scrubs."

Watch her interview with Alt 98.7 FM's Tamo below!

Musicians Institute Lounge