Weekly > Interviews
Wallis Bird
Wallis Bird is a singer-songwriter who with any luck you are going to be hearing a lot more of in the future, with talent and a burning drive and ambition in abbundance she looks set to continue the rich stream of talent pouring ou of Ireland (more on that later), having just released her new Moodsets EP we caught up with her for a quick chat to find out how it all started..and more importantly how she copes with two brothers in the band!
How did you come, to get a band together from Germany…and two brothers…isn’t the sibling in-fighting a nightmare?
Myself and Aoife were representing our college in a European music workshop in Germany. There, I met Christian and shortly after he introduced me to his brother Michael. After a few visits to Germany, Aoife and I decided to move over and make a go of the music. And if the music didn’t work, we’d just go over for the laugh, but as it turned out, we’ve all had immense amounts of fun doing both! Because of this I didn’t move from Germany for another year and a half. Sibling fighting is absolutely hilarious – they row a little bit like all siblings do but it is never anything bad, they would kill me for saying so cos it sounds so cutsey wootsy, but they are just so sweet to each other cos they’re very close!!
On the back of that though it seems to have kick-started things for you in Germany with your EP and tour selling well?
Yeah, I worked bloody hard to get the ball rolling in Germany. I just played constantly on the street or in any pub that would have me, and built up a team of brilliant people. As gigs moved on and on, I knew I needed music to sell at the gigs and to keep things moving, so we recorded an EP and got it printed and sold it everywhere I went. Thing’s picked up and people started ordering it online and eventually it sold 3,000 copies. That was a brilliant feeling! I got a good bit of press coverage around Germany and then things just started to slowly spread a little. Things are going just like I hoped so I can’t complain!
You were born in Ireland, a country that has a strong tradition of singer/song-writing musicians, is that something that adds more pressure on to you?
No it adds absolutely no pressure at all. I’m delighted to have been born in such a musical country. A lot of what I do easily spills from the fact that the Irish are very rhythmical, melodic and express themselves personally in their lyrics. Almost all my friends are these amazing songwriters and musicians, the country is just churning out talent constantly, so to grow up surrounded by all this talent was brilliant for me, I couldn’t help but be inspired
Are you influenced at all by people like Gemma Hayes who have had a fair degree of success in the last five years?
Not so much influenced as just proud! I adore her music and was absolutely delighted to see an Irish person doing well outside Ireland. the sad things is that a lot of great band and solo acts just fall through the cracks because there isn’t enough muscle power or will power pushing people to search beyond their comfortable success within Ireland. Not that every group has to think BIG BIG BIG, but I just hope that the talent in Ireland gets the recognition it deserves.
Can you tell us about the new EP and the tracks on it, they sound very personal to you?
Yeah, they are very personal indeed! There’s Moodsets, this song is about being mental about someone you can’t have and dreaming up situations like turning up to their house unexpected etc. it reflects on the weird things you do unconsciously when you are in love.
The Circle is about a group of great friends that I used to meet with every Monday in a singer/songwriter night in Dublin. We met up religiously and had almost dangerous amounts of fun! it was two of the best years of my life and I just wanted to say thank you to them all for it…hence, the circle! there was Beep Beep, which was just a bit of fun in the studio, playing a lick that was in my head that turned out to be one of my favourite tracks I’ve recorded! It was just messing around hitting drum cases, scaring Christian while he was recording a drum track, laughing, it was great fun!
Oklahoma is about my time spent in Oklahoma and how it struck me up in a lot of ways, the narrow religious views, the quality of life. I had a bit of a hard time when I was there so this song was something of a relieving process for me
Weblinks
Add to favouritesYou’ve brought in The Nextmen and Part Time Heroes to remix the tracks, how did it feel having someone dissecting your music and especially artists that sound wise are so different to yourself?
I like to hear other people’s versions of songs. I love a good remix so to leave it to them and their genre; it was interesting to see what they would do with it. Music is universal no matter what style so it’s a little exciting to have someone do what they will with it!
How have you found working with a major label (Island) as apposed to releasing such as your Branches Entangle EP independently?
Naturally doing anything independently is different to doing it with someone else, but I have to say that if I had to work with any company I would still choose Island. So far we have had a good partnership and things are going in a good way. Releasing the EP and recording the album independently was really fulfilling. We essentially worked as a record label ourselves (my team) and through that I learnt so much about where I want to go as an artist and what is important to me, so this first step put me in a better position as an artist. I spent so much time working on the contract to get the partnership I wanted, that I was carefree to take the second step with Island
One final question for you, if you could duet /collaborate with one male and one female artist around at the moment, who would it be and why?
No one at the moment I have to selfishly say! I’m too busy working on what I want to do that I don’t have room in my head for anyone else!....but for the future I might give cliff richard a call for a nice cheeeeeeesy christmas duet.
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