G’day, the band formally and currently known as Shining Bird is: Russ, Dane, Albags, Strat, Ricci & Katesy. We all live in the sunny coastal town of Austinmer, NSW (the ‘Leisure Coast’). Russ & I formed Shining Bird many summers ago as a bit of an experiment. We released Shade of the Sea in 2012, and started working on Leisure Coast about a year ago with Russ’ bro, the enigma that is Albags (or clag as we call him), which is out on Spunk Records now. We are about to head up and down the east coast on our first headline tour, and are trying to organize a trip to Alice Springs to shoot a new clip. We also enjoy tea, slow walks on the beach, and delicious Vietnamese foodage.
Your debut album, Leisure Coast, is out now on Spunk. How would you sell it to the uninitiated?
Well, one reviewer said I sound like a ‘hungover lounge singer’ which I think is pretty cool. So maybe that vocally, over some lush Aussie landscapes.
Compare the album to last year’s Shade Of The Sea EP. How does it differ?
It’s much bigger. The title is also different. The included songs have different structures and names too.
Lyrically what are the themes of your upcoming album?
I guess Australian identity/ history and the environment are in there, also some other worldly stuff too.
The video for the first single off the album, ‘Distant Dreaming’, made quite an impact online with it featuring on the German alternative YouTube channel, Majestic Casual. Did you expect the video to get this amount of attention?
Nah not at all! They contacted us after we released the single online, and we so happened to have the video clip all finished that day. (weird/epic timing) He liked it and posted it. The response was totally unexpected! We are so stoked…I’m currently learning to speak German.
Tell us a little bit about the making of the video. What inspired the idea behind it?
The vid was a collab with ‘big steven’ or ‘biggy g watoto the wadodo’ our good ol’ mate. Steve also helped us with the layout for the record and our EP, and didn’t shy away when we asked him to get involved with the distant dreaming clip. I think we all went a little crazy making that thing. Russ and I spent a few weeks straight with him in the editing suite (my bedroom) while we lost out minds drinking copious amounts of tea and Thai food and became some weird kinda nonsensical rappers.
Steve is pretty much a bird member. Talk about quality bonding time!
In the clip for ‘Shade Of The Sea’ you superimposed yourself into the Jimmy Fallon show. Needless to say you guys get fairly creative for music videos. What is it about this medium that makes you put so much creative drive into it?
Ha yeah, It’s just so easy to download a cracked final cut pro and play around. That shade of the sea clip was just improvised, so the process was super streamlined. It was just a matter of cutting up all the shit I was talking with some reaction shots, Russ did a great job at making me look like a mental patient.. ha! …I probably I did that myself though.
According to your Facebook page Shining Bird was founded way back in 2006. Has this album been a long time coming? How long has it been in the making?
Yeah I think Russ and I first recorded a Shining Bird song sometime around then. At the time we were bored and just started screwing round with recording vocals, straight off the bat the songs had some pretty deep lyrics, like ‘I’m growing my beard’ & ‘my beard’s an assassin’. It wasn’t until we actually released something that we thought ‘hey we can actually do this thing, that is making toones’ so we did, that thing. Then….
You’ve got an album tour in the not too distant future. What can we expect from a Shining Bird live show?
We have been working really hard to make the live show something special and unique. There are upbeat numbers and a couple slower more soundscapey tunes in there. We’ve been experimenting with the set list over the last few months to see what works best where. The songs are generally written in the studio, so it’s a bit of a challenge when trying to replicate the sounds live. But it’s been heaps of fun, and we don’t hate each other’s guts at all! :)
Where we can see you play next, what releases do you have available and where can we get them?
Leisure Coast is available on CD, LP and digitally worldwide now!
Shining Bird The ‘Leisure Coast’ Dates:
Tue September 10th @ Alhambra Lounge, Brisbane (Spunk showcase)
Wed September 11th (day) @ Jet Black Cat, Brisbane (instore)
Wed September 11th (night) @ Treehouse, Byron Bay (album launch)
Fri October 4th @ Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, Wollongong
Sat October 12th @ Goodgod, Sydney
Fri October 18th @ Workers Club, Melbourne
Fri October 25th @ Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane
Check out the Distant Dreaming clip here:
