Exclusive Interview with 'BIRDMAN CULT'

Joseph B. Eden decided to wander the coast under the massive pale lunar eclipse while the town was asleep. A beach rat from the north of England, rooted in everything dark and subversive. He migrates and settles down in the deep south, far from the post-industrial wasteland, where he hears that dreams come true and the streets are lined with gold, drawn by the alluring glare of the unknown.
Without a map, he finds himself lost in Bristol on the muddy banks of the Avon, peddling his rudimentary poetry for a pittance at neighborhood vaudeville performances for like-minded misanthropes and undesirables. They need to unite as one force, emerge from the bushes, face the sun, enjoy the ugliness, and take a stand.
His higher purpose gradually becomes more apparent as the air becomes heavier and madness sets in, moon after moon. More feverish than the previous evening. Because a bird wheels above, cries, and spits an epiphany onto his shoulder from its powerful cloaca, he is unable to finish his manifesto alone.

While this is going on, four friends are loudly conversing over damaged speakers in the middle of the town long into the wee hours. Can a rock and roll band rely solely on fuzzy riffs, driving bass-lines, infectious vocals, and rattling beats without the worn-out handle of post-punk Tedium? That is the question that Wookash, Otis, Hawk, and Elo are pounding into shape as they shape their next musical vision. The Birdman has arrived, there’s a tapping at the window!

The band’s most recent single, “Feryyman,” was released after their 2019 debut single, “Snakes.” Frontman Joe describes the song as “a big doom laden rock anthem, an existential reflection brought on by living through a worldwide pandemic and impending WW3.” The band’s name has a complicated and contradictory history. A portion of the island is named after “The Birdman Cult,” a prehistoric religious group that lived on Easter Island and was eventually suppressed and destroyed by Christian missionaries in the 1860s. The metaphor of the Tangat Manu, or “Birdman,” is another source of inspiration.

In this tradition, representatives of native clans would choose a potential champion to bring back a seasonal egg from a far-off island. The winner would claim the highly desired prize, grow their hair and nails, be showered with the harvest of the season, and never experience poverty until the next Tangat Manu triumphed. Luke Wookash, who also produced their previous album, “Gone to Pot,” produced “Ferryman.” Check out their latest music video and the exclusive interview below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how you got started?
BIRDMAN CULT: Im originally from a small coastal town in the north of England but moved to Bristol in 2007 where I met most of the band. Back then we weren’t making guitar music, me and Sam (lead guitar) were mc’ing as hiphop artists and some of us were in indie bands others break-dancers etc. It wasn’t until 2020 when ‘you know what’ happened that we decided to join forces and start a cult.

2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?
BIRDMAN CULT: I certainly didn’t have any formal music education. but I was performing/writing and recording in a DIY capacity back in 2001 onwards. This was just rapping at the beach for friends and recording lyrics on cassette tapes that we’d pass around. By the time I came to Bristol in 2007 I had a few albums and a lot of shows / tours under my belt but still nothing id call professional. I Think our drummer Luke has a music management degree and Sam did something like music tech at college too. Bristol seems to be a hotbed for creative courses like that so its no surprise I ended up rubbing shoulders with a few of the allumni.

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘BIRDMAN CULT’?

BIRDMAN CULT: So we’re all very different, I know Sam and me grew up listening to a lot of American rock and also stuff like sabbath. My dad would always have the Kinks, Dylan, The Band on in my house growing up. when I was a teen I discovered HipHop and maybe because it was so far removed from what my friends were listening to at the time (brit-pop, wet Indie pop), I was attracted to the underground and subversive nature of it, HIP-HOP always struck me as the only other genre that shared the Punk sensibilities (DIY, minimal starter knowledge needed, usually from a disenfranchised urban area, strong social conscience or complete nihilism) I could claim this as mine and not something handed down to me by a big brother or parent etc.
The name is derived from an ancient secular cult from easter island that would host annual ‘gladiator-esque’ trials for its inhabitants. The winner would have to survive deadly physical feats including swimming through rough seas to scale the summit of a razar sharp mountain and collect a rare bird egg. If he or she was successful they would be elevated to the title of ‘Tangat Manu’ where they would be spoilt with riches until the next Tanga Manu was successful…Sort of like me when I wake up with a stinkin hangover and manage to still score a greggs breakfast deal before 11.am, exactly the same as that.

