Shining Bird

‘Terra Nullius’

This one was written in [singer-guitarist] Dane [Taylor]’s stinking hot cube of a spare room. I think the first half of the song might be set in far north Queensland somewhere. It was built upon some chords and melodic ideas that [guitarist] Al [Webster] had at the time. I initially had some grand ideas about the speaker in the song being “the land” but somewhere along the line it morphed into something else entirely. I was watching a lot of Bush Tucker Man at the time.

The second half is intended to sound like an Australian version of NEU!. It was probably inspired by meditation, Ken Done and Dreamtime stories. Dane does an excellent job of channelling Robert Fripp on guitar.


‘Distant Dreaming’

‘Distant Dreaming’ was conceived at my house after hitting a dead end with another song I had been toiling with for weeks. I was just mucking around playing some keys over a ’90s-sounding hip-hop beat and Dane started casually playing guitar over the top. We freestyled a bunch of vocal ideas and ended up with the “Caught in a distant dreamtime” refrain. It basically wrote itself from then on. I collaborated with our good friend and brilliant writer Jonathan Parks for the lyrics, who helped with words for at least half the album.


‘Must Have Been Dreaming’

Dane and I have always wanted to write a song like ‘Woman in Chains’ by Tears For Fears. We also have a deep love for John Hughes films, which seem to be a great way to experience teen angst and the blissful ignorance of youth again whilst quietly weeping to oneself. This song was also inspired by meditation, [Icehouse’s] ‘Great Southern Land’ and Australian opals. Johnny helped out with lyrics for this tune as well. Thanks mate!

The arpeggio guitar lines at the end came from Dane experimenting with one of his many guitar pedals. They take the track deep underwater somehow. Actually, the whole back half sounds like the movie Drive, but underwater.


‘Keep Warm’

This is actually ‘Keep Warm 2.0’. The original version transformed into a totally different beast after we started playing it live. What was once a programmed sample is now the bouncy groove of [Nathan Stratton’s] live bass. Alastair and I spent an eternity working on the vocal breakdown to get it right.

The original version was loosely based on the story of Jamie Neale, who spent 11 days lost in the Blue Mountains in freezing conditions. We were staying there at the time he was found and there were rumours that the whole thing was a hoax. It’s also based on something I read about how Brian Wilson tried to create music that makes the listener feel loved. That’s what ‘Keep Warm’ is supposed to do.


‘Don’t Get Down on Yourself’

I remember Alastair and I went and stayed in Narrandera with Johnny for a while and we worked on the lyrics for this particular tune. We also had fires on the Murrumbidgee, set yabby traps and wandered around in fields that stretched from horizon to horizon. This song reminds me of the film The Year My Voice Broke. Great movie.

I think this tune contains one of my favourite vocal performances from Dane. He manages to sound numb, heartbroken and desperate all at once.


‘You Won’t Feel a Thing’

We started this one at a farm we rented out in Berry for a while. It was an amazing property on 25 acres of land with wombats everywhere. The song itself didn’t really take shape until later on, when I removed the beat and changed the chords.

For a while I was hearing and reading a lot about the “inevitability” of moving to another planet when earth eventually becomes uninhabitable. The idea of saying goodbye to this country and planet forever is profoundly sad. For me, this song is about that feeling. And also about ghosts and anti-depressants.


‘Stare into the Sun’

This song was also written in Dane’s spare room/sauna. We got this really cool sound running Dane’s acoustic through a chorus pedal he bought at Aldi. I remember Dane, Alastair and I just kept layering parts until all of a sudden I was inadvertently mumbling a chorus.

I feel like this track takes the mild euphoria on some of the other songs to a whole new level. I just wanted it to keep going up and up and up and up. It has an intense optimism that could almost be described as manic. I wanted everything in the song to sound bleached, sunburned or melted by an Australian sun.


‘The Last Wave’

This tune was written and produced by Alastair and was originally sitting in the Tropical Strength ideas pile. At some point we realised it was a Shining Bird song and we got Dane to lay down some of his chocolate vox for the verses. I think this was the hardest song on the album to finish. It was like a series of locked doors that we tried a million different keys in before we entered each new phase. Sometimes we had to pick the lock.

This tune contains a sample from Peter Weir’s film The Last Wave. We were lucky enough to contact Peter via Strat’s granddad (David Stratton) and get permission from the man himself. Which was awesome! We are all big fans of Peter Weir. - Mess & Noise

Seekae’s Alex Cameron is too charismatic to ignore, even when on his own. In solo guise with vocals and effects, joined by a saxophonist and drummer, Cameron grooved his way through a neat and ‘singer-songwriter’ styled set. Supported by the weight of his rather excellent She’s Mine electro-pop single, Cameron’s solo style is much more Jack Ladder-cum-Nick Cave-esque than might be expected, considering his band efforts. With a sexy dripping baritone he certainly had no problems charming the crowd who filled out the Danceteria before his set was half over.

Northern Illawarra’s finest export since sunshine and beaches, Shining Bird have only moved from strength to strength since kicking into life last year. The group’s shimmering experimental pop, showcased on brilliant debut album Leisure Coast, is as hypnotic as it is genuine. Fortunately, the band’s shows never fail to deliver this sound as living ideas. The interplay of these six gents is so natural and effortless it would be easy to hate them were the music not so gorgeous. Dane Taylor’s baritone holds together the multi-layered sounds like a pro, and gives the whole affair a gravitas hardly any year-old bands can lay claim to. Guitarists with effects boards as impressive and complicated as those littered on the floor around Shining Bird will warrant shoegazing/dream pop references, and these styles are present in the group’s music (particularly live), but these stylistic touchstones never dominate the sonic ideas or get in the way of a delightful hook. Describing bands as ‘gorgeous’ or ‘pretty’ is cliché to the point of frustration, but there really is no way around it when talking about Shining Bird. Whether they focus more on abstract soundscapes or the folksy hopeful existentialism of stand-out tune Keep Warm, there’s no way to avoid the fact that Shining Bird are one of the best up-and-coming band’s in the state. Do yourself a favour and catch them live as soon as possible.

Written by Andrew McDonald - The Music

South Coast New South Wales experimental pop band Shining Bird have racked up almost 70,000 Youtube views within a week with the release of their brand-new, tripping balls video for their single 'Distant Dreaming.'

The 80s-style, psychedelic, Australiana clip was published on the German alternative music Youtube Channel, Majestic Casual, on June 7 and in just five days has already become one of the most watched indie music clips online.

The clip seems to have struck a particularly popular chord with fans of "mind-altering substances," with Youtube user Wojtek Bieganski scoring mad props for his comment, "these guys were higher than willie nelson when filming this video."

Shining Bird are of course the legends/lunatics that we gave a shout out to last year after they created a clip in which they superimposed themselves into the Jimmy Fallon show.

The video's success also marks another bonus in a solid run of high scores for the band, after they recently signed with respected local indie label, Spunk, who are set to release both a new single and a new, full record from the band later this year.

Watch the clip for 'Distant Dreaming' below.

You can also buy a digital copy of the single from the band's Bandcamp page - shiningbird.bandcamp.com - Channel V

Hailing from Austinmer on the South Coast of NSW, Shining Bird are a collective of musicians, draftsman, scholars and bodyboarders who got together over their love of the sea, Australian cinema, Dennis Wilson’s ‘Pacific Ocean Blue’ LP and the great Australian poet Henry Lawson. Their debut LP Leisure Coast is a languid, inviting journey through the many experiences of the coastline. It's filled with sunny synth-pop motifs and flavours but still harnesses a subtle, subterranean unease. - ABC