INTERVIEW
MUSIC
MARC BIRD
Image by Marc Bird
ALI WELFORD TALKS TO THE SUNDERLAND-BORN SONGWRITER ABOUT HIS PENSIVE BEDROOM POP DEBUT A stalwart of much-missed outfits such as Yellow Creatures, Lunar Bells and Video Spring, Marc Bird has been a familiar face on the North East circuit for the best part of a decade. Now based in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, the Sunderland-born songwriter and producer re-emerges this month with Bronze â his first ever full-length album, and perhaps more significantly the maiden material unveiled under his own name. âItâs a bit scary going out on your own, you feel a lot more exposed!â He muses. âIâve been working on these songs for about two years, and initially I was going to release them under another band or project name. For some reason, though, I thought it felt more appropriate to release them under my own name â perhaps because a lot of these songs are so introspective. âThe roots probably come from latter day Yellow Creatures when the stuff we were doing was a bit more mellow, plus the sound Kate [Edwards] and I were going for with Video Spring.â Marc explains. âItâs definitely a nostalgic record, and probably the most contemplative thing Iâve done. A lot of the songs were written from the viewpoint of being in isolation â even though they were written a long time before the lockdown! â and are about examining the past and how it shapes your present and future. Although Yellow Creatures was always a collaborative effort, this definitely feels like
A LOT OF THE SONGS WERE WRITTEN FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF BEING IN ISOLATION â EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE WRITTEN A LONG TIME BEFORE THE LOCKDOWN! 32
an extension of that approach to writing and production.â Pieced together in his home studio, the end result is a pensive bedroom pop delight; a minimalist gem bathed in lush electronics, spare beats and spectral sampling. With Kate Edwards providing guest backing vocals, itâs a hidden gem bound to beguile shoegaze and dream pop devotees, with meditative nuggets and instrumental breaks elegantly evoking the likes of Beach House, Chromatics and Slowdive. âThis isnât a concept record, but I did want to tie it all together and make it feel like a journey,â he recalls. âThe album is bookended by the same field recording of a train, and thereâs also lots of synths and samples, plus audio from different countries Iâve visited in Europe â Germany, the Netherlands etc.â While bemoaning the challenges facing the industry as a whole, Marc admits that recent housebound months have not been without their benefits: âThereâll be a visual album on YouTube as well,â he reveals. âIâve always loved accompanying releases with as much of my own artwork as possible and giving songs a collective visual identity. I had a few ideas for a video for the title track, including stuff to be shot on location, but obviously with all thatâs happened I wasnât able to do that. Being furloughed from work and having all this time on my hands has been of huge benefit, though, and meant that Iâve made a bunch of videos Iâd never even thought of doing. All of them are black and white and stem from the album cover, with a mixture of found footage and stuff Iâve shot myself at home. One video led to another, and eventually I thought âto hell with it, I might as well do the whole album now!ââ Marc Bird releases Bronze on 12th June via Plastic Palace www.marcbirdmusic.bandcamp.com
