Meet: The Bures Band - Birds Nest

After releasing one of our top 10 Aussie albums of 2022 (that we found out about here), West Aussie singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer Stephen Bailey is back, bringing some buddies with him as The Bures Band, who have readied their debut single and video Birds Nest, premiering on Pilerats today.

Former frontman of the now split-up psych lords Mt Mountain, Bailey switched things up with his solo work from the sounds we heard from MM, taking things in a more chill, folk oriented direction. The Bures Band sees Bailey and the rest of the band -  Callum Anderson (lead guitar and vocals) Danny Miles (guitar and vocals) Noah Symmans (drums) and Tom Beech (bass) - taking these folk influences in a more rock & roll direction, drawing on the band’s “shared love of 1960s and 1970s Americana, folk rock and blues music”.

Also the title track of their forthcoming album, Birds Nest is a laid back, mellow & melodic fusion of the aforementioned genres through a modern lens, with both the single and accompanying stylised performance video truly timeless.

To celebrate the release of Birds Nest, we checked in with Bailey to find out all about the new single & project. Give the video a watch a day ahead of release and get to know below:

How did The Bures Band form?

The band was originally formed to play the live shows of  a solo record I had released back in November last year. I had also been writing for the next solo record and wanted the guys to bring some ideas to the table. My first session was with Callum Anderson and the first song/idea he showed me was actually this single we are talking about today 'Birds Nest' . I immediately loved the song and could hear the potential but for the most part it was a fully formed idea and I didn't feel comfortable claiming this as a "Stephen Bailey" track. Danny Miles was also joining the group and is also a talented songwriter so it just seemed logical to start a new project and have the benefits of three songwriters bringing fully formed ideas.

Our musical tastes are very much in line with each other so I could see it working together in an album quite well. Two months from this decision we had for the most part written and recorded the album so this was quite exciting for me. I knew we had something good going. We also have Noah Symmans (NOZ) on drums which has been great. He's a super talented and tasteful man behind the tubs and just an all round great dude! Tom Beech was the last to join us. Playing bass in the band but plays a lot of instruments very well and got a little flute on the record too. We just started demoing some new songs and his abilities are shining through. very exciting

What is the band name a reference to?

Bures is a small Village in England where I lived back in my teens. I always really loved the name and wanted to use it.  It's hard coming up with a name that isn't already taken these days so I was pretty stoked to see something simple like Bures not being used.  Pronounced B-u-were-s

Tell us about your new single Birds Nest?

'Birds Nest 'is an Americana Folk Rock song  inspired by the late 60s/ 70s sound.  The song is about the feeling of helplessness to evoke change and the sometimes guilty feeling of not doing all we can do to help. Out of sight out of mind. "Your ship sails north and you read your poems loud but you're scared to check the bird's nest"  This song came together in the studio very quickly. The guitar takes on this track were done first go. Callum had this one in the bag so it was an effortless session. Once the guitars were down we wrote the harmonies to Cal's already existing vocal line and that was pretty much it. The skeleton of the song was done in about four hours then we just made slight changes over the few months of recording the album.

The music video for Birds Nest captures the vibe of the sound perfectly - what was it like making the video?

Apart from it being a 45 degree day in an old hall it was amazing! We were really stoked that Tim Barretto wanted to work with us on this. He had just done his first feature Film 'Basendream' which I saw at Luna and was blown away. All shot on 16m which i've wanted to do for a few years now so I was really happy to be working with Tim. We set up and shot the whole thing in 10hours as we only had the hall for one day so we needed to move quickly. It took us a while to choose a venue to shoot but I'm glad we were patient because as soon as we discovered White Gum Valley Hall we knew it was the perfect location. I know how great 16mm looks so i just knew along as the location looks cool and we dress well Tim will produce a great clip.

What can we expect from the rest of the album?

Because there are three songwriters on the album there is quite a variation in tone and vibe; some tracks are more bluesy and some are more on the folk end. I think we'll see a lot more merging on the next record as we are fleshing songs out in rehearsals.

What are your top 5 60s/70s Americana and similar albums you’d recommend for people wanting to dive into this sound?

Relatively Clean Rivers (1975) [you can find this on YouTube]
Still Sad - Compilation album by Anthology
Eat A Peach - The Allman Brothers
The Marshall Tucker Band (1973)
Crosby, Stills & Nash  (1969)

What have you been listening to lately?

Callum - Ernest Tubb
Stephen - Jim Croce
Danny - Beach Boys
Noah - Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro
Tom - Laura Marling

The Bures Band new single Birds Nest is out June 28

Follow The Bures Band