“We’ve been a band for ten years, and in that ten years has come a hell of a lot of change,” says frontman Ian Kenny. “It’s changed who each of us are as artists, who we are as a band. So when you do get the opportunity to say what you’re about, especially overseas where you’re kind of new, you can bring to the table what the band is now, as opposed to what it was. So it does feel like you get a chance to reinvent yourself, and we definitely take each opportunity to do that. We’re aware of where we sit in the public image, and in our scene. It comes as part of the territory. Things have grown as you get more access to people, people find more access to you – it’s all part of the territory of running a big gig.”
Playlist is an album in reverse chronology, with songs arranged from newest to oldest. With new single I’d Go With You Anywhere leading the charge, it’s a winding odyssey. What distinguishes this from a best of release, though, is the strange evolution of the band’s catalogue. A recurring observation of Birds Of Tokyo is that while many are familiar with a wide sweep of their songs, a great deal are unaware there is one distinct band anchoring them all together. Playlist, then, operates both as a mirror of sorts for the band to reflect on how it has evolved, but also a chance for casual listeners to assemble this musical jigsaw.
“It certainly will be a mirror, but the whole idea was to kind of connect the dots between these releases over the whole period, to link people in to where we’ve actually come from, what it is now and where it’s going,” says Kenny. “We came up with the idea of a playlist while touring overseas. People were asking us about our songs, and it made us realise that we have such a widespread range of material that is constantly being brought up by people. It made us think, ‘Man, we should definitely put this all out as a record someday and really canvass our [history].’
“But I also think that’s a massive part of today’s musical relationships, how everyone listens to music in their own little world. People are very much on a singular, one-song relationship with an artist. People go, ‘Oh, I love that song,’ and generally, they seem to be satisfied with that. That one song means something special to them, and that’s great. [There are] people who go a little further, who look into an artist’s history, but generally I think it’s very singular – it’s very short and sharp, quite concise.”
While this is becoming a staple of music listening today – thanks largely to the digitised ease of access to individual songs – you nevertheless feel there must be a real frustration for artists intent on showcasing the full scope of their creativity. Though Playlist is indeed a means of addressing that, Kenny is quite accepting of the reality of musical consumption.
“Well, that’s the way people will choose to access music, and that’s just how they’re going to roll. Mostly that’s with your first-time or maybe part-time listeners. To our fans, who are actually well-informed about the band and know the records, who are interested in what we have to say, that’s something very different. In my mind it’s like two different parties happening next door to each other.”
BY ADAM NORRIS
