A girl who despite having all the fingers from her left hand severed at a young age taught herself how to play the guitar, albeit upside down and back to front! A singer-songwriter who can whisper as movingly as she can holler, who plays guitar with years of carefree, self-taught abandon, who pours her heart and soul and guts into every word she writes. Ladies and Gentlemen, please meet Wallis Bird, this years’ one-to-watch.Wallis has a string of UK dates confirmed (including the Sunrise Arena stage at LATITUDE Festival on Friday 13th July), set to tie in with the 'Moodsets'EP which is released on 30th July, both as a digital download and as a limited edition 10”. Those dates in full are: June 26th The Troubadour, London July 3rd Metro, London July 15th LATITUDE Festival – Sunrise Arena stage July 25th 93 Feet East, London August 15th Soho Revue Bar, London Although born in County Meath, Ireland, 24 year old Wallis cut her musical teeth in Germany, having formed a band with two German brothers, Christian (drums) and Michael (bass) Vine. The band were later joined by Aoife O’Sullivan (voila/additional vocals) and went on to spend 18 months touring in Germany where they now play to packed houses where the average crowd totals around 650 people.
Now signed to Island Records, Wallis is set to make her debut in the UK with her 4 track Moodsets EP, tracklisting below: 1. Moodsets 2. The Circle 3. Beep Beep 4. Oklahoma
Languid but tense lead track “Moodsets” mixes a forceful acoustic groove with grungy chords and tells the story of unrequited love.
“I was dying about somebody that I just couldn’t have” says Wallis, “love can make me act like an eejit, and I don’t mind admitting it”!
“As for ‘The Circle’, it’s not your typical love song. It’s more about a pub and a feeling. I was in a group of 60 people that went to this Dublin pub religiously every Monday when I was at college. The pub was the best, it was family,’ Wallis sighs wistfully.
‘We’d dance and get hammered and stay up all night drinking and smoking and dancing. It was a group of people that you find hard to meet in your life. So “The Circle” was about them, just to say thank you.’
“Beep Beep” is taken from “Branches Entangle”, an independent EP which sold all of the 6000 copies pressed and released in Germany last year, while “Oklahoma” is a newly recorded version of the track which was also on that EP.
Nextmen and Part Time Heroes have also given “Moodsets” brilliant remixes which will both be available as digital downloads from 30th July.
Wallis is currently touring in Germany where she will take in a headline show at Weinheim Castle, performing to around 1,000 people, before continuing her tour in the UK and Ireland in mid July.