INTERVIEW: BIRDEE王煒 releases new single 'Dorsal Fin' and announces debut EP 'Can't Be Loved' will be out September 30: "It's a chapter in my life that I can look back on fondly"
Sydney up-and-coming new artist BIRDEE王煒 creates music that criss-crosses all over the borders between indiepop, dance pop and electronica. It is eminently danceable, full of perky beats whilst also remaining earthy and organic, assured and confident.
Today she releases her new single ‘Dorsal Fin’, a chilled out pop track that chugs along with dreamy beats, angelic vocals, hypnotic melodies and the most delicious electronic trills popping up in the background. Also out today is the video, which was shot at Sydney’s Maroubra Caves.
“To me, the song is essentially about when you’re seeing someone and you’re unsure whether you can truly wear your heart on your sleeve or not,“ BIRDEE王煒 says. “Whether you trust them enough not to take advantage or hurt you. Can I show my vulnerable side or not? Will they hurt me? If I give them my heart, can they look after it?”
Alongside the release of ‘Dorsal Fin’, today BIRDEE王煒 announces her debut EP Can’t Be Loved will be released on September 30. "I felt embraced by the feminine side of me. The gentle yet powerful side of me, and I liked it a lot. I’d never felt like that before and I think it really shows through the songs,” she says of the inspiration behind the EP.
With support from outlets including Triple J and MTV, as well as performing at this years Edinburgh Fringe Festival, BIRDEE王煒 is a young artist who is starting to create major waves and should be on your playlist right now. We recently caught up with her to find out more about her career, 'Dorsal Fin’ and Can’t Be Loved.
Hi BIRDEE王煒, so great to chat with you today. First of all, you have a beautiful name - where did that come from?
It's my real name! I guess my dad was just really into golf or something (laughs). No, my dad always really liked the name but he was always unsure on how he wanted it to be spelt. The story goes that he was watching a movie called Hope Floats with Sandra Bullock and the character’s name was Birdee. When he saw the credits at the end, it was spelt with the double e and he was like, ‘I really like that. I'm gonna spell spell it with the double e’.
It's gorgeous and also the perfect popstar name, it was there straightaway.
I was very, very lucky and blessed to have a name that fits both, me as a person and as an artist as well.
It just goes gorgeously with the music that you're releasing, it's very comforting. You have just dropped the absolutely atmospheric ‘Dorsal Fin’ - what a tune! Talk to me about this song.
’Dorsal Fin’ is essentially about when you're dating someone or seeing someone and you're in the midst of self doubt and contemplation. When you're seeing someone and you're like, ‘should I show them all of me, show my vulnerable side and give them all of my heart? Or should I kind of keep my walls up? Because I'm unsure whether they're going to hurt me or not’. The name, ‘Dorsal Fin’ is the fin on a shark and the metaphorical meaning behind it is if I go into the water, and I jump in will I sink or swim? Will I get hurt or not? Will there be a shark ready to eat me?
It's absolutely gorgeous. Melodically and sonically, how you approach this song is a little bit different from other things we've heard from you. What was your intent going into it with regards to the music that accompanies that metaphorical poetry?
That's a really good question. I worked on this song with an amazing artist called Butter Bath, his real name is Toby. He's my producer and he's worked with me for a couple of songs that have been released. He had the idea and the concept of it initially, and he was like ‘I think this would be a really cool song for you Birdee.’ We then started bouncing ideas off each other, just trying to shape and evolve it. We both are very drawn to raw and organic instruments, the drums and the bass, we like to keep it very organic. The reason why we approach it that way, and we approached it for this song, is that it really brings out the authentic and raw side of what we're trying to portray, and we do it naturally.
It goes incredibly well with your dance troupe on Maroubra beach for the video. You're an amazing dancer and you also choreographed the video to your previous single ‘See You, See Me’. Has creating music always been an accompaniment to dance, or was it the other way around? What came first for you?