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
BIRDMAN CULT: Prophetic, post-punk with a splash of psych rock all balanced on the foundations of Hiphop..i know I know, that makes me sound like an asshole, I guess it always will sound pretentious describing your own sound so we tend to leave it to listeners to relay back to us. We’ve heard it all really, Its been said we were like a ‘happy Joy Division’, Eagles Of Death Metal , Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Brian Ferry so god knows. Il take any of that, we just hope its good and resonates with the right crowd. Its fair to say we’re an acquired taste and not for a casual radio 1 listener. I like to think that’s its serious musicianship with some wit and not as po-faced as some of our peers.

5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as INDIE?
BIRDMAN CULT:
yeah so like everyone I guess you start learning covers as a means of learning to play/write in that vein. Hawk our bassist I know was a huge Blues fan learning entire albums of his favorite artist, this is at the very beginning. Some of us were in a band before this one which felt like almost an experimental project in hindsight. We would just make what we wanted without much though given to consistency or sound, we just wanted to make the best version of that song that we could. It was trial and error for years until we developed a style that id say was unique and ours exclusively, even still we’re honing this and moved on a fair bit since 2020 when we released our first track ‘Snakes’

6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative and entertainment?

BIRDMAN CULT:

I mean all of the above, I think for me mainly as a lyricist I swing between all of those, sometimes in the same song! Since 2015 it was hard not to forge an opinion on current affairs in the UK and beyond so we’ve got tracks that address my feelings on this. Also theres a lot of just self-expression based on telling my version of the human experience. The rest of the band are the ones that have the harder job weaving this into some sort of coherent tapestry we can call ‘our sound’ mainly I also just respond to the energy of the music and choose themes based on that. Our latest single ‘Let Me Out’ I wrote on a winter trip back to my home-town in the North and is very much about that feeling of nostalgia mixed with resentment. Anyone who’s left their home for somewhere far away or drastically different can testify, at times its like stepping back into the skin of your younger self, emotionally speaking that is.

7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfilment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?
BIRDMAN CULT:

I love making music and the creative process, studio time is great, I like being with friends and talking shop. Performing-wise we took a big hit when we launched in 2020 for obvious reasons, corona sort of halted our live presence. This was a shame because I think thats where we thrived beforehand. We’re getting back to that now which is great but even in that 6-9 months after there was a lot of venue cancellations, band members getting covid and date changes so we decided to wait until the dust settled and live in the studio really. We’re looking forward to getting back on the circuit and showcasing what we’ve worked on, I think that ticks a lot of boxes for us in terms of it offers instant gratification that feeds the ego, gets our name out there and gives us a place in the wider ‘scene’.

8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

BIRDMAN CULT: We don’t tend to have a single formula we follow. Most of the time the guys will get in the studio and jam out some rough sounds and send me some demos and il write to those before even getting into rehearsals, that was born out of necessity with lockdown, but recently we’ve all been in together again and just starting from scratch. I might have a phrase in my head that I try to apply to a riff Sams wrote or jammed or even sometimes Hawk puts down the bass and picks up the lead and bangs out a killer lead which becomes the foundations for a track, its very much just a free for all ha, but its worked and we find its been the way that everyone feels most creative.

9. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
BIRDMAN CULT: I cant complain really , a lot of people have struggled more than me especially through lockdown. I had my own distractions in the form of my twin children being born a month into lockdown and I was living on a narrowboat on the river Avon in Bristol, that was stressful ha, but ultimately a positive thing and served as a focus in a time I know a lot of my peers were losing their minds. So while having multiple kids in context to music was a challenge it also kept me in a bubble and away from certain negative aspects of the last few years. Losing people in that time due to covid / suicide or otherwise takes its toll on a person and we’ve all had a taste of that in the and, some more than others. Speaking on Music specifically its been difficult to be heard in amongst a lot of white noise without gigs until recently that is. And being of an age where I remember making music and gigging before social media and streaming sites, that shift to a reluctant dependency on the latter has proven hard work. Making money from this feels like a fools dream, so coming to terms with juggling a regular J.O.B with what I consider my real passion and talent is a humbling experience but a liberating one if you can find that balance, Afterall you don’t want either to suffer because of the other.

10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far? BIRDMAN CULT: Its fair to say we’ve been a slow burn as a band, as mentioned, our previous incarnations were very much born out of pure creative outlet with very little attention paid to the bigger picture. This allowed us to remain friends and grow as a band over the years, ive seen a lot of very talented people burn out quick due to the ego or pressure of ‘making it’. We compromise and argue like everyone else and been close to punch-ups and walk-outs like a lot of others but ultimately, we all agree on one thing, which is that you have to put aside your bullshit for the betterment of the music. So here we are making the best music I certainly have ever made in my short career and the cult is ever growing. Just gotta get that bloody egg off the mountain top now!