FYRE BYRD is fronted by vocalist/guitarist, Samtré and drummer, Breeze. The siblings had been in previous projects before creating FYRE BYRD. “The name came from a previous project’s working title of an EP, but that band, unfortunately, ended early,” the duo reveal about their namesake. “There was still a show booked for that band, and we decided to go ahead with it as a duo and used the name “Fyre Byrd” which was taken from the guitar of the same name. We just used Y’s instead of I’s because it looked a lot cooler.”
Congratulations on the release of your newest single, how does it feel to look back upon it now that it is out there In the world?
Thank you! It is always a favourite when we play it in our live show so it feels great to have it finally released.
Did you learn anything about yourselves whilst looking back upon it now that it is finished?
The song was recorded in 2017, so we have definitely been learning patience. Now felt like the perfect time to release it.
What is “Happy Thoughts” about and what does the song’s title represent?
‘Happy Thoughts’ is about allowing yourself to explore the darkest parts of you, and give space in order to feel what you have been trying to keep hidden underneath trying to “think happy”.
Does your new single still represent what you wanted to say at the start of the creative process, and how was that reflected in the final product?
The single definitely represents what the original intention was, but time has also added new meaning to it for us personally after going through a lot of different life changes over the last 5 years since finishing the song.
What was the creative process like for your new song and was it any different to how you went about working on previous material?
We were trying to capture the energy of our live performance and recorded the bones of the track together (drums, guitar and vocals), and then experimented with a lot of ambient soundscapes. A favourite memory of ours during this recording was finding out the guitar amp, which was being recorded in the back seat of a car, blew up almost at the end of the song during one of the takes. Samtré felt really bad but the Producer, Steve Balbi, said he’d be more upset if something like that didn’t happen.
Was there any material left out of the song you wanted to include – lyrically or sonically?
This was one of those rare songs that just worked so easily, except for the vocal recording. It took a really long time to record those because we thought the song was calling for strong, powerful vocals the entire time. The back half of the song features a one-man, soft vocal stack. We learnt at that moment all of the energy was coming from the instrumentation, and the song wanted the vocals to be the opposite to really let that energy hit you. It was definitely something that was changed for the better.
What would you like listeners to take away from your new song?
If you’re dealing with depression or feeling that you’re not good enough because of deep hurt, you’re not alone in that. We have both been in those places and found therapy helpful along with expressing ourselves creatively with music, poetry or painting, and spending time in prayer. It’s so important for people to know that your value isn’t something you earn but already have. And it can’t be taken away from you.
What else do you have coming up that we should watch out for?
We’ll have another single coming out on January 20th called “Godless”. This is our new set opener, and we played it for the first time recently in our new hometown, Nashville, Tennessee. We were told the song f**ks, which we think is a good thing.
