Quiet and mellow melodies are spun around little stories that often make you feel uneasy. The lyrics deal with little, irritating things: with the feeling of being watched, the problems of letting a loved one go or wanting to be a kid again...

Megalomaniac Productions: You are a very productive artist, this is the eighth album in five years...

Babybird: Yes, I'm writing for ten years now and five years ago, me and my manager put out five solo albums which were released all in one year. And then through that we got interest from a record company at the Echo label and they signed us. And what was put around that was a band and that band played on the last two proper studio albums. And this one ("Bugged") is kind of a return to the early times when I just worked with my guitarist.

MP: Will the band be with you on tour, or is Babybird now this kind of mastermind-project where you just hire whomever you need?

Babybird: Well, I always used to write on my own, because I find that you can always get a much more personal and intimate sound on a record. So it is really just one other person and me that recorded "Bugged" but there are other musicians put around that, who will then play on tour with us.

MP: So at least this means, that you get loads of money from the royalties...

Babybird: That's true, but then I do write all the songs and I always have got the royalties from every album - but I do share them out. I'm not a complete *ahm* I don't take everything.

MP: What is your approach to music? How did you start writing music?

Babybird: I always wrote - actually I have a novel out. And there is a novel that will be released in Germany, although I don't know exactly when, as it is a German publisher... I started writing when I went to Art School and I did painting and colour photography and photomontage and all this kind of things. Well, this was what I did first and music just came along. Because I joined a theatre company and I started directing and writing the music for that. So there was no voice on it, it was purely instrumental music - that's how I started. And then I kind of put the music and the short stories together and that is how Babybird came along.

MP: Did you learn to play an instrument?

Babybird: Yeah! I learned at school to play the flute and the classical guitar. But I don't like the way it is taught at school. Even if you're taught classical pieces of music it's always the very common or ordinary ones. So I tried to de-learn myself and make sure I can't read music and make it more coming out of my head.

MP: Did it help to know how a classical piece of music is build up?

Babybird: Yes. My father particularly used to listen to loads and loads of albums of classical music, so it is definitely that this is the first kind of music I ever listened to. And so I know where the climaxes should come and when to start. Definitely it had some influence.

MP: And how would you describe what you do?

Babybird: Oh Blimey! I'll just say that it's the simplest music that I can make. And that always makes it accessible to people. I can't read music and I can't understand the ways of writing so it's just as simple as I can make it. I think I like all the simple types of music: like HipHop, African folk music and everything that is incredibly simple - and made by one person very often.

MP: When listening to your latest album "Bugged" it strangely reminded me of Ron Sexsmith. It is the way of storytelling. And it always seems to be the most complicated thing to tell simple stories...

Babybird: Yes definitely! I don't know about Ron Sexsmith but I know that it's a good association - friends already told me so - so I think that it's a good thing. I should go out and listen to him. It's so easy to be very technical and to be very complicated. I think it's quite easy to do that and kind of confuse people. I think it's a lot harder to be simple and that's what I'm trying to do.

MP: How much does the phenomenom of "Britpop" touch you? Do you place yourself under the umbrella of this big word?

Babybird: No, I think we were always seen as very different from Britpop. I think in Europe definitely we're seen as part of that and in interviews this question is constantly raised. I do understand the association but here in England I don't think we were ever part of Britpop. But in terms of that I'd be rather part of Britpop than of popmusic in general that surrounds us at the moment. Especially the British charts are so much worse than the European charts. Although I think everyone in every country complains about that...

MP: Do you have anything against pop music in general - like ABBA did it for example?

Babybird: No, it's more against bands like 'Steps'. I don't know if they're big over there but they are copying ABBA which is a bit like "how sad can you get"? It's awfull because you can't build a background in England, as you could some years ago. This music just goes into the charts and then disappears very quickly. And this has always been the case.

MP: But then again Oasis brought me back to listen to my old Beatles albums... So where do you see your musical direction and path to you follow?

Babybird: Well, I can't write straightforward, normal lyrics. So whatever we do, the only thing that is popular is the sound of the actual tune. Because the music is very, very simple and that makes it catchy and accessible for the people. But in terms of the lyrics I will always write realistic and unusual lyrics... And hopefully we will never be seen as mainstream.

MP: Can you still listen to music in a normal way or are you analizing every bit and piece of a song?

Babybird: Oh, that's a good question. If it's a great piece of music than I don't try to break it down or I don't try to analize it. But very often, particularly when I'm in the studio I try to work out how it was done. So I do listen in a different way then.

MP: How was it in the past? There are two groups of people: the ones that listen to the music and the ones that listen to the lyrics. To which one did you belong?

Babybird: It's very strange, because I like a lot of HipHop and Rap. And this is obviously a type of music with so many words in a song. So I admire this kind of lyric in a song - when it's good - and many times it isn't. But when it's good I love it! And apart from that, any other music!!! I listen to a lot of classical music, particularly from films, but not the soundtrack, just the orchestral scores... So it's either very much lyrics or no lyrics at all.

MP: Can you say a few words on the songs on the album?

Babybird: Of course...

