Wallis Bird is about to release her third studio album and it’s a less personal recording than we have seen from her before.
I caught up with the singer/songwriter to talk about the new record, her experiences recording it and what lies ahead.
- You are about to release your third album Wallis Bird so what can we expect from the album this time around?
Well I have been through quite a journey and that came out in the second album and I tired to keep the journey as obvious as possible but in a different way; instead of writing love songs, love letters or personalised views on relationships I have taken on a more grand social scale with this record.
This record is a bit less about me simply because I have incorporated lyrics from strangers that I have met on the street.
I have just documented conversations that I have had with every type of person possible so I could get a varied view point on what I wanted to write about, which is the world and the domino effect of people’s mentality towards humanitarianism and social injustices. So it is less personal if you want to look at it that way and it’s more opinionated really.
- Encore is the first single off the album and it is really energetic track so how much does this pave the way for the rest of the album?
The pace is much more relaxed in its rollercoaster approach, you can tell that I have added a few more years on the clock and I have become more relaxed with the ups and downs of life. I have managed to portray that in a more… it feels more confident from me.
I have gathered up my wealth of information and I believe what I want to believe and also believe that what I know is nothing at all.
- You have touched on this already but how does this record differ to the albums that you have put out before?
I suppose this on is seriously independent, on the first album I had creative freedom but the second one I was under a bit of pressure from a big label; the cliché I know.
But with this one we just said, for the lack of a better word ‘f**k it we are going to do it our way’ and so the actual release of the record is lovely because it is a home built team across Europe. In terms of the sound of the record it’s got a strong personality.
I suppose what I wanted to get across in the record was to highlight mistakes and to highlight rawness, even more so in a more structured song-writing cultural simplicity as well as lucid moments of putting a jigsaw puzzle together from fifteen different types of jigsaw.
- What does this album say about you as an artist?
Well it’s definitely you grow with me because I would have thought that I would have lost some fans due to changing my style so often but people have really held on because they understand that I progress into different genres.
My style is really style blind I suppose I just play what feels good and feels right and I try and have a grasp on developing as many different styles.
I feel much stronger as a person by understanding that the world is a flighty place and I just have to go with and roll with the punches.
- A self titled album is usually the first release so why have you done this for the third record?
Yeah I did it for a couple of reasons. During the writing process I was going through a hundred different titles that would have explained and encompassed the record; its sound, its meaning, its life. But no matter what title I came up with the record was never grasping onto a title.
After a time I began to notice that if you can’t out a name to something then it doesn’t want a name and that really frustrated me because I wanted a solid name on it, it’s like a baby and I wanted a solid name on it.
But when it wouldn’t give it to me I decided to take the power back and say ‘well actually you are going to be left untitled and you can just float on out there into the world’.
So in that way, because of that, it brings it directly back into a more powerful state and that brings it back to me - so that was a good reason.
- You wrote and recorded in three separate places for this album; Berlin, Ireland and Brixton so how have these three very different environments influenced the writing & the sound of the album?
Massively, where you are and your state of mind in that moment is a huge culture on what you are going to produce. So where you sleep, how you sleep, the environment around you, the weather, what you are eating, the people around you has just been a huge influence on me.
So in Ireland for example I was completely isolated from everyone I was on my own and so the songs took a more introverted and retrospect look on mortality and what’s it’s about; so there were songs written about that mortality and how fragile that is and how powerful that can be.
In Berlin because we were in such oppressive buildings like this communist building an there are a lot of war related incidents that have happened within that building we were recording in, it was a radio broadcasting studio and there was a lot of propaganda going through the walls of that building.
So there is this idea of information and how it’s chosen and how some of that information can be biased so that was a big influence on the lyrics as well in that I highlighted the fact that information is what the government says it is. We used the sounds of the rooms to the best of their ability just to bring out a more distinct atmosphere.
Then I was in Brixton during the riots and it was just loud and insane and people were hiding out in my house; my house became a squat and a sanctuary for people from all these different backgrounds.
It was just a cultural influx and overload from all of these three different locations it was exceptional - I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I set out to find interesting rooms to inspire me and it really came back to me tenfold so it was excellent.
- As I said this is your third album release so who have you seen yourself develop as a musician and grow in confidence as a musician during that time?
I suppose that the confidence comes from the fact that it was free flowing; I didn’t have to think too hard because it just came right out of me so easily. It was confusing some times because when you feel something so strongly that you wonder is if from me or is it from an outside source? Am I manifesting this through lack of information?
So there were just all of these conflicting ideals that maybe my opinions are not my own they are what I have grown to what I have been nurtured into or is it nature? All of these facets are really interesting so I took all this complexity and confusion and tried to put it in a really simple way.
- You are going to be performing at Dingwalls in Camden to support the release of the album so what can we expect from the show?
Well the usual (laughs). It’s up in Camden as well so that’s a pretty nuts area but I am expecting some people from North London to come up.
The gigs in general are always a very powerful and emotive affair, people use to tell me that London
people are more reserved but I really don’t feel that because it is an epicentre of art.
When people come to the gig they are really ready for that and they are opening up to the possibility that it is going to a really eclectic audience and so it’s going to be a mixing and gathering of emotions. It’s going to be powerful and it’s going to be great I think.
- And are we going to be seeing you hit the road this year?
Yeah I am on tour for another 150 days this year. But there are a lot more different countries this year which is great. A lot more opportunities to be out on the road is good for me because I write best when I am actually moving because I tried capture the scene of where I am at and put that into the song.
- So how much is the travel aspect of your job something that you enjoy? Are you quite happy being away from home for long periods of time?
I suppose you have to be really because it is the nature of the game. It helps me a lot as travel helps broaden by mind and that has become really apparent in all of my records.
Travel really helps me get out there… it’s an exhibitionist thing as well because you give out what you are and then you get back something so when you are travelling what you give out is not always what you are going to receive back because it’s a different culture and a different mentality.
But at the end of the day we are all the same and that is what I have found through travelling and so I try to incorporate as many different cultures into my music as possible.
- Finally you have a huge fan base so is there anything that you would like to say to those reading this interview?
(Laughs) Good question. When you offer me people I just want to meet you I suppose, Just give me as much as I am giving out I suppose - I am just interesting in getting our there.
So yeah come down and check out a gig, you can talk to me after a gig if you so feel as I am not too precious about getting off the stage. So it will be an intimate as well as a wild affair yeah.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw