McBurnie and Villiers first met in 2020 through Instagram when McBurnie found Villiers' account, messaged him, and they later started dating.[3] The two shared a love for dance artists like Disclosure and Kaytranada which led to them making music together.[3] He produced Piri's first two singles "It's a Match" and "Soft Spot", the latter of which received over 18 million streams on Spotify.[4] They later released the singles "Beachin"[5] and "On & On".[6] "Soft Spot", "Beachin", and "On & On" appeared on their debut mixtapefroge.mp3, which they released in October 2022.[2] They performed at the 2022 Reading Festival,[7] and were later signed to Polydor Records.[8] In November 2022, Piri & Tommy released a cover version of Charli XCX's song "Unlock It", which became popular on TikTok with an accompanying dance.[9] Piri & Tommy were also announced to be a nominee of BBC Radio 1's Sound of 2023 in December 2022, along with other artists like Dylan, Cat Burns and Flo.[10] In January 2023, McBurnie announced via TikTok that she and Villiers had split up.[11] The split received coverage from Capital Dance, with Piri stating in another video that the two will still make music together.[12]
