birds of tok yo
How was your tour with Silversun Pickups ? Brilliant, they were the nicest group of guys and gal. On the last show on the tour the lead singer Brian [Aubert] was down the front dancing around with a skeleton. They were a barrel of laughs and they were just stoked to have the opportunity to come out and do what they do. We felt really good that fans of theirs, who may or may not have been fans of ours, had the opportunity to see them in their element.
Were there any reasons behind this being a self-titled release? Yeah, we discussed it at great length while we were recording in Sweden. We were all trying to justify what title could be thrown around as a brand for the body of work we were doing. It really did feel like this time around, as opposed to our previous two records there was a lot more thought, effort and time put in. What we were doing was Birds of Tokyo and it felt like it had eclipsed anything we had done before. It sounds a little cliché, but it just kind of made sense for us to say “hey, if we’re going to put anything out there and give it the title Birds of Tokyo than this would be it.” So, it was a bit of a no brainer after we all agreed on that.
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Flying Together It’s been a big year for Birds of Tokyo and things only seem to be getting bigger for the Perth based four-piece. Amongst the shows and swelling success, drummer Adam Weston chats with Terrease M c Comb about their new eponymous album and touring tidbits. The band has been described as ‘a collective of individuals’, did you have a story of your own to tell on this album? Yeah, but at the same time I find I can only get as much as I do out of playing drums if my band member next to me is getting what they want, from what they do. As soon as there is a kink in the chemistry, I think that’s where things tend to go a little pear-shaped.
This was the first time we worked with someone out of the band; enlisting producer Scott Horscroft (The Sleepy Jackson, The Presets, Silverchair). It was interesting to work with someone and have them to critique what your doing. I think the best kind of players need to leave their own ideas and perceptions at the door, to an extent, and welcome other people’s feedback.
There’s a massive string of shows lined up for you, in particular the Open Arms Festival and Big Day Out. Does it get testing on the road? It’s going to be a breath of fresh air to be able to roll in to Coffs [Harbour] and do a festival because it will be vastly different, productionwise, from what we’ve been doing at our own shows. We’ll be following that with the Big Day Out run and New Zealand as well. When the temperature gets warmer heading into summer it’s all about the festivals, so we just wanted to get our own run of shows out of the way and then be able to jump into this. Is there anyone in particular you’re looking forward to seeing at the Open Arms Festival? Well, without a doubt The Living End are always at the top of my pile of festival bands. We have played on a couple of bills with them before and get along with them really well. They’re one of the most amazing live bands out there and always will be so that’s going to be a treat for us and everyone else alike, also Grafton Primary I’ve seen a couple of times before so I’ll be looking forward to seeing them again. It should be a really good day. Birds Of Tokyo is out now through EMI. Birds Of Tokyo play the Open Arms Festival, Coffs Harbour, on Saturday, November 20.
reverb magazine issue #052 — November 2010 17