The F-Word Well that's about the word "FUCK" basicly. It's just playing with the idea of people's standards: Actually so many people are using that word and still they are very disturbed by that in the media. That seems to be the standard. Do you know the watershed? Whether it should be after nine o'clock in the night or before that? And there are just so much more things to be worried about than something like the "F-Word".

Getaway It's about escaping... I always write about escaping, because music is escapist and people do not want to listen really to challenging lyrics. But music is to be listened to, to loose yourself. So it's a song on me going away on a holiday and lying there in the sun and feeling guilty for the first two days that I'm not doing any work. I can't let loose but I do so after a few days and then I always feel guilty for not being busy.

Out Of Sight Is about being overprotective and trying to keep an eye on someone too much and to let them go and develop in their own way. If I had children I would love to have a daughter. For some reason why, I don't know - but I guess that's what fathers always say... I think I can write about subjects like this. I can write about religion and I'm not religious - but I could be. And I could be a father so I can write about that as well.

Fireflies I spent four years in New Zealand between the ages of four and eight. And I used to keep little fireflies and different bugs in a jar. So I was reading my old diaries from when I was seven years old and was inspired by that. When boys are very, very small they like to control things - more than girls maybe. So it was just me putting this in a jar and trying to control something.

Eyes In The Back Of My Head That's just keeping an eye on things. It's about going forward and just making sure you have an eye on people that are behind you.

Till You Die I always write sinister love songs and I like playing with that. I don't think they are "normal" love songs. It's got a double meaning: I'm going to love you till you die. It's quite sinister because it could apply that this person that I'm writing about is making sure that the loved one is always there. And it's a romantic thing as well, saying that 'I will love you till I'm old'.

Wave Your Hands It's just another one like 'Getaway'. Do you know the 'sheep mentality' where everyone does the same? So it's trying to play with the idea of being an individual.

All I Want It was my attempt to be slightly sarcastic and ironic. This 'All I want is love' thing. Obviously everyone wants love and that's the stereotypical view. But there are so many other things to love as well. And it's about not changing someone.

The Way You Are That's the same thing. Those songs 'The Way You Are' and All I Want' were kind of meant to be together. Again there's a little line there "I can't change you" and it's not wanting to change someone.

One Dead Groove That's kind of a metaphore for being kind of stuck in a moment or in a groove. Like being stuck on the floor and not being able to lift yourself out of doing the same thing every day. Escaping again.

The Xmas God Of New York (Hidden bonus track) Well, I absolutely love New York. I like a lot of 'tacky' things, of things that are extremely over the top. And Christmas is meant to be a religious festival, but go to New York and you wouldn't even know that religion exists. So it's quite a pagan view: New York is like a huge christmas tree and that's what I like about it...

MP: What puzzeles me is that you started to write a diary at the age of seven!

Babybbird: Well it was very basic. My parents wanted me to practise writing because I'm left-handed and that was in New Zealand still seen as something quite bad. So I had to pretend that I write with my right hand. And they found this out only a couple of years later since I've been doing this for a couple of years and then they corrected that. A very strange thing... So I still write with my left hand but I can write with my other hand as well. And it's quite peculiar because I play guitar right-handed, but I do other things left-handed....

MP: Can we go back to the music that you listen to, yourself?

Babybird: There's a composer called Avro Part, I'm not sure if he's Hungarian. I think he's either Hungarian or Czechoslovakian. He writes incredibly simple sort of classical music and gregorian chants. And he's someone I would always mention because he's fantastic. Other music I listen to is always soundtrack music. The last music I bought was probabely 'American Beauty' - not the songs, but the orchestral music. And the 'Hanson Boy Modelling School': It's the guys from De La Soul and Molokko and some other people collaborated. It's just so varied. And I like a lot of Bob Dylan as well - I'm kind of discovering Bod Dylan very late. And again it's simplicity...

MP: Apart from being a musician what bothers you at the moment?

Babybird: Apart from the state of British music? Acually I don't think about music that much - that's just the profession I'm in. A good thing kind of has happend now in London: a man called Ken Livingston has got in as mayor of London, so I think certain things will change. Transport in London is pretty bad at the moment, we have traffic jams and all that. So that is going to have an immediate effect on my life and that's good. And I actually went and voted and that's something not a lot of people did - so I'm kind of proud to do that. I think Tony Blair has let a lot of people down and he's not really done what he promised to do. But that's probabely because Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives left such a mess that he has to clean up... And so it's going to take a while for him to be able to do what he promised...

MP: And if the fairy queen would pop up with the notorious three wishes...

Babybird: Well my first wish would be for a million wishes and then I wouldn't need the other two. Simple, you see?

MP: What would be your perfect party setting?

Babybird: Anywhere by the sea on a huge beach. Yeah! Sitting on blankets with maybe lots of red wine and food around... And it should be warm, so absolutely not in England.

MP: What plans do you have for the time coming?

Babybird: Well I'm not the kind of person that sees to far ahead. We're rehearsing at the moment and then we are doing a couple of concerts. So I'm just thinking of learning the words to the songs and how we are going to present ourselves...

MP: Then I wish you luck and thanks for the interview....

You can check babybird's homepage for more infos: http://www.babybird.co.uk

or you can visit the site of Babybird's record label for more detail of upcoming tours, release dates, etc.: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com

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