What‘s in a name? Ice Black Birds. Interesting juxtaposition of white and black, dark and shade and that. The name black in a music context is always somewhat synonymous with eyeliner and metal, a dark heart and soul tormented, but ‘birds‘? Soaring ballads, or flitting sparrows running errands, or at the very least, girls. But Ice Black Birds don‘t fit into any scene – all the epithets pop, old school, blues, dance, rock‘n‘roll can be applied at some point.
Shamelessly throwing into the mix a riff heard from that song on the radio yesterday, influences from CD found at a boot fair, the fingering of the fret that organically develops in a jam session, until the final result is rather an Eton Mess – bit mashed up, but utterly tasty. Sure, there‘s a hint of sixties blues there, but there‘s a hell of a lot of disco beats too.
Structurally the songs are made up of very disparate parts – maybe a heavy funky groove, followed by aggressive dual vocal delivery, possibly climaxing with a drum thrashing, or modern indie classic instrumental. With such a cross hatch of different periods and genres, it would be easy to believe in complicated formula behind the songwriting.
It‘s not conscious‘, says lead guitarist George. ‘We don‘t go, ‘Oh we‘ll pick this, and a bit of that.’ You can probably group some of our songs together based on the period of music I‘ve been listening to. Like recently I‘ve had a bit of a Creedance Clearwater revival, so there‘s a takatakatakataka coming in. There‘s loads of elements, and we just put them together.‘
First single ‗Ears To The Ground‘ is the most immediate song, its fast vocals, pulsating base line like a steady strong heartbeat threatening to go haywire. Just as it seems that this is going to be one Ice Black Birds song that doesn‘t cavort around genre, tempo and influences, like a musketeer riding in to a duel, a vocal harmony appears, the instruments that IBB so expertly execute relegated to the background for a few seconds of lived in ruggedness.
The lyrics are very much the final piece of the gut busting musical puzzle that the band create. ‘I write about things that happen to me,‘ shrugs lead vocalist Sam. ‘Other people‘s shoes. Nonsense really. I don‘t really have a set formula for the way I write. A lot of the time we‘ll play live 3 or 4 times with different phrases. That way I can try and get a feel for what it sounds like live. Just to know what is right.‘
Critics who dismiss the band for having one foot firmly in the past and being irrelevant must be listening on broken headphones. You know how on old fashioned ones, if the left ear wasn‘t working, so you were only hearing through the right, the noises coming through bore no resemblance to the song title on the display?
To believe Ice Black Birds‘ sound died away with black and white TV, carelessly throwing around phrases like ‘They‘re not as good as Led Zepellin‘ (‘Er, who said we were trying to be Led Zep. We‘re well aware there‘s a long way to go‘, says Ollie, drummer and vocalist), is to ignore the slices of samba that surreptitiously make an appearance in ‘Long Dark Night‘, the frantic furore and wailing in ‘Doors‘ that reminds of Late of The Pier, and the rolling wave of a riff in ‘As Birds We‘d Be Fine‘, a gorgeous love song with lustful energy simmering beneath.
It‘s more the process and tools, than the sound, that Ice Black Birds insist on drawing from the more musically swinging periods of history, and this is something lead guitarist George is keen to point out.
‘We take the original visceral kind of tribal stomp of the sixties and seventies, which was a very very buoyant and creative period, when everything sounded fresh and new, and still sounds fresh and new. Play anyone Pet Sounds and they‘ll love it, because it‘s a great thing. These are records that are timeless.
‘So to make something more ‘accessible‘, which is that wonderful industry word…accessible to a larger audience, is where the dance element comes in. It‘s the modern synthetic element, but without using synths. There‘s a lot of melodies and a lot of harmonies that would be normally played on a mook, or one of these crazy synths, but we do it in a more organic way, so that it sounds different, but familiar.‘
Or maybe, as bassist Harry summarizes ‘dance blues.‘
Either way, Ice Black Birds won‘t be extinct any time soon.
Francesca and Dan chat to Ice Black Birds
What‘s in a name? Ice Black Birds. Interesting juxtaposition of white and black, dark and shade and that. The name black in a music context is always somewhat synonymous with eyeliner and metal, a dark heart and soul tormented, but ‘birds‘? Soaring ballads, or flitting sparrows running errands, or at the very least, girls. But Ice Black Birds don‘t fit into any scene – all the epithets pop, old school, blues, dance, rock‘n‘roll can be applied at some point.
Shamelessly throwing into the mix a riff heard from that song on the radio yesterday, influences from CD found at a boot fair, the fingering of the fret that organically develops in a jam session, until the final result is rather an Eton Mess – bit mashed up, but utterly tasty. Sure, there‘s a hint of sixties blues there, but there‘s a hell of a lot of disco beats too.
Structurally the songs are made up of very disparate parts – maybe a heavy funky groove, followed by aggressive dual vocal delivery, possibly climaxing with a drum thrashing, or modern indie classic instrumental. With such a cross hatch of different periods and genres, it would be easy to believe in complicated formula behind the songwriting.
