11:11, for many, is symbolic of hope. It's a bit of magic woven into your daily life - 11:11, make a wish. In numerology, it is considered to be a sign that you are on the right path, aligned with your desires and wishes. It's a moment of pause in the day, one which imbues you with a little bit of faith in the future. It's a fitting title for a debut album that has been a long time coming - one that feels like the manifestation of years of graft. For Biig Piig, 11:11 has always been something special.

"With this whole record, it was a reflection on so many things that have happened in the last two years and even longer than that, to be honest," says Biig Piig, aka Cork-born Jess Smyth. "I think things move so fast, and things are quite chaotic, and life is so quick sometimes that there's not really a lot of time apart from in the studio where I really get to reflect. I was looking for a title for ages, and nothing fit or felt right, but at one point, I thought the only time in all those chaotic moments that was a time of reflection was when I saw 11:11. That's the only point that you reflect and really are present. It made the most sense for what this record means to me. It was this fixed point when everything else was moving. I also think for me it is a spiritual thing too; it's the way that I feel connected."

It's all too easy to get caught up in the humdrum of life, but it is in those reflective periods that we are able to take stock - of what's affected us, what we have learnt, and how we have grown. '11:11' feels like an act of documenting that - the culmination of those moments across this tumultuous period in Biig Piig's life; it's only after emerging from that state that you can recognise how much has changed. '11:11' slowly, steadily moves towards a version of Biig Piig that seems more assured and settled but never fails to detail the journey there.

No stranger to diving deep into her emotions, Jess combines that tendency towards candour with a unique knack for bringing an atmosphere and energy to life in her music. Each song is its own vignette of a moment in her life, immaculately capturing those exact feelings in both her lyrics and the soundscapes she crafts, too. It's apparent even from the spiralling of opening track '4AM' is perfectly rendered in the muffled softness of the verses and their immediate contrast with the big-hitting bassline of the chorus - it's a conversation just outside of a club, the music seeping through, quickly abandoned as soon as you re-enter and choose instead to get lost in dancing.

'Decimal', meanwhile, buzzes with the intimate ecstasy of catching eyes with someone across a dancefloor - flitting between Spanish and English to confess that heated desire, the beats of the track place you directly in the thick of the crowd. She builds those images on all fronts, chronicling the last few years of her life with an impressive vividity. To capture such exact atmospheres, Jess turned to less conventional means.

Of course, 'Decimal' wasn't the only instance of her thinking outside of the box to reach that end goal. 'Stay Home' is built on a special kind of warmth - the track captures that feeling of affection for your closest friends as the night grows later, and there's a reason it does so, so effectively. The track saw Jess pulling her closest friends and family into the pub and recording them chanting along the chorus, ensuring that sheer joy from being surrounded by the ones you love was immortalised on the record.

Whilst some songs offered a chance to innovate and push the boundaries, others proved to be a vessel for release. A means of working her way through these experiences and understanding her own perspective on them, writing these tracks sometimes saw Jess met with surprises as she uncovered the truth depth of feeling she had. 'Silhouette' proved to be one of those moments.

Of course, giving yourself the space to unearth all of those emotions in all their vibrant glory isn't quite straightforward. It's deeply personal, and wrestling with sharing that vulnerability can be difficult for some. For Jess, however, it ultimately seemed like a no-brainer.

"Sometimes it can feel scary too, especially if they are tracks where you start writing them and question if you're letting yourself say too much about something," admits Jess. "You have to think, actually, it's for the song. It's letting yourself release it. It's scary at first, but what's the point otherwise? You have to let yourself delve in. With writing, I didn't ever have things in mind that I was going to come with, but through how many shifts there have been in the last two years, things came up. There was a lot I was working through personally as well. It spilt itself into this, and I'm glad it did because I think, looking back now, there's no way that I would've wanted to make it anything else."

Though she initially envisioned her debut album being one brimming with club bangers, a sexy, high-octane jolt of a record, it was never going to pan out that way. Though that side to Biig Piig is a crucial part of her artistry, and one that still rears its head and likely always will, it's not the only side. Her debut needed to represent every shade of her, she quickly discovered.

"I needed to be more vulnerable even with the space I give myself on the track," Jess acknowledges. "There's still tracks I want to dance to and let go to and celebrate, even the sadder tracks feel like you want to celebrate, and I love those songs. But ones like 'One Way Ticket' really meant a lot for me because it felt very stripped back and open, and it's definitely about an open wound, and that felt very important and scary to do. The combination of the two was important. I didn't know how to match the two up and have them sit on the same record, but then I was like fuck it, it's my record, I'll just do it. It ended up working really nicely, and I feel like they weave into each other nicely. There were realistically three different albums before this album with the tracks that were on it and taken away, but I'm happy with where it's at."

In documenting those experiences in all their variety, '11:11' became more authentic, realistic and immersive. It's easy to envision those scenarios playing out, to find similarities between those and your own and relate to. At its core, there is a real, human story to '11:11' that reels you in with each listen, and it's difficult not to become completely engrossed in it.

That need to create something you can really fall into and live in for a while didn't just stop at the music, either. As part of '11:11', Jess also created an 11-part series of stories that accompany the album, soundtracked by the songs on the record and focused on the experiences that built it. It turns '11:11' into a world of its own, one that continues growing in different directions.

"I knew that I wanted to do that pretty early on but getting it together took a while, and writing the episodes and finding the right directors took a minute. I feel like it was really important because there were different characters assigned to different feelings on the record. I thought it would be a better way to describe it even moreso, and for them all to meet. I love to imagine this universe where all those kind of things can exist in people and really get to embody that feeling. I love that narrative. There are so many different experiences I've had through growing up and living in a city, to love and loss — everything I talk about in the record, I wanted to make it as visual as possible. I feel like with this eleven part story, I can explain it better."

They may be represented by different stories and characters, but these works are all Biig Piig. It's a testament to her fluidity and complexity as an artist that so many multitudes can be contained in just one record, but that was always going to be the case. It's reflective of her as a person, and a side of the album that many listeners may well take comfort in, too.

'11:11' is truly about the journey - through the difficult times and the euphoric, no moment is spared on Biig Piig's debut. From heavy synth-disco that invite you to dance it out to stripped-back moments of quiet contemplation, '11:11' moves through them all. As 'Brighter Days' closes out the album, it finds Biig Piig more sage and content, hopeful for what comes next having learnt so much on this journey. It's the final 11:11 noticed, a nod to herself as if to acknowledge things are okay and will continue to be - she's on the right path, after all.