One of the brightest singer/songwriters on the horizon is Wallis Bird from Ireland. I recently saw her perform live supporting Rodrigo Y Gabriela, and she blew both me and the audience away. Her new album NEW BOOTS is a must-have record and one of Shakenstir’s Best Of 2009. So I just had to interview her…

First, congratulations on creating one of the best albums released in 2009, loved it! It’s obvious to me that you have music in your blood, so how and when did it all start?

Thank you very much! Music has been as integral in my life as the need for water, breath and sleep. My mother told me I came out of her womb whistling! I had a guitar in my hands from the ridiculous age of six months old. Though many would disreguard that as a childish toy, it never escaped my hands since. As soon as I could hold something or make noise I was making music.Perhaps more than most, you exhibit huge enthusiasm about what you do, but I also suspect you’re trying to prove something… Could you comment?

Well… I’m a fairly positive person so I try make the best out of everything; and I play with great friends who see my music so positively and so inspiringly that I can’t help but to reeeeeally enjoy what I do! I never wanted to be a “preachy” sort of artist, so I introverted and decided that I want to sing honestly to myself above anything, then that progressed as more people coming to my gigs and I realised that if they are going to sing along - what better thing to do than give them a positive message, such as “Oh Life I love You To My Bones”, to scream their heads off to! I had the feeling that there’s more than enough songs hating life so I want to inject a spark of simple joy and fundamental emotion in people.

Who are you’re major musical influences?

My family. Dad collects thousands of vinyls and used to be a DJ so he would always make me listen, but only to good music! There’s seven kids in my family, all with really mad eclectic tastes and they love to listen to their music loud! Also, I thrive on all the stimulation the world has to offer me, so life is generally my biggest inspiration.

Ireland has been a rich pastureland for us in finding great musicians and music since we started out in 1999, and following on from my coverage of Liss Ard and Witnness festivals. First discoveries were Glen Hansard and the Frames, Damien Rice, Paddy Casey, Bell X1, and even David Gray who was huge over there a long time before WHITE LADDER took off over here. And I’m talking of acts of the highest quality. What is it about Ireland that keeps producing great acts, and what is the reason(s) you think that it’s a struggle over here in the UK for Irish acts to become recognised? Even our Mercury Music Prize tends to ignore them…

Well the Mercury prize had Lisa Hannigan this year, so I suppose you didn’t forget us totally! England has a completely different market to Ireland. It is highly competitive, incredibly vast and a harder business behaviour. It just runs with the territory. I think that stems from the importance of it’s “cool” factor - that if something is doing well in England, it must be great. In Ireland the market is often overlooked because we’re such a small country, though quality is remarkable and we consistently churn out wonderful artist after wonderful band with possibly only local success unless it breaks through the brick walls of the tough English market. Much of the Mercury prize is based on the current or consistent high profile of an artist/band and unfortunately the Irish market often doesn’t produce a dent large enough to excite. It has nothing to do with the music. But thankfully, cream always rises to the top - Mercury or no!

What are the major lessons you’ve learned in your career, including, for example, choice of label…

Be strong in your beliefs
Get a good team behind you
Don’t believe/tell anyone anything unless you have it in writing
There are too many knocks in this business for you to take it all too seriously
Don’t ever give up
Above all - enjoy yourself

NEW BOOTS has a strong live ambience to it. Could you describe your production ambitions with the record and how you achieved them…

The most important factor for me was to have this album much more a living work. I wanted it highly personal, lyrically and the sound of each song to reflect that. For example: ‘Meal Of Convienience’, a song referencing my mother was recorded in my parents house, and ‘To My Bones’ was about an exceptional night I had with my friends in my Brixton home, so I recorded my friends singing it, from the house. You can hear the difference in each recording of each song as I lived in Germany, Brixton and Ireland in the space of it’s conception, and I geographically sought out the specific sounds and people to highlight the lyrics and reflect where or who I was singing about.