Rockers BURNING BIRDS discuss the release of their debut album!

Two years after the release of their debut EP, French rockers BURNING BIRDS are proud to reveal their debut album “Where We Belong”, out since March 25th. On this occasion, the band took time to answer a couple of questions for us. Check out what we talked about below!
Picture: Jody Two Wolves

Hello Burning Birds. Thanks for your time! Would you mind introducing your band to our readers?

Hey Distrolution, thanks for having us. We are a French power rock trio. We say rock, because it's always difficult to define exactly what we do as a style. Let's say that in our influences, there are grunge, punk and stoner. But not only. We take everything that makes us tick and we put it in our own style.

You're back with a debut album, “Where We Belong”. How long have you worked on this record?

About a year, from the time we said “okay, we've got the money and we know who we want to do it with” in February 2022 to now, we've just released it. We quickly set up a lot of work sessions to finalize the last tracks, record the demos and enter the studio in April 2022. It was complicated to find a big session to do this, our studio tech Sam was on tour with the Oh Sees and Red Fang as live sound tech, so we spread the process out over several months. But it was interesting to continue this creative work within the recording process. This allowed it to remain organic and alive. Then, we were able to do some crowdfunding to help us set up the merchandising and finance a real release with press work with you and a nice cover. We had a lot of support, it touched us and we were able to give it the scope we wanted.

How would you describe your writing process for this album? How do you split the roles within the band?

We have a way of doing things that works quite well. It's Julien who writes a song, a story to tell, a skeleton that we then have to dress up. And that's where the three-way writing process begins. Everything can be modified, questioned by anyone as long as we respect the story behind it and what it tells, keeping this coherence. Often, we come up with something very rocky and behind it an influence that is not rock at all, which makes us want to explore it. So we'll take one of the elements of that influence and put it in our own way. It can be electro, funk, fusion, whatever, as long as it serves to highlight the subject, to keep a cohesion and bring something fresh. It's also what allows us to put instrumental moments without losing the thread of what we're saying in the song, it's another way of expressing it. And we think that's why the songs connect us to the audience, we put something into them and we give it back on stage.

You had a release party for this album on March 25th. How was the experience?

Amazing!!! We were lucky enough to have a lot of friends and die-hard fans there that night, who immediately set a great mood and when the show started, everyone went wild. It was a really cathartic moment for everyone. That's what we're all about, allowing people to experience strong emotions in a safe environment. The idea was to send out a lot of energy but not to impress people, to give them something of that collective energy, that everyone would go away charged and happy. There were 200 people, the atmosphere was really electric! And we had a great reception of the album, of the merchandising items. We had a great time on stage. It was also an opportunity to put to good use the stage work started at the Halle Verrière in Meisenthal and especially to show the lighting design put in place by Aurélien Boeglin.

Speaking of live shows. What’s on your merch table and, as a band and music fans, what’s your favorite merch item?

We have CDs of course, but also T-shirts which are hand printed in a workshop near us, posters made by our friend Virgile Bastien and finally stickers. And for us it's clearly the sticker that is our favourite item! It's free, everyone loves to use it and sometimes, months later, you go to a place you don't know to play or have a drink and you see one of your stickers, it's super cool!

You’re going to work with Ludo from the band Lyre Le Temps. Can you tell us more about it?

Yes, we're going to work with him for three days soon. He's going to coach us on our stage gestures, our relationship with the audience, the relationship between us on stage. He is a very experienced person who has a vision of the stage close to ours, which is based on sharing and the collective. He has the gift of bringing out the best in each of us and we know that we will gain even more power by working with him. That's our goal, to be able to give the maximum to the audience that comes to see us! We want it to be an experience!

Last but not least, what are your upcoming projects? Thanks for your time!

Writing the next album! All three of us love writing and composing, challenging ourselves to find new ways of conceiving the band and what it has to say. And now we're starting to miss it. And then playing, a lot and everywhere. Start exporting our music to Germany and the Netherlands, wherever our music will resonate. And also, to expand the team, to work with someone who will help us with the booking. There's still so much to do, this is just the beginning!