Bird Machine On the Making Of “Hellos and Frowns”
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind "Hellos and Frowns" and the story it tells?
The song demonstrates the ways we imagine our young son interprets the world around him. He’s been diagnosed with autism and AD-HD, and the song has come about as we’ve learnt about those conditions and observed our son’s responses to different stimuli. We want to stress, though, that autism is a broad spectrum and peoples’ experience with it can differ a lot. So this song is definitely not meant to be some sort of “anthem” for those who are neurodivergent.
Can you talk about the recording and production process for "Hellos and Frowns?"
Luke came up with the main riff after listening to Tori Amos’ album Little Earthquakes. We were impressed by the way she interpreted alt-rock at the time as a singer-songwriter. She formed delicate and vulnerable soundscapes that would shatter and give way to heavy guitar riffs and pounding, syncopated drums. Mixing the growl of a detuned acoustic guitar with the electric guitar seems to make it all sound more raw, something Soundgarden also did in Spoonman.
The recording and mixing of the song was done in our home studio. The two of us write, perform, record, and mix everything ourselves. The mastering was outsourced to the UK.
Can you share any memorable experiences or stories from performing "Hellos and Frowns" live?
Playing this song live is always really fun, especially since we only need to worry about playing rhythm parts under the vocal line. This means we can really get into it and do a bit of headbanging. It’s short and loud. We enjoy seeing the crowd move to the driving beat of the song. The audience usually does this slow headbang thing that the song lends itself to.
Are there any specific themes or messages that you aim to convey through your music?
We like to write about things we think are important. Some strong themes that have shown up in our songs are social polarisation and social media. We think that the world needs to see less one-sidedness, more multivariate study of issues, and more empathy.
How do you prepare yourself for a live performance, and do you have any pre-show rituals?
The best way for us to prepare for a live performance is to relax and have a bit of fun. We think it's more important to have fun on stage than to execute something that’s mathematically perfect. The audience probably will have more fun too, as the energy is bound to translate over from the stage. We love this kind of live performance from any musician because it means something different every time. It should be allowed to be fluid and spontaneous; to slow down and speed up, to have a dynamic range, to be surprising, and even a bid mad sometimes.