It‘s not conscious‘, says lead guitarist George. ‘We don‘t go, ‘Oh we‘ll pick this, and a bit of that.’ You can probably group some of our songs together based on the period of music I‘ve been listening to. Like recently I‘ve had a bit of a Creedance Clearwater revival, so there‘s a takatakatakataka coming in. There‘s loads of elements, and we just put them together.‘
First single ‗Ears To The Ground‘ is the most immediate song, its fast vocals, pulsating base line like a steady strong heartbeat threatening to go haywire. Just as it seems that this is going to be one Ice Black Birds song that doesn‘t cavort around genre, tempo and influences, like a musketeer riding in to a duel, a vocal harmony appears, the instruments that IBB so expertly execute relegated to the background for a few seconds of lived in ruggedness.
The lyrics are very much the final piece of the gut busting musical puzzle that the band create. ‘I write about things that happen to me,‘ shrugs lead vocalist Sam. ‘Other people‘s shoes. Nonsense really. I don‘t really have a set formula for the way I write. A lot of the time we‘ll play live 3 or 4 times with different phrases. That way I can try and get a feel for what it sounds like live. Just to know what is right.‘
Critics who dismiss the band for having one foot firmly in the past and being irrelevant must be listening on broken headphones. You know how on old fashioned ones, if the left ear wasn‘t working, so you were only hearing through the right, the noises coming through bore no resemblance to the song title on the display?
To believe Ice Black Birds‘ sound died away with black and white TV, carelessly throwing around phrases like ‘They‘re not as good as Led Zepellin‘ (‘Er, who said we were trying to be Led Zep. We‘re well aware there‘s a long way to go‘, says Ollie, drummer and vocalist), is to ignore the slices of samba that surreptitiously make an appearance in ‘Long Dark Night‘, the frantic furore and wailing in ‘Doors‘ that reminds of Late of The Pier, and the rolling wave of a riff in ‘As Birds We‘d Be Fine‘, a gorgeous love song with lustful energy simmering beneath.
It‘s more the process and tools, than the sound, that Ice Black Birds insist on drawing from the more musically swinging periods of history, and this is something lead guitarist George is keen to point out.
‘We take the original visceral kind of tribal stomp of the sixties and seventies, which was a very very buoyant and creative period, when everything sounded fresh and new, and still sounds fresh and new. Play anyone Pet Sounds and they‘ll love it, because it‘s a great thing. These are records that are timeless.
‘So to make something more ‘accessible‘, which is that wonderful industry word…accessible to a larger audience, is where the dance element comes in. It‘s the modern synthetic element, but without using synths. There‘s a lot of melodies and a lot of harmonies that would be normally played on a mook, or one of these crazy synths, but we do it in a more organic way, so that it sounds different, but familiar.‘
Or maybe, as bassist Harry summarizes ‘dance blues.‘
Either way, Ice Black Birds won‘t be extinct any time soon.
Shamelessly throwing into the mix a riff heard from that song on the radio yesterday, influences from CD found at a boot fair, the fingering of the fret that organically develops in a jam session, until the final result is rather an Eton Mess – bit mashed up, but utterly tasty. Sure, there‘s a hint of sixties blues there, but there‘s a hell of a lot of disco beats too.
Structurally the songs are made up of very disparate parts – maybe a heavy funky groove, followed by aggressive dual vocal delivery, possibly climaxing with a drum thrashing, or modern indie classic instrumental. With such a cross hatch of different periods and genres, it would be easy to believe in complicated formula behind the songwriting.
It‘s not conscious‘, says lead guitarist George. ‘We don‘t go, ‘Oh we‘ll pick this, and a bit of that.’ You can probably group some of our songs together based on the period of music I‘ve been listening to. Like recently I‘ve had a bit of a Creedance Clearwater revival, so there‘s a takatakatakataka coming in. There‘s loads of elements, and we just put them together.‘
First single ‗Ears To The Ground‘ is the most immediate song, its fast vocals, pulsating base line like a steady strong heartbeat threatening to go haywire. Just as it seems that this is going to be one Ice Black Birds song that doesn‘t cavort around genre, tempo and influences, like a musketeer riding in to a duel, a vocal harmony appears, the instruments that IBB so expertly execute relegated to the background for a few seconds of lived in ruggedness.
The lyrics are very much the final piece of the gut busting musical puzzle that the band create. ‘I write about things that happen to me,‘ shrugs lead vocalist Sam. ‘Other people‘s shoes. Nonsense really. I don‘t really have a set formula for the way I write. A lot of the time we‘ll play live 3 or 4 times with different phrases. That way I can try and get a feel for what it sounds like live. Just to know what is right.‘
Critics who dismiss the band for having one foot firmly in the past and being irrelevant must be listening on broken headphones. You know how on old fashioned ones, if the left ear wasn‘t working, so you were only hearing through the right, the noises coming through bore no resemblance to the song title on the display?
To believe Ice Black Birds‘ sound died away with black and white TV, carelessly throwing around phrases like ‘They‘re not as good as Led Zepellin‘ (‘Er, who said we were trying to be Led Zep. We‘re well aware there‘s a long way to go‘, says Ollie, drummer and vocalist), is to ignore the slices of samba that surreptitiously make an appearance in ‘Long Dark Night‘, the frantic furore and wailing in ‘Doors‘ that reminds of Late of The Pier, and the rolling wave of a riff in ‘As Birds We‘d Be Fine‘, a gorgeous love song with lustful energy simmering beneath.
