The first single from Adelaide based quartet Soulbird, nearly went in a different direction than their usual style. The song "Meet You There" didn’t have much focus in the early days.
Fellow band member Stew Heatley Jr explained "Originally, Lilli's focus was to really capture the introspective feelings associated with conforming to societal limitations. Once we had solidified the flow and energy of the song, we felt that rhythmically, it needed to go a bit rogue and unexpected to match the intention of the lyrics. The end of the song felt like it needed to be a trance-like jam and once we found that, we felt like the song was exactly how it was supposed to be."
The whole EP, Mesmerise, leans pretty dark. We asked Stew why that is.
"Hmmm... great question! We would say it's both conscious and subconscious. As individuals, we have pretty eclectic tastes in music but to name the stand outs, we all really love the contrasting emotions found in songs by Jeff Buckley, Radiohead and The Verve. To us, these are bands that know how to capture leaning in to an emotion — whether it's light or dark — and it's something we all really take inspiration from. We want our sound to always be an honest reflection of emotion depending on what stage of our lives we are at."
Adelaide can feel like a bubble for new bands. Soulbird’s been carving out their place for a couple of years now, and it hasn’t always been straightforward.
"We have only been actively gigging as a band for the last two years and to be completely transparent, it was originally a struggle to find our place within the local music scene in regards to our sound. We definitely don't write our music to fit into any particular part of the scene but we are grateful that we have found a really supportive network of local musicians. In terms of performance, we are absolutely inspired and influenced by many of the incredible local bands around Adelaide. Despite the music scene being tight-knit, there's a really thriving community here that really tries to support each other."
We asked where the band name originated. It's got a sort of mystic vibe, but the real story is much less straightforward.
"To be honest, we just sort of made it up and stuck with it, but recently we were playing a duo gig and we came across a book by one of our favourite artists called Alex Grey. We flicked through the book and landed on a page with a sculpture of a human-headed bird called 'Soulbird.' The sculpture represents universal vision and a higher consciousness so now we like to think that we are named after that haha"
"Meet You There" manages to balance being soft and being a bit dangerous. We wanted to know if achieving that balance took a lot of back and forth.
"It was one of those songs that all happened pretty naturally and we really allowed the balance to find its own place. As opposed to some of our other songs, this one we really didn't overthink and maybe that's how we got it right!"
So what’s next for Soulbird? "Our first music video is in the editing phase and will be released very soon! We will be releasing another single in a few months and then working on our debut album. Our Instagram page and website is where you can keep up to date with all Soulbird news."
One last thing. What was their most unforgettable gig? "Being invited to play at Space Jams Festival in 2025! This was our debut festival show that we played in an amazing Tipi alongside other incredible musicians. In saying that, every opportunity that we get to play our music is special to us."
You can listen to Soulbird "Meet You There" on Local Sounds
https://localsounds.com.au/song/soulbird/meet-you-there
SoundVerge Editorial
Independent music journalism
