British singer Birdy burst on the music scene at 15 with a knack for making cover songs sound like her own with her broody, gloomy vocals. Now, she’s finding her own voice on her new album.
Birdy moved to London from Lymington in Hampshire, United Kingdom, two years ago while creating her third album. Now at 20, she’s developed a decided taste for what she likes musically, and has grown comfortable with recording.
That's reflected all over in Beautiful Lies, released this year and currently being promoted on a world tour. Birdy co-wrote the entire album, co-producing six of the 14 tracks.
“I feel like this album is kind of my coming-of-age album because I’m older, and it’s taking time to really learn my opinions,” the soft-spoken singer says. “I feel like on this album I really knew what I wanted.”
It took nearly two years to craft the album with the help of producers MyRiot and Jim Abbiss, who worked on Adele's debut 19 and its masterful follow-up, 21.
Birdy, born Jennifer van den Bogaerde, released her self-titled debut in 2011. Mostly covers, it included an impressive rendition of Bon Iver's Skinny Love. She followed it with an original album, Fire Within, in 2013.
Beautiful Lies features the emotional, sad pop songs that Birdy has become known for.
There are also more upbeat moments, including album opener Growing Pains and Keep Your Head Up.
“I feel like the first two albums were brilliant, and I’ve learnt so much,” she says.
“I’ve got so much experience ... and so this album is so much fun because I wasn’t afraid of anything. I knew how it worked. I knew the process already.
She says some of the album was inspired by Arthur Golden's novel Memoirs of a Geisha.
“I read that book at the beginning of the whole process so as I was kind of writing ... it was more of the landscape that really inspired me; just how it was described was so beautiful and I felt like I was there,” she states. “I think I’m quite inspired by places, like where I grew is kind of wild and kind of moody, and so I always write these really sad songs. And then I moved to London, and I feel like these songs are a bit more uplifting.”
While she’s become known for her melancholic songs, Birdy says she not a sad person: “I’m a pretty happy person – I hope. You know, everybody gets sad, and I think I just draw from those times when I’m singing.”
She added that singing emotional and heavy songs are “what move me the most”.
It can also serve as therapy.
“It feels nice to write a song and to sing and to feel the words,” she says. “It can be painful sometimes I think, but probably therapeutic as well.”
•Beautiful Lies is out now