It only takes a few moments of speaking to Birdy before you realise where the nickname came from. Jasmine Lucilla Elizabeth Jennifer van den Bogaerde, to give her full title, has an unassuming, soft-spoken gentleness to her when we meet in the dressingroom of Dublin’s Olympia Theatre. A few hours after we talk, she will take to the stage for a sold out show. But now, sleeves of her oversized hoodie pulled over her hands, she could be mistaken for one of her crew or a staff of the venue.
Birdy is already an old hand. Her new album Portraits is her fifth; not bad going for a 27-year-old until you realise that she’s already been releasing records for 12 years, and had her first major hit – a cover of Bon Iver’s Skinny Love – when she was just 15.
“It’s weird, it feels very strange,” she admits, tucking one leg underneath her as she sits down. “Obviously it’s been over 10 years so we’ve done a lot – but it kind of feels right, at the same time. I just feel like it’s nice to know myself a bit more. With the last record and this new one, I’ve felt more grown-up, more comfortable with myself. And that’s been really nice.”
There are no hints of ego or showbiz with Birdy, nor are there any regrets about her missing out on “normal” teenage experiences once she was on the industry treadmill. Much of her new album, Portraits, is about what she calls “being more accepting” of her younger self.
“Because I think it is hard when you’re still a child, and you don’t know yourself, and you’re putting stuff out there that people are judging and you’re not even sure if you like it or not, yourself.” She smiles. “I think I was quite hard on myself at that age, doing that. But I’m also grateful to have had that experience and to be where I am now. It’s very nostalgic, to listen back to those early albums.”
In any case, the pandemic afforded her more time at home ahead of the writing recording of Portraits. Like most people, she binged Netflix and took long, pointless walks, but she also undertook a rather unusual pandemic project, too.
“I moved back to the countryside with my family for most of it,” she says. “And I raised a duck – it was really sweet. We live by lots of lakes, and she’d just been found in a swimming pool, a week old. So I just raised her as my own.” The duck, which was named Petrie after the flying dinosaur from The Land Before Time, has returned every summer since. “I think she realises that she gets fed, so she brings other ducks with her now,” grins Birdy. “I did write a song about her for this record, but it didn’t make it. I do want to release it at some stage, though.”
Birdy had tackled a difficult period of writer’s block – and a bout of heartbreak following the end of a relationship – before Young Heart was recorded, ultimately alleviated by a period of travelling in India and California with her sister and friends. It made for a different album to what had come before, but she says that she began to feel more confident about pushing back around the time of 2016′s Beautiful Lies.
“I was experimenting a bit more, and had an idea of how the overall sound should feel,” she explains. “But Young Heart was the first time I’d had a bit of pushback [from the label] against what I was trying to do. It was kind of a folk record that I was writing, but I really believed in it. That was the first time I was really challenging myself to follow how I felt, and navigating that made me grow a lot, I think.”
The musical touchpoints on Portraits mix things up yet again; it’s an altogether poppier-sounding album, and she explains how the visual aesthetic of artists like PJ Harvey were an initial inspiration. “And I was listening to Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek at the very beginning,” she says. “I was interested in trying to do a pop song, or something that had some momentum to it, but in a way that felt authentic – because I felt like I’d never achieved that before. I was listening to Prince and David Bowie, Kate Bush and Madonna. I like the dramatics of Prince and Madonna, but also that mix of acoustic and electronic. And Portishead was a big influence, too.” She pauses for breath. “That’s a lot of names to take in, isn’t it?!”
If its predecessor was an album soaked in heartache, this one is more about new beginnings, she agrees. “I think it feels a bit like pushing through some of that insecurity,” she nods. “I was very conflicted on Young Heart, because I was trying to push for what I wanted to do. So I think it’s that feeling of having pushed through that and coming out the other side really strong and empowered. And a lot of it’s about the inner child, and remembering that person and enjoying making music again. Coming through that writer’s block and the hardship of that record was huge. The more I’ve written and the more I’ve found myself writing, the more I’ve enjoyed it. This album was kind of about remembering how much I loved it again, which was really nice.”
Birdy has certainly made her mark as a writer of tender ballads, but there is no doubt that one of her biggest hits remains the aforementioned Skinny Love, although it’s not something that particularly bothers her. She denies that she is sick of it, having sung it hundreds of times by now. “I think if it was my song, I might,” she laughs. “Because you change so much, and sometimes it feels like songs are telling a story. Sometimes I sing my older songs and I think ‘It’s not really who I am now, I’m someone different.’ But when it’s a cover, it’s different – and I really love that song. I’m grateful for what it did for me, really.”
With more than 18 million followers across her social media channels, though, it would be silly to dismiss Birdy as “that girl who sang that cover of Skinny Love”. As with most artists nowadays, however, the pressure to provide online content for your fans, as well as music, is real.
“I’ve always struggled with social media; I’m not naturally good at it,” she smiles, shaking her head. “I do like it, I just find it really hard to be consistent – which is kind of what you need to grow it and keep people interested. But I’m trying to, because it’s kind of the way now, isn’t it? And it’s kind of cool now, with things like TikTok, that people can choose what they like and it can grow on its own. I’ve had a few songs which have just suddenly gone viral on TikTok, out of nowhere – like Keep Your Head Up, which is an empowering song. I find that really exciting, that a song that was just one of the album tracks could suddenly do really well. But yeah, I’m not really good at it, but I’m trying. I like being able to talk to fans.”
She still doesn’t feel like a pop star, though, although she feels that with Portraits, her live show needs to incorporate movement to do these colourful, upbeat songs justice. “Like Christine and the Queens,” she muses. “Actually, that’d be really good! I love their dancing so much because it’s really interesting and strange, and I think maybe I could get away with something like that, because I’m a really bad dancer.”
[ Tweety Pie – how Birdy went from doing covers to finding the fire withinOpens in new window ]
Whatever happens next, it sounds like this is undoubtedly the beginning of something new for Birdy. She grins, hugging her knees before she prepares to go downstairs to soundcheck for tonight’s gig.
“I mean, the last song on the record, Tears Don’t Fall, is kind of about looking back and not feeling sad about moving on from things; just feeling grateful that they happened. It’s a bit bittersweet, but just remembering how great it was, really.” She sighs softly, smiling. “That’s the feeling I’d like people to go away from the album with. Being able to move forward with a quiet confidence, really. Does that make sense?”
Portraits is released on August 18th
