With Autosmile looming just a month away, the Philadelphia-based hyperfolk duo has already made waves with its early singles, and the third track holds its own brilliance. The newly released “Bird” is the kind of folk number that can scramble your thinking. It remains lean yet detailed, building to moments of lush simplicity at exactly the right times, all while preserving its inherent sense of eeriness. “I’m at the mercy of God,” Stone Filipczak intones.
An explanation from Filipczak:
This song drew its muse from dead baby birds that kept appearing on my deck. I wrote it on a bike ride through Druid Hill Park in Baltimore. The lyrics have lots of puns which hopefully offset their hopelessness.
Caity Arthur directed the “Bird” video, and she has a statement too:
“Give me warmth, give me death, whatever I don’t want it
I walked out on the deck to put a hole in my head”
These lines from “Bird” stuck out to me first; jarring, casual, something I can see myself saying. I liked the song’s mix of funniness and macabre. The week I started planning this video, a beautiful black and white bird died on my own balcony. Within a couple days, it was hollowed and eaten away by flies and ants. I heard the song, then saw the bird on my own balcony with the video taking shape in my mind; all a strange and dreamlike sequence. I am an advocate of finding beauty in sadness and dark things, instead of staying away from them.
“Decomposed baby bird come to rest in my doorway
Should have given him a funeral on the first day.”
Watch below.
Autosmile is out 10/16 on 4AD. Pre-order it here.
