In Conversation With #216 - Explording Birdsong
Exploring Birdsong have just released the debut full length album 'Every House We Built' via Long Branch Records.
The band step into their most vulnerable and personal chapter yet. Known for intricate arrangements and cinematic soundscapes, the band trade conceptual storytelling for something far more intimate, an unflinching exploration of human connection in all its forms.
At its core, Every House We Built is an album about relationships, friendships, family ties and romance. For the first time, the band draw directly from lived experience, using the metaphor of houses to frame the fragile and evolving nature of these bonds. Like the structures they evoke, relationships take time, care and intention to build but can collapse in an instant, leaving behind echoes of what once felt permanent.
This thematic thread quietly binds the record together. References to homes, spaces and foundations recur throughout, giving the album a sense of continuity and emotional architecture. What began as a single lyrical phrase in the title track gradually expanded into the album’s defining concept, one that reflects both the beauty and impermanence of connection.
They took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Exploring Birdsong, how are you? So, your album is out now – how does it feel to have it out there?
Lyns : It feels surreal! We have spent so many years with these songs now (about 4 years in some cases) so it is very cool getting to see people enjoying their time with it now that it’s finally out there. There have been some really insightful comments and conclusions that our listeners have come to when listening to this music. I’d argue that it’s the aspect of releasing music that matters the most- we make what we want to hear, but ultimately it is people connecting with it in a meaningful way that is so rewarding.
It is called 'Every House We Built' – what is the meaning behind that?
Lyns : When Matt had brought the track ‘Every House We Built’ to Jonny and I, it was clear by that point that each of us had referenced homes and houses in our writing too, so before hearing the track it was more of an interesting coincidence. None of us had really intended on committing to houses as a larger theme for the record at that time. However, by the time we had completed the record, it just felt like it was always meant to be the album title. Homes are a great metaphor for relationships because they take plenty of investing in to make the best of, while on the other hand, neglect and emptiness can quite quickly snatch the magic from what was once a safe and loving space. This seemed to quite neatly get across the messaging of the album.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories you are willing to share with us?
Lyns : Our studio time was spent with Lucas Fletcher at Shell City Studios in Blackpool. We were having beautiful weather at the time, so I remember walking there in the sunshine to join Matt and Jonny a couple of days after they had already arrived. Matt and Jonny tell a fun story about the cowbell you can hear on ‘I_You’, with its life basically beginning as a bit of a hear-me-out. I think it took a moment for Jonny and Lucas to see the vision, but apparently there was plenty of leaping around in the control room once they had heard the cowbell in situ. Similarly during the mixing process, we kept asking Connor (Sweeney) to keep on pushing that cowbell higher and higher in the mix. The song wouldn’t be the same without it!
What are the key influences behind the album?
Lyns : There are so many influences present on ‘Every House We Built’ that we could easily be here forever listing them, as they all feel just as important as each other. I would say ‘So’, (Peter Gabriel) ‘Hounds of Love’, (Kate Bush) Destrier, (Agent Fresco) Hypochondriac, (Brakence) Home, Like NoPlace Is There, (The Hotelier) were all important waypoints for this record.
If the album could be a soundtrack to any film – which one and why?
Lyns : Great question! While it’s not strictly a perfect fit, I think an argument could be made for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Our album moves through recollections of similarly very high highs (I_You, Meadowlands) and heartbreaking lows (Every House We Built, Cartography). Our songs are born from real life scenarios that took place at varying distances in our pasts, which I think makes sense in a movie so centred around meaningful memories, and how equally joyful or painful they can be to revisit.
Do you have a favourite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
Lyns : I’m going to commit to a real cop out of an answer here- but I think my honest answer is Footprints in its entirety. Jonny wrote these lyrics with such honesty after what has been a lifetime of reflecting on grief and the lasting impact that loss has had, and will always have on his life. I really don’t know if I could find the strength to write a song like this, let alone find the perfect words to accompany it. I really am immensely proud that he shared it with Matt and I, and that Jonny trusted us to work on it with him and make it a real high point for Exploring Birdsong.
Now the album is out there – what next for you?
Lyns : It would be so easy to do what we have done for the most part of our career, which is to keep moving down the to-do list rather than stop to take stock of what is happening around us. We really want to savour the moment- you can only release your debut album once! It has blown us away that so many people have resonated with the album already, and have shared with us how and why they have connected with it so deeply. We have truly loved making this music and the whole process of putting the album together, despite the hiccups we’ve encountered trying to get it out there. Having said all that though, we can’t wait to bring ‘Every House We Built’ to UK audiences in September!
