If you’re reading this here in Australia then you’re probably no stranger to Birdy, the 16 year old sometimes-covers-sometimes-originals singer from England. This is very likely because Australia has taken to the teenage sensation more than any other country, standing alone as the only region where she’s had both a #1 album and platinum sales of her debut record. Pretty outrageous for a girl of her age/anyone ever. You’ll probably also be aware that Birdy has made a habit of doing truly beautiful covers of existing tracks. Just recently we asked her which OTHER songs she would have liked to have covered on her debut album, if she’d had the chance. Here’s what she said:
Arcade Fire - Ready To Start : I did a cover of this for the album although didn’t have time to record it and I love playing it.
Jeff Buckley - Forget Her: I’ve never tried to cover it but I love Jeff Buckley and this song is one of my favourites.
Keane - We Might As Well Be Strangers: The original is beautiful. Keane are one of my favourite bands and have influenced my own music
a lot.
She also ran through some of her favourites that she did cover:
1901
“When I first started putting it together, I didn’t think this one was going to work, because the original by Phoenix is such an upbeat song, and it’s quite hard to work out the notes because there’s so many instruments in it. And I to be honest, I just didn’t think it would suit me at all. But it’s turned out to be one of my favourites, because it’s quite different from the rest of the songs. I really like it.”
People Help The People
“Originally by Cherry Ghost, this is another of my favourites! I loved doing the video for this, it was really interesting. We did it on London Bridge, and then we were going around on an old bus. It’s weird having days like that, then going back into a school environment the next day. My friends have been really supportive, but they’re always jealous when I get a day off like that!”
District Sleeps Alone Tonight
“When I started putting this one together, I wasn’t sure how all the different bits were going to fit. The original by The Postal Service just follows a bass-line, so it was quite hard to interpret. But it suddenly came alive for me, and I could see how to do it. Now I absolutely love it.”
Fire And Rain
“This made my dad very happy – he likes James Taylor. But I’d never heard it before, and we had a few tries at it before I got it quite right. But I think it’s finally how I imagined it could be.”
Without A Word
“This one is my song. I wrote it about a year ago, along with another song called Find My Friend. I always thought the two of them would be together, but it’s quite nice now to have them on different albums. There was some discussion as to whether it would be right on the album, but nice to have it on there. It’s about somebody who wants to move on, and the other person is saying, ‘Am I not enough to keep you here?’ And no, it’s not from personal experience!”
