Watching swans gliding smoothly across the mirror surface of the water, my imagination paints images of impeccable purity, peace and grace. But behind this visible perfection often hide fragility and pain, isn’t that a perfect metaphor for a song? And who, if not Bird herself (Janie Price) – a singer and composer of Irish-English roots, a cellist with classical training – is capable of embodying this truth in music so delicately and deeply, as she does in her new single “The Boy and The Swan”.
Photo credit: Stefania Besancon
She was pushed to create the song by one candid conversation. Bird met with young Belgian artist Aqua Riyaz (his performance on The Voice Kids gathered millions of views) and he told her about his childhood. Bird already had some sketches, fragments of an idea in a notebook, but it was his story that helped everything come together. Thus, in co-authorship with Aqua Riyaz, was born a song that Bird initially didn’t write for herself. Although over time it became clear that the story in it is much broader than one fate. At the center – a boy who became a victim of bullying, and in the swan he sees a reflection of his own pain. Feathers, torn one by one from the body, express traces of traumas that don’t disappear. Thus forms an endless cycle: from fear is born cruelty, from cruelty – a new wound. Pain births pain, the victim becomes the offender, without even realizing it.
Musically, the track leads the listener through country, americana and indie-folk with a light flavor of folk-horror. The string arrangements, which have become the singer’s calling card, are expressive and beautiful – they amplify the cinematographic quality of the song. And the refined timbre of the singer’s voice adds a mythical dimension. The sound plays with contrasts, there is intimacy and orchestral sweep. For the song, Bird shot a performance-film in Denmark, inviting her longtime friend – performance artist Jørgen Callesen, known as Miss Fish. Callesen -an LGBTQ+ activist, founder of the space Warehouse 9, which became a refuge for marginalized artists. For Bird it was fundamentally important that he specifically participate in the project. In the video, Callesen dances on the shore of a northern Danish lake in a costume manually created from real feathers of local swans. The fragility of this outfit, the plasticity of the dance, the landscape – all this echoes with the concept of the song.
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