New Band Up North

Actually it should be the M6 this week, cos Bird are from Liverpool. But we don't have a pic of that. Yet. Photograph: David Sillitoe David Sillitoe/Guardian

Liverpool trio BIRD are creating music that's hauntingly beautiful and forcefully captivating. Their poetic lyrics take your mind on a journey making you feel like you're walking around in a gothic novel.

They've already had a pretty great eight months together, during which time they've supported The Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess, gigged with Manchester band PINS and recorded a new EP, produced by Bill Ryder-Jones from The Coral.

Adele Emmas, Sian Williams and Alexis Samata are all from the Wirral and live very close to each other, which is a huge advantage as "it's pretty easy for us to get together to practice and do lots of things creatively" Adele explains. After being friends and in bands for years Adele and Alexis met Sian through a friend of a friend and soon decided to have a jam. Adele says "we pretty much immediately realised that together we could create something unique and special." Knowing they were onto a winning sound after one session must have been an amazing feeling. But after you've listened to BIRD for the first time it's easy to understand how they must have felt as you get a similar reaction. Their music moves you.

BiRD band
Sian Wiliiams - guitar and harmonies - and Adele Emmas - vocals, bass, guitar. Alexis Samata - drums, percussion - isn't a bird; he just wsn't there for this pic session.

Like a lot of new bands, BIRD enjoy not fitting into one musical genre. But if they had to describe their sound Adele thinks "ethereal, tribal and dark" is pretty accurate. The tribal drums, splashes of cymbals and tight female harmonies are the core ingredients to BIRD's winning formula. Yet, it's Adele's striking singing that pulls your ears in and keeps you listening.

Adele takes a lot of influence from film: "mainly old black and white films such as The Night Of The Hunter, The Innocents and some Ingmar Bergman." While the band collectively take inspiration from books, films, nature and "the dark side of art". Musically they have a mutual love for Leonard Cohen, The Cocteau Twins, Warpaint, Chelsea Wolfe and Fleetwood Mac. While recording their latest EP "Sian was able to use a guitar which was once owned by Peter Green [from Fleetwood Mac], which was very exciting."

Clearly strong imagery is very important to Adele as the name 'bird' originates from a nickname of hers: "there's a fondness attached to the name for me. I also loved the name BIRD because I like the way it represents freedom and the sky." Adele's enchanted personality and obsession with melancholy music and culture comes across in her dark and bleak lyrics. The band make sure this comes across in the way they make their records:

We recorded the EP in a beautiful church in Liverpool so the natural acoustics and reverb were perfect for our music and it added to the gothic element of our sound.

They're successfully matching music with imagery and are very happy to have "full creative control over what we're trying to say and put out there." They've recently been doing lots of filming and are in the middle of planning their next music video.

Although everything is going extremely well, there's one thing Adele doesn't enjoy and that's getting changed before going on stage.

There's usually a queue of about ten people in the toilets whilst you're trying to make yourself look half decent, you usually end up rushing on stage with one shoe on or something.

After accomplishing a lot in a short space of time the New Year looks bright for BIRD with their new EP coming out, a twenty eight day UK tour, festivals in the summer and plans to make an album. With their drive and ambition they're hoping to carry on making "music that people love, relate to and have a passion for."

Their new EP will be released in February 2013 with Jack To Phono Records.

emily brinnad

