The resolve of Steele

By SCOTT-PATRICK MITCHELL

It’s hard growing up on the road. Katy Steele, frontwoman of Australian rock band Little Birdy, knows this.

But with growing up comes maturity, a quality Steele has developed in abundance. And it shows, particularly on Little Birdy’s forthcoming album, Confetti, released this month.

The journey I’ve had for the last five years has been rather insane, Steele said. I started playing music when I was 17 -¦ Little Birdy started when I was 18, and when I was 19 I was doing a record. I was thrown in to a lot of stuff.

The second song I ever wrote was Relapse. I literally was learning how to write songs weeks before we recorded Big Love.

Now, at the age of 25, Steele is no longer one of the young girls of rock, but rather one of the women driving it.

Little Birdy formed in 2002 and recorded a demo which was leaked to Perth radio stations. A whirlwind of attention ensued, from the public and music industry professionals alike. Within months, they had cut a self-titled EP. Within a year, their debut album Big Love had been released to nationwide critical acclaim.

Two years later their second album, Hollywood, received mixed reviews. Steele apparently took some of these reviews personally and it wasn’t until a musical hero offered her a unique opportunity that she began to find her feet-¦ and her wings.

I got asked to support Paul Kelly as a solo just on the west coast of Australia, but it was theatre shows so it was just me with a guitar, Steele explained.

I locked myself away and was practicing like crazy and I wrote a whole heap of songs specifically for that tour.

The result is what Steele describes as a very honest record.

We just wanted to make something that was as timeless as possible, she explained. We made something we still wanted to love in 20 or 30 years time.

Confetti is an exercise in restraint, influenced largely by Motown and Stax, and more subtly by Hank Williams and the country singers of the ’60s.

People have said there are times where it seems really kinda empty, but that’s the whole point… It gives it more meaning when there’s nothing else surrounding it. It’s clearer.

It’s an album where less is more. The crisp production is graceful and lilting. The band has captured a more accomplished sound, one that is driven and directional.

info: Confetti is out now.  Details: littlebirdy.net.

Little Birdy’s new album is graceful and lilting.