Exploring Birdsong: Easter Eggs
EXPLORING BIRDSONG formed nearly a decade ago, a progressive music trio marked by singer Lynsey Ward’s expressive vocals and their guitar-less approach to guitar riffs. Two superb pop-forward, piano-driven prog EPs built an early fanbase, flagging them as a band ready as any to quickly jump into a first album release cycle.
Instead, they took their time, releasing a slew of standalone singles in 2024 before putting together the ambitious Every House We Built. It’s characteristic of the band’s meticulous streak, giving every step of their journey due consideration. “We took the time to work out exactly what we wanted to do, rather than rush out something,” says bassist Jonny Knight. “You can only do a debut album once!”
“We could have put out probably three or four albums in the time that we’ve been doing this,” jokes drummer Matt Harrison. “It’s been very deliberate.” The result is a noted evolution in their sound – there’s still the clever underlying streak of prog. However, much of the time-bending rhythms and piano-driven work of their early EPs has been supplanted by thumping bass riffs, synth-pop textures, and a huge step-up in melodic hooks. As such, this debut represents a culmination, as well as a fresh beginning for EXPLORING BIRDSONG.
It’s also a testament to the chemistry between the trio – a record created through equal collaboration, despite their geographical spread, with singer Lynsey Ward based in Tamworth, Knight in Plymouth, and Harrison in Bolton. (“We’re bringing the nation together through this music,” jokes Knight.) There’s an easy humour shared between the group, who show up to their interview despite a heatwave in the brown blazer business-wear outfits that have become their signature look. (All except for Harrison, who eschews the jacket for his shirt and tie, prompting gentle ridicule from his bandmates.)
For a debut, Every House We Built is surprisingly varied in its textures and sounds. Standout single Spy In The House of Love might be a cheesy, perfect slice of hooky pop, but even that track manages to find space for some bagpipes. If there is a common thread to the EXPLORING BIRDSONG sound, it’s the deliberate rejection of the electric guitar. “There is quite a lot of excitement and fun in the challenge of creating that sound, and emulating that feel without the actual instrument itself,” shares Knight. Such is the effectiveness of their recreations, particularly through Knight‘s bass sounds, that some fans challenged the band’s decision to use guitars on the album’s singles. “Fake news – there isn’t any!” Says Harrison.
That choice dates back to the band’s inception – a shared fandom of guitar sounds and a rehearsal room with only a piano and drum kit, prior to Knight joining on bass. (“He refused to join the band twice before we pressured him into it,” jokes Harrison.) What began as a creative limitation has transformed into something of a manifesto, and an ongoing challenge. “There are a few bands, like ERASURE and PET SHOP BOYS, where these songs were written on guitars and then just moved over to synths… We can relate to that in some ways, which might be where some of the 80s influence that people hear comes from,” says Knight.
Certainly, Every House We Built feels infused with the 80s, whether on the Eye Of The Tiger-esque riff on The Warning, or the CYNDI LAUPER-adjacent pop choruses of I_You and Spy In The House of Love. The range of different tones the listener can pick up from the album feels endless. What are the key influences? “We can take a lot of inspiration from bands that are unapologetically them,” says singer Ward, referencing COHEED AND CAMBRIA as the lodestone example, alongside the polyrhythmic intensity of MESHUGGAH. Harrison takes a slightly different direction: “The key component of a EXPLORING BIRDSONG song for me… The first thing it’s got to have is a good chorus. There’s a lot of influence from writers that write good melodies. And I’m gonna say – CHAD KROEGER writes a fucking good melody!”
Alongside the songcraft, the band’s shared love of puzzles and referential humour extends to their interactions with their fanbase, leaving breadcrumbs throughout their songs and videos, pored over by their most ardent followers on Discord. “The way we like to interact with music, as well as people who like our music… We like there to be things to find,” says Ward. “There’s Easter eggs in the music video to other tracks. We like to pepper these things in there, because we find it fun to interact with ourselves.” The most impactful of these came with their song 42, partly a Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy reference, partly borne of the band seeing the number 42 everywhere they went and keeping a photo archive. “People took it upon themselves to find their own 42s and to get in on the gag with us,” laughs Ward.
This idea of puzzles and recurrent themes is, in some ways, a lite version of the concept album, a direction Every House We Built didn’t quite take. “You still have that Easter egg treasure hunt thing going on within the album, of themes reappearing… There are melodic themes that appear multiple times in the song, lyrics that link with each other,” says Knight. The idea of music as a puzzle box may not be new, but it’s a clever execution, particularly in the intricate storytelling of their music videos.
However, there have been scant opportunities thus far for those fans to see EXPLORING BIRDSONG on stage. Single dates in London & Manchester and a couple of nights at St. Pancras Old Church have been the extent of their live footprint in the past two years. “We’ve tried to be select about when we play, and where we play, because that feels like it matches the thought we’ve put into other stuff,” says Harrison. Dive bars and sweaty basements aren’t the best landscape for this sort of music. “We want to encourage people to have an experience with [us to be] a full thing, if that makes sense. And we can’t do that if we’re doing it 150 times a year.” The band are cagey on the plans for their four-date tour in September, beyond new songs on the setlist. As for dream venues? “Wouldn’t it be funny if we were the first band without guitars to play Bloodstock?” muses Harrison.
With so much deliberate effort gone into every facet of the band’s debut, and for its inherent quality, EXPLORING BIRDSONG deserve every success as one of the most creative, interesting and catchy bands in the UK. But their immediate ambitions remain prosaic. “Hearing [fans] sing the end of [album closer] Meadowlands live; that’s enough of a milestone to know that people have resonated with [the album],” says Knight. “Bus touring!” jokes Ward. “I’m going to blag this one and say the same as those two,” deadpans Harrison. On the strength of Every House We Built, the next puzzle to solve might be on how they set their sights even higher.
Every House We Built is out now via Long Branch Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS131 here.
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