BIRDEE 王煒 on being ‘On My Own’
Only being in the industry for three years now, the Sydney-based upcoming artist BIRDEE 王煒 (how incredible is that name?!?), has already made tremendous progress throughout her career.
The past year has been rather hectic for the artist where the rising artist travelled across the globe and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 'House Of OZ' and was awarded a Mervyn Stutter ‘Pick Of The Fringe’ Gold Star.
“BIRDEE 王煒 has everything it takes to become a major star.”
- Women in Pop.
Photograph by Kristina Yenko
Despite all of this, the wonderful singer/songwriter took time out of her day to chat with me about some little special announcements.
In particular, “See You See Me” released last July resulted in a powerful positive response for the artist. BIRDEE 王煒 recalls aspects of the project to be really “last minute” and “chaotic” but doesn’t regret a single thing. "When you have pressure and uncertainty, it allows room to open up opportunities within our open-minded team. I prefer to work more intuitively than plan every detail” she adds.
Fast forward through her EP ‘Can’t Be Loved’ released in September, BIRDEE 王煒 is in a fresh new era with already having released two singles ‘Keeping Love’ and ‘Self Sabotage’. “Keeping Love explores how love is complicated,” she says, but love can be shown “in the simple ways by being human”. Especially how “love can sound so ‘cliche’ but it’s the core of everything we want and need and life.” explains BIRDEE 王煒.
‘Self Sabotage’ is her experiences having a “fair share of toxic relationships”. So when the time came around when BIRDEE 王煒 had a “healthy relationship for the first time”, she found it quite difficult to adjust to.
Accompanying the song, the visuals explore the idea of “self-reflection and understanding why one is so hard on themselves.” Her music director Skye Jackson was the one who came up with the concept and incorporated BIRDEE 王煒 love for dance throughout selected scenes. Choreographed for the surrounding dancers to symbolise BIRDEE 王煒 “struggles, concerns, anxieties and setbacks’ that overcome BIRDEE 王煒 when she reached that healthy relationship.
Now for the exciting part… BIRDEE 王煒 just dropped her new single ‘Dreams’. “I wrote this last year whilst traveling solo in an attempt to capture the nerves and excitement I was feeling at the time”. Like a diary articulating a moment to remember, this is what BIRDEE 王煒 does for “Dreams” which highlights the vulnerability that BIRDEE 王煒 isn’t afraid of using. Beside her was her Grammy-nominated co-writer and producer Okan.
BIRDEE 王煒 also gave me a little insight into her new EP ‘On My Own’ (out May 26). The EP is “definitely very different” from ‘Can’t Be Loved’, it was written whilst travelling solo through Europe and LA where BIRDEE 王煒 explores the “realisations and moments I had throughout my trip.”. The artist emphasises how she wanted to “push (herself) out of her comfort zone to discover what I could make and this was the result”.
Most artists always strive to find their sound to be confident in their art but Birdee disagrees. She suggests that the art of music “is constantly evolving”. “Every single release is just a reflection of what I am going through and what I am influenced by at the time” hence not pigeonholing herself into a specific genre.
With this, I’m sure I can speak for everyone when I say that I can’t wait to see where her ever-evolving music takes her. If you’re super duper excited like I am, pre-save ‘On My Own’ here. But for now, let’s give her some love and listen to ‘Dreams’ out now on all streaming platforms. You can also watch the music video here.
BIRDEE 王煒 also just announced the ‘On My Own’ tour across Australia where you can get your tickets here.
