The Story 

Birdie follows the story of a young blackbird, not yet a fledgling, that falls out of its nest whilst mum and dad aren’t around. This little birdie is looking around in awe of the world, hearing sounds in all their glory, literally feeling new ground. It’s magical. But, just behind the bushes, a magpie watches, it plots its next meal. Alone, young and bewildered, this little birdie is a perfect desert.   

The perspective flips back to the voice watching over our little birdie, who still is yet to uncover the looming presence through the greenery. “Listen” the voice cries, “Oh listen there’s something in the branches” but birdie doesn’t understand this danger yet. The leaves shift and crunch and our little birdie hopes for his mother’s return through the bushes, needing the comfort of two, ironically represented by the use of the magpie rhyme, “one for sorrow, two for joy”. But little birdie, chirrup and cry for your mother, she’s nearby, though you can’t see, and she doesn’t see this danger.   

I’m after you, curious thing. I see you there. The magpie makes its move, our little blackbird cries and yelps in confusion and fear… and then, we fly. Mother heard you, little one.  

Lyrics

Listen, listen to the world 

Hear heart beats pounding 

Find why the branches are swaying 

Chirrup, chirrup and see who responds 

Pipe out and cry for your mother 

Twitter but see no one flying 

I’m after you, curious thing 

I see you there, oh oh 

Ayea, yada, ooh, ooooh 

Listen, oh listen there’s something in the branches 

Your hopes are raised, it could be your mother 

It seems we need two for joy 

But chirrup, oh chirrup and see who responds 

Pipe out and cry for your mother 

Twitter but see no one flying 

I’m after you, curious thing 

I see you there, oh oh 

Ayea, yada, ooh, ooooh 

Ayea, yada, ooooh, da da doh 

Oooh, it’s coming 

Ooohhh,  

now we fly 

Chirrup, Cheer Up 

As you’ve probably guessed by now, my upcoming mini-album is named after Birdie, the title coming from the lyric “Chirrup” in the 2nd/4th repeated verses. I played with so many ideas to name this release, trying my hardest to make it stand out and still represent the music and the stories within. Some of them came out very cheesy if I’m being honest. I gave up for a while, at a loss, but was soon inspired again around the time I went into Apocalypse Studios to record.  

I was reminded of the confusion from listeners around the lyrics “chirrup”, many people mistook it for “cheer up”. This first came to light when I was writing Birdie and bouncing ideas off of Casey-Joe, one of the wonderful performers for the launch night, but also, my guitar teacher at the time. Casey mistook the lyrics for “cheer up” and we both recognised the double meaning that now existed behind the lyric, but moved on without it affecting the rest of the song.  

Come forward to March/April time this year (feels like a way back now) and I had decided to look at my songs for inspiration in the title, and I was reminded about the above encounter when I looked at Birdie. In the studio on a Tuesday night in early April, Mikey from Apocalypse asks me the same thing Casey had after recording the first vocal take, only this time Mikey forgets that chirrup is even a real word. After clarifying and convincing, we spoke about what the double phrase meant in relation to the song, to the album and to me.  

To chirrup is for a bird to make short, repeated, high-pitched sounds. To reflect the lyric on a musical level, I added in a flourish on the higher strings at the end of vocal phrases, hammering on and off to create this playful bounce in pitch, reminiscent of the chirruping as well as a carefree young bird hopping about the leaves. To me, chirruping and other such noises are the product of animals’ natural instincts to draw attention and make noise when something interests them, or when they’re confused, in danger, unwell, in pain, you name it. In most social situations in the human world, making loads of noise is considered disruptive and rude, and completely unnecessary, which really is a topic all in itself on how we’re taught to stay quiet, however, we can relate this to mental health. When I was coming into my teens there were times where I struggled deeply with my mental health, and I stayed quiet to the genuine people, and made noise to the wrong people.  

Whilst this all taught so much in the long run, I felt very lost for that period of time. It’s not that I wasn’t given the right tools or opportunities to express things and ask for help, I just couldn’t quite fit it all together in my head yet, and I eventually fell into the habit of punishing myself by investing in the wrong people, ignoring the right ones, harming myself directly, pushing myself to think about very intense, unpleasant and life threatening scenarios, then pulling myself back with the reasoning that I didn’t even deserve that attention, or that I wasn’t worth grieving over, and the cycle continued. 

Eventually, I fell into some more of the right people, and for whatever reason I decided to trust them, learnt to open up to my friends and family, and eventually strangers, learnt to love me. Music helped me there, so much. Sweet Decadence was the first song to explicitly talk about my mental health and self hate that I felt was good enough as a piece of music. I could write my feelings out in gothic novel esc stories for years, but I couldn’t accept the story as my own experience, let alone voice it, until that song. I took a leap of faith, and here I am. 

So, “cheer up”. Whilst I didn’t write Birdie to replicate my story, I can see some of myself in it. The back and forth story telling gives you a section of immersive natural scenery and sounds and an introduction of a dilemma, given from a narrator of sorts. Cheer up, there’s so much to be exploring and experiencing, live, it’s a beautiful life! 

Then, the dark inner voice of the magpie, lurking. Chirrup, because, actually, you’re scared, and you feel lonely in this new view of the world, and you’re not sure you’re safe.

But, eventually, all is well, you’re flying and you’re free

All this from three words, eh? This is why I love writing lyrics. I took “chirrup”, with all this behind it, and recognised how it wrapped up the entire contents of the album, and the journey I went through in writing it all. It’s no secret that my songs come from places of passion. “Chirrup” because I am happy now, I don’t need to Cheer Up, and I have learnt to Chirrup when I sing and when I speak, and I want others to do the same.