Billie Bird — Incendies

Billie Bird is not afraid to dig deep.

Named after an admired English traveller, Billie Bird takes you on a healing journey. "Ce sont les sentiments" is a mission statement. INCENDIES is an album about emotional release, and you will feel it, whether you want to or not.

She takes you by the hand to dare to look under the surface, a confrontation with what you might find within: Get ready to ache, to weep, to mourn. And bring a bucket for your tears because this music will defrost even the coldest heart.

"Il faut être fou pour vivre ici, si près de la mèr(e)" - ("One has to be crazy to live here, this close to the sea/mother"). Billie Bird has the strength to go where it hurts, where grief, pain, and sorrow make people question their sanity. And that can actually feel really good. Because if you don't want to carry a hardened block in your chest if you want to be able to let go and move on from your emotions, you need to honor them and move through them.

After an EP and some successful singles ("La nuit", "Les Déferlantes"), it is Billie Bird's first full-length album, named after a catastrophic all-consuming fire. The topic of the first single? Electricity. The forces of nature make their appearance throughout Incendies: it's one of her ways to share the highs and the lows of her life experiences. She sings in French and Spanish, as these are her two origins, the two languages closest to her.

But no feeling or catastrophe (not even the most overwhelming pain) lasts forever, there are islands of serenity and light as the record unfolds. Even if she sings of earthquakes and explosions and the end of the world, her voice is calm. The "fin du monde" must be a relief.

In 2019, Billie Bird received the "National Language" prize at the Swiss Live Talents Awards and is nominated as one of the "hundred personalities in French-speaking Switzerland" by "Le Temps" newspaper that writes: "La voix de Billie, sans repentir, hante celle ou celui qui la croise.” - her voice will haunt you!

This is pop music of bold artistry and refreshing experimentalism. It does not apologize for big profound melodies. A kind of pop that is influenced by electronic music, synthpop and which is also kind of standing in the tradition of 90s freak folk or anti-folk with a hint of flamenco. No wonder: Both Producer Fabio Pinto and Bird herself are versatile guitarists.

They co-produced the album from scratch in a DIY studio in Ticino, keeping the sounds of lighters being lit and the crackling of the wood stove. Like a joke of fate, the studio caught fire as soon as the record was finished, marking the end of this symbolic place.

For the last three years they have created sound baths, rich atmospheric textures and deep bouncing grooves. French music magazine Les Inrockuptibles calls her music "quivering" and "boiling". Billie Bird's older releases had a penchant for the 80s. This album's sound design is decidedly contemporary. It's informed by the current sonic tendencies, all the while having a timeless, classic quality and a clear and cohesive sonic vision.

Incendies is an honest, courageous, and intensely beautiful record about the processing of big feelings.

*** Who is this music for? People who ask themselves if they are losing their minds or if it's normal to experience the five stages of grief on loop.