Across The Universes: Birds of Tokyo

With their sophomore album Universes doing phenomenally well, guitarist and producer Adam Sparks chats about the past, present and future of the Birds of Tokyo.

If you have not yet heard of this Perth based band then you must have had your head firmly planted in the sand for the past few months, as this group has already began its savage musical assault upon Australia, flooding all media outlets.

So it has to feel pretty damn awesome knowing your band is being so well received. Right? “Yeah, I think the human ego puts that thing in your brain where you want it [the album] to reach out to as many people as possible. When you’re creating music with your friends that you like and they also like, it’s good to see that other people resonate with that and enjoy what it is your doing.”

With lead singer Ian Kenny also doing vocals for Karnivool and Adam Weston also drumming for Tragic Delicate maybe this association has helped Birds of Tokyo build up a name for themselves, but Adam Sparks is not convinced: “It’s hard to say really. It’s a funny thing because from our point of view we started this thing well before Karnivool had even made their first record. We were playing around the traps before they had even started touring.”

Sparks is not so sure that diehard Karnivool fans would appreciate the Birds more melodic music. “Were pretty aware of what heavy music fans are like. They’re pretty focused on what they like and if it’s not in your face then they probably think it’s a little soft. But I don’t know man, I don’t really think about it. I don’t really care what any other bands are doing.”

Due to two members of the band having side projects it must be arduous for the Birds to make any plans in haste without checking each other’s rigorous schedules, but again Sparks squashes this theory. “The idea that we work around everything else is not the case at all, it’s a pretty even split. This bands at a point now where we can start making a living off of this, and we’ve always worked best when were not flooding or saturating people with our presence anyway.”

The fact that their album Universes skyrocketed to number three on the ARIA charts is astounding considering the Birds don’t have a multi-million dollar record company deal behind them. They are a completely independent band and Sparks reckons he wouldn’t have it any other way, as his band are finally seeing some serious coinage and are able to make a living off their musical talents.

“Being an independent band is the only way you’ll [make a living] really. I mean unless you’re selling 500,000 records. When you do the math and work out how many records you sell and how many people come to your shows, it works out quite cool.”

They sure aren’t rich but they lead a pretty comfy life, safe in the knowledge that their doing what they love. “We make a hell of a lot per record then nearly every band on a major label,” Sparks claims.

Not only are they a self proclaimed independent act, but Sparks himself produces the bands albums, although he admits that he never intended for it to work out that way, it just simply happened. Being your own producer can’t be easy, especially when you want to embellish and try everything out but Sparks has never had this problem. “With the record we could have put way more stuff on top and a lot of people equate that with good production, but for me good production is where everything is minimal but still in its richest form without putting layers and layers of guitars and all sorts of shit.”

Sparks guarantees that the Birds put on epic shows regardless of whether there are three hundred people or only three people in the crowd. He’s also eager to play Wayside off their first album Day One. “That’s always fun cause it always tends to be a big sing-along. I don’t really have a favourite of the new stuff...except there is this one song called White Witch which is this really cool bouncy song and that’s gonna be really fun live.”

One final rumour that Sparks wants to nip in the bud is that which alleges Birds of Tokyo already have a third album in the works. “The idea that you put a record out and go ‘OK, let’s stop for a year’ is wrong. We don’t stop. We’re already jamming new ideas, but its nowhere near being a record though.”

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