Sweet as a bird
Her many aunts, uncles and relatives in Meath were delighted when singer Wallis Bird won the 2FM Hope for 2009 Award at the recent Meteor Awards ceremony. Twenty-four year-old Wallis and her family lived at Connell"s Cross, between Navan and Trim, for many years when her father, Ger, worked in Tara Mines in Navan. Wallis left the Meteors to fly direct to Austin, Texas, to perform in the annual SXSW festival. She will then return to studio in Germany to put the finishing touches on her new album, which will be released by Rubyworks later in the summer. Wallis is one of a family of seven of Ger and Joan Bird, who now live in Galbally, Co Wexford. As a young child at Bective, Wallis was seriously injured when the five fingers on her left hand were severed by a lawnmower. Four of them were sewn back on. Born left-handed, soon after coming out of hospital she was trying to play her guitar again, even though she was heavily bandaged. It was good physical therapy, she thinks. Indeed, she wouldn"t be the mesmerising guitar player she is now if it wasn"t for the accident: her injuries meant Wallis learnt to play on a right-handed guitar, albeit one flipped upside-down. The strings are back to front, which means Wallis" chord fingerings and playing style are pretty much unique. She wrote her first song at the age of seven, and her first 'proper" one at 12. But she cut her musical teeth in Germany, where she moved there two years ago after meeting two German brothers: the three were thrown together into an impromptu band as part of a week-long international music workshop. The bold, lyrical songs and forceful, intuitive guitar playing of Wallis instantly gelled with the 'proper" musicianship of drummer Christian and bass player Michael Vinne. When the brothers went back home to Mannheim, 'a little old workshop town between Stuttgart and Frankfurt", Wallis went with them, later joined by Irish bandmate Aoife O"Sullivan on viola and additional vocals. 'It was totally mindblowing,' says Wallis of her 18 months in Germany. 'I realised what I wanted: to write songs and be in a band. I"d been dilly-dallying my whole life.' Her debut single was a German EP called 'Branches Untangle". 'Homemade, lovely artwork,' she says. 'We did it all independently and it cost us a fortune! But it got a lot of radio play in Germany. It wasn"t the best quality but people seemed to like it. It"ll cost you 40 quid on German eBay.' Several million TV viewers and radio listeners then experienced Wallis" 60-minute set at a German festival, hosted by the country"s biggest radio station, with a hand-picked bill, reflecting the hottest artists on German airwaves, Corinne Bailey Rae, Scissor Sisters, James Morrison, The Fray, Paolo Nuttini, Nerina Pallot, and The Feeling. Wallis and the Vinne brothers relocated from Mannheim to London and she signed to Island Records. She"d already recorded and co-produced her debut album. In October 2008, Wallis recorded a cover of Depeche Mode"s 'Just Can"t Get Enough" for a Sun newspaper television advertisement, and when it was broadcast, The Sun was bombarded with requests from readers wanting to know who sang it, and her career took off. She will be back in Ireland in the summer for two dates. Wallis will be appearing with her band at Whelan"s in Dublin on Friday 24th July and Cypress Avenue in Cork on Saturday 25th July in her first Irish headline gigs of the year. Proud family members in Meath include the Thompson and O"Rourke families, Summerhill; the Birds in Navan, and the Brennans, also in Summerhill. - John Donohoe