Birds and Beasts aren’t exactly your typical pop band.
From 1960s pop and blues to psychedelia and folk, the Huddersfield four-piece masterfully draw from the music of the past to create a visceral, melodically-rich sound.
What truly separates them from their peers though is their remarkable ability to channel their
interest and passion for animals to tell stories that are both personal and relatable.
This is a balancing act the band strike perfectly on their upbeat new single The Current, which through a simple tale of love and desire, describes how sharks detect food and fellow sharks by picking up on changes in electromagnetic fields.
It’s a song chock-full of suitably crunchy riffs and addictive hooks that are irresistibly uplifting and one that lead singer/guitarist Leo Brazil and bassist/vocalist Anna Brazil are delighted to share with a launch scheduled for March 9 at Small Seeds in Huddersfield town centre.
“We can’t wait,” says Leo. “The first single launch we had was one of the best experiences I’ve had playing music and the venue we’re doing it in is a great venue for us with the theme of the place and the décor.
“We did the recording in May as well, but we’ve been busy gigging and we didn’t have time to finish it off so that’s made us super excited for people to hear our song too.”
Leo and Anna (who are husband and wife) both possess warmth and enthusiasm in spades, which radiates throughout the conversation.
They fondly discuss love and knowledge of animals - with Leo quipping that the band are “really just frustrated zoologists” - their admiration for the beloved David Attenborough, and how they came up with the idea for the band which also includes guitarist/keyboard player Luke Granata and drummer Hep Cairns.
“The original songs were written when we were in Germany because Anna’s from Germany and her family still lives there,” Leo recalls. “We’d gone to a nearby
forest and rented a little log cabin, but it was really snowy and we couldn’t get out! We ended up writing the first five or six songs within a couple of days and we’d just been through a phase of watching nature documentaries, so that’s what made it come out.”
Anna adds: “We played together for a little while before that but not for very long. We got a little bit drunk on the plane and we were like ‘I wonder what it would be like to write an album about animals’ and then we took my mum’s guitar and it started from there.
“Plus there’s only so many books you can read in a log cabin.”
Luke and Hep joined the ranks soon after and they haven’t looked back since.
Having taken inspiration from all corners of the animal kingdom (including spiders’ mating rituals and greyhounds being chased by the police), the band have built an extensive back catalogue and are looking to record an album in the summer, among a variety of plans.
“We want to get out and gig in Yorkshire more”, says Anna. “We’re also looking into some collaborations as well because we have so many great artists in Huddersfield. I’ve been talking to Kaninchen, who’s a loop artist, and we really want to do a collaboration with her. But with the album it’s a case of which songs are we going to put on and which ones we’re going to leave off. We’ve got about 15 songs in the pipeline, but there’s so many angles you can take with the animal theme, because there are so many animals that are strange and exciting. It never ends!”
Gig dates:
Saturday night, February 3 – Northern Quarter with Bad Knaves.
Sunday, February 11 – The Grove Inn (acoustic).
Friday, March 9 – Small Seeds single launch.
