Birds Fly High.

After sold-out tours across the country and their self-titled album set to debut at #1, Birds Of Tokyo are feeling on top of the world.

You may think the Perth lads would have felt apprehensive in following up their hugely successful Day One and Universes albums. But you’d be wrong. "We haven’t felt any pressure at all," says guitarist Adam Spark. "We like what we’ve been doing." And it seems listeners couldn’t agree more. After showcasing material from their self-titled album throughout May and June, fans lapped up pre-order sales ahead of its official release last Friday.

Recorded across Sydney, Gothenburg and New York City, the band’s third album saw them team up with producer Scott Horscroft (The Presets, Silverchair, Sleepy Jackson) and mixer Michael Brauer (Coldplay, My Morning Jacket, Phoenix).

"We recorded the album like that because of logistics, not because we set out to be extravagant wankers," laughs Spark, who described the recording experience as "surreal". "There was something else in the water, I tell you; there were lots of crazy drunken nights. We were like one very big dysfunctional family".

Spark says every location, from pre-production in Perth to mixing in New York, holds a unique set of memories for the four-piece. "We had tiny rooms in Gothenburg that were the size of a mattress," he laughs, "and when you’re there with seven or eight other guys, cabin fever tends to take all of three hours to set in."

The writing of this album also differed from their first two releases. The Broken Strings tour, which saw the Birds perform acoustic interpretations of their material with a string quartet and grand piano, reignited an appreciation of songwriting within the band. "Listening to your work acoustically forces you to be intelligent about how you write; you want interesting movements and chord progressions," Spark explains.

The group also set themselves a target of working six hours a day to get as much done as possible. "Otherwise we tend to dilly around and don’t get much done. Other times we haven’t had that focus". The results speak for themselves. The album still features Birds of Tokyo’s trademark wall of riffs and the unmistakable soaring voice of Ian Kenny.

But Spark acknowledges that the album is quite different to their others and may isolate some fans of their heavier work. "It’s not like we’ve gone off and made some avant-garde record that doesn’t even sound like us," he says," but that’s just not where we’re at anymore".

Birds Of Tokyo is out now. Birds Of Tokyo play the Brisbane Convention Centre Friday 24 September.

By Stephanie Bourke

ENDS