Since the age of three, I've been playing piano and dancing, doing ballet and all sorts of things so it's really hard to say which one came first. I initially wanted to pursue something in dancing because as a person, I'm quite extroverted and confident and I have a lot of energy in me. So dance was a form for me to express myself. But I then took an interest more in singing and really used my piano lessons and my experiences through that to start shifting towards music and wanting to pursue that.
It's a beautiful I'm always interested when you have creatives that are dancers as well, because your physical movement almost becomes another instrument. You've been playing the piano since you are three, when most of us were just learning how to construct sentences, where did the passion for music originate?
My passion for music definitely came from my parents. I was brought up with such a musical and loud family and I'm so grateful to have parents that really encouraged and supported that. It all came from being surrounded by music from my dad playing guitar and piano and the flute and my mum absolutely loving karaoke. Mentally and psychologically, the way that it was engraved into me and made me be like, ‘this is me, this is my purpose’ was when my dad would show me Broadway films and musical theatre where they would all dance and sing and act and watching these movies definitely shaped me to where I wanted to go in life.
And how did you go from couple of YouTube covers to now releasing a debut EP?
The first time that I realised I wanted to take singing and performing seriously, I was 12 years old and I entered myself into a school talent quest. I said to mum and dad, ‘I want to get up by myself and I want to sing a song’. And they were like, 'you've never really taken an interest in singing, but, okay, give it a shot’. I came second, and it really inspired me and I [thought] maybe I could do something with this, I could really go somewhere, that's it, I want to be an artist from now on. I would write music in our little piano room at home, and then I would perform at assemblies during high school and I would also perform with my sister as well as one of my best friends, we would do shows and gigs at pubs and cafes and weddings, and all sorts of things around town. I started trying to make a name for myself, to let people know that I not only like to perform live, but I also like to write my own music. I then moved to Sydney, and studied at the Australian Institute of Music, because I wanted to understand and learn how to not only perform live, but to compose and record and produce music so that I could potentially set myself up as an independent artist. I'm just so grateful because it's led for me to be confident enough to put out music [which lead to] my manager messaging after I released a couple of songs, and say he was interested in managing me. Ever since then it's just skyrocketed to me going overseas to perform, doing shows and potentially doing songwriting sessions with other musicians and artists and producers that I would never even think I would be able to to meet.
That's wonderful. I love not just your approach, but also your insight into the industry before you even got into it. By knowing it all, it meant that you could make music the way that you wanted to make it with confidence, because you were able to explain yourself, you knew the talk.
Definitely. I'm very much a person that likes to do things alone, and I like to take pride in that. To be like ‘I did that’. That definitely got me into the mindset of thinking I need to learn about how to market and how to promote, I need to learn about how to produce music, I need to learn about how people work in the music industry. And music videos, and directing, and all this sort of stuff. All this stuff that's behind the scenes that no one really sees because they just see the final product. I had an understanding there was so much more to music and being an artist than what you see at the front, so that's why I wanted to see where it would all go.
Lastly, before I leave you, you have just announced your debut EP Can't Be Loved will be out on September 30. Can you talk me through the creation of this gem?
It's an EP and a work that is very close to my heart, very close to me, because these works, they really do show a lot of sides to myself. When I put out ‘See You, See Me’, it's the side of me that's very bubbly, and outgoing and fun and relaxed. Whereas other songs that will be on Can't Be Loved they show a deeper side to me, they show certain experiences and emotions that I've gone through, I felt, I've thought and it's just been really amazing to work on it. I've worked with Toby (Butter Bath) and he's helped me show the certain concepts and ideas and experiences that I've wanted to show through these works. I've also worked with an amazing artist called Montgomery who's based in Melbourne. There's a couple of songs on the EP that show the side of me that is very vulnerable, very scared, very full of self doubt and contemplation. It really does show different sides to me, but in a way when I listen to it I think ‘oh, it's young Birdee’. It's a chapter in my life that I can look back on fondly and be like, ‘Wow, these are the experiences and the feelings that I was going through at the time’ and it's beautiful to get a glimpse and taste of that and relive it.
‘Dorsal Fin’ is out now. You can download and stream here.
To keep up with all things BIRDEE王煒 you can follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