It‘s more the process and tools, than the sound, that Ice Black Birds insist on drawing from the more musically swinging periods of history, and this is something lead guitarist George is keen to point out.
‘We take the original visceral kind of tribal stomp of the sixties and seventies, which was a very very buoyant and creative period, when everything sounded fresh and new, and still sounds fresh and new. Play anyone Pet Sounds and they‘ll love it, because it‘s a great thing. These are records that are timeless.
‘So to make something more ‘accessible‘, which is that wonderful industry word…accessible to a larger audience, is where the dance element comes in. It‘s the modern synthetic element, but without using synths. There‘s a lot of melodies and a lot of harmonies that would be normally played on a mook, or one of these crazy synths, but we do it in a more organic way, so that it sounds different, but familiar.‘
Or maybe, as bassist Harry summarizes ‘dance blues.‘
Either way, Ice Black Birds won‘t be extinct any time soon.
Francesca and Dan chat to Ice Black Birds
What‘s in a name? Ice Black Birds. Interesting juxtaposition of white and black, dark and shade and that. The name black in a music context is always somewhat synonymous with eyeliner and metal, a dark heart and soul tormented, but ‘birds‘? Soaring ballads, or flitting sparrows running errands, or at the very least, girls. But Ice Black Birds don‘t fit into any scene – all the epithets pop, old school, blues, dance, rock‘n‘roll can be applied at some point.
Shamelessly throwing into the mix a riff heard from that song on the radio yesterday, influences from CD found at a boot fair, the fingering of the fret that organically develops in a jam session, until the final result is rather an Eton Mess – bit mashed up, but utterly tasty. Sure, there‘s a hint of sixties blues there, but there‘s a hell of a lot of disco beats too.
Structurally the songs are made up of very disparate parts – maybe a heavy funky groove, followed by aggressive dual vocal delivery, possibly climaxing with a drum thrashing, or modern indie classic instrumental. With such a cross hatch of different periods and genres, it would be easy to believe in complicated formula behind the songwriting.
It‘s not conscious‘, says lead guitarist George. ‘We don‘t go, ‘Oh we‘ll pick this, and a bit of that.’ You can probably group some of our songs together based on the period of music I‘ve been listening to. Like recently I‘ve had a bit of a Creedance Clearwater revival, so there‘s a takatakatakataka coming in. There‘s loads of elements, and we just put them together.‘
First single ‗Ears To The Ground‘ is the most immediate song, its fast vocals, pulsating base line like a steady strong heartbeat threatening to go haywire. Just as it seems that this is going to be one Ice Black Birds song that doesn‘t cavort around genre, tempo and influences, like a musketeer riding in to a duel, a vocal harmony appears, the instruments that IBB so expertly execute relegated to the background for a few seconds of lived in ruggedness.
The lyrics are very much the final piece of the gut busting musical puzzle that the band create. ‘I write about things that happen to me,‘ shrugs lead vocalist Sam. ‘Other people‘s shoes. Nonsense really. I don‘t really have a set formula for the way I write. A lot of the time we‘ll play live 3 or 4 times with different phrases. That way I can try and get a feel for what it sounds like live. Just to know what is right.‘
Critics who dismiss the band for having one foot firmly in the past and being irrelevant must be listening on broken headphones. You know how on old fashioned ones, if the left ear wasn‘t working, so you were only hearing through the right, the noises coming through bore no resemblance to the song title on the display?
To believe Ice Black Birds‘ sound died away with black and white TV, carelessly throwing around phrases like ‘They‘re not as good as Led Zepellin‘ (‘Er, who said we were trying to be Led Zep. We‘re well aware there‘s a long way to go‘, says Ollie, drummer and vocalist), is to ignore the slices of samba that surreptitiously make an appearance in ‘Long Dark Night‘, the frantic furore and wailing in ‘Doors‘ that reminds of Late of The Pier, and the rolling wave of a riff in ‘As Birds We‘d Be Fine‘, a gorgeous love song with lustful energy simmering beneath.
It‘s more the process and tools, than the sound, that Ice Black Birds insist on drawing from the more musically swinging periods of history, and this is something lead guitarist George is keen to point out.
‘We take the original visceral kind of tribal stomp of the sixties and seventies, which was a very very buoyant and creative period, when everything sounded fresh and new, and still sounds fresh and new. Play anyone Pet Sounds and they‘ll love it, because it‘s a great thing. These are records that are timeless.
‘So to make something more ‘accessible‘, which is that wonderful industry word…accessible to a larger audience, is where the dance element comes in. It‘s the modern synthetic element, but without using synths. There‘s a lot of melodies and a lot of harmonies that would be normally played on a mook, or one of these crazy synths, but we do it in a more organic way, so that it sounds different, but familiar.‘
Or maybe, as bassist Harry summarizes ‘dance blues.‘
Either way, Ice Black Birds won‘t be extinct any time soon.