Birds Of Tokyo: Burning to shine

“I often think of entering Kenny into one of those talent shows, just so I could watch them turn around and say, ‘Sorry mate, you just don’t have what it takes,” jokes Adam Spark, lead-guitarist of Perth’s most beloved man-band Birds of Tokyo. Front-man Ian Kenny seems less than impressed by his humble introduction.

In the midst of huge industry shifts, as sombre faces sparsely fill desks in the EMI Surry Hills headquarters following Universal’s take over, the Birds of Tokyo also set their minds to change with the release of their fourth studio- album March Fires.

“March Fires came out of a great discussion, from a place where we thought, “Okay, we’re up to record four; why are we making it and what is it about?” says Kenny, ‘We made it a point to change and deconstruct what this band does. Sure, it’s about us, but we also wanted to make it about people, connection and communication and trying to explore that as best we can.”

March Fires, which appropriately came out on March 1, follows the blazing trail lit by the Gold selling EP This Fire released late last year. The title track unveiled the bands new line-up and acted as a taster of things to come. The recently released anthem, Lanterns, made waves of its own, becoming the groups highest charting ARIA single to date.

“We wanted to put out This Fire, but we didn’t want to just release a traditional single, we felt like there was more to hear. Plus, the body of the record, while it was getting worked on and mixed and mastered, it wasn’t quite ready to go, so we didn’t want to waste these songs!” explains Kenny.

“And some of those songs, like The Lake, are my favourite tracks we’ve ever done,” adds Sparks, “but they would have just been bonus tracks on iTunes or something, and we thought they were better than that.”

The recurring motif of change seemed quite fitting considering shifts to their line-up in 2011, with Anthony Jackson subbing out for Ian Berney on bass, their recent cross- country relocations from home- town Perth to new abodes along the eastern seaboard, and the band’s ever transitioning work-spaces.

After travelling from Sydney, to New York, to London, and sub-zero climates in Sweden to record their 2010 self-titled release, the band decided a studio space in LA would be the home of their new record.

“Our producer, Dave Cooly, lived in LA. We call him Galaxy. He was great. We’re pretty strong headed-dudes with what we want. We’re no slouchers in terms of writing, arrangement and production, so he had to find his place with us, but we really learnt a lot from him,” explains Kenny.

“He forced us, philosophically, to look at the music. He taught us to internalise and analyse, and helped start a discussion regarding our process and how deep we actually go into what we’re doing.

“We spent about six months in LA, and to commit that amount of time to a record here (in Australia) would have been a huge endeavour, plus we wanted to escape a little bit, just get away and do our thing.”

Kenny is aware of how this sound: “It sounds really shit to say and I should be very clear; we are an Australian band and we probably shouldn’t be taking away work from Australian studios, because we know that they’re struggling, but it’s tough. The amount of time we want to spend in the studio, with all due respect to the local markets, would be too expensive here.”

With their first national sojourn in over two years commencing this month, festival headlines and a number of opportunities in overseas markets in the wings, Birds of Tokyo are remaining fairly tight-lipped about what’s next.

“There are some things in the pipeline. I guess all we can say is that it’s a pretty exciting time ahead. We just want to get on a plane.”