Tag: Birds of Play

WATCH: Birds of Play, “Breathe”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Birds of Play
Hometown: Telluride, Colorado
Song: “Breathe”
Album: Birdsongs of the American West
Release Date: August 25, 2023

In Their Words: “‘Breathe’ was written as a response to witnessing my wife navigate a somewhat tumultuous time, rife with hard questions about meaning and purpose and her place in life. I was also wrestling with some of the same sentiments at the time and wrote this song as a friendly reminder to us both of the impermanence of all of our states and experiences and how much agency we have to reground with a simple breath. We worked this song up specifically for this album as it was one of the only songs in this group that we hadn’t played before recording Birdsongs of the American West. We’ve only started to play this live during our most recent tour around the PNW and it’s been really moving to see how deeply it’s resonating with our audiences.” – Alex Paul

Photo Credit: Sarah Schwab

LISTEN: Birds of Play, “Stargazer”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Birds of Play
Hometown: Telluride, Colorado
Song: “Stargazer”
Album: Birdsongs of the American West
Release Date: August 25, 2023

In Their Words: “‘Stargazer’ is the first song I ever wrote, and it’s been such an incredible experience bringing it to life with the band. I initially didn’t care much for it, but my bandmates thought it had a lot of potential, and I came around to appreciating it more as each of them added their own sounds to it. It has grown quite a lot since we first started performing it, and it’s an exciting part of each tour to see how it will continue to grow and change.” – Anneke Dean

Photo Credit: Sarah Schwab

LISTEN: Birds of Play, “Tarab”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Birds of Play
Hometown: Telluride, Colorado
Song: “Tarab”
Album: Murmurations, Vol. 2
Release Date: January 25th, 2022

In Their Words: “‘Tarab’ is an Arabic word that is defined as a state of musically-induced bliss brought on by a moving performance. Typically involving vocal music, tarab is a state of elation shared collectively by both performer and listener alike. Upon discovering this beautiful concept so succinctly captured in a single word, I wrote the five-letter word on a sticky note, set it on my desk, and wrote this song over the course of a few hours. More so than with any song I’ve ever written, ‘Tarab’ poured out of me as if it had already been written by a long-forgotten ancestor. I was merely a conduit as the song arrived from an ancient place.

“‘Tarab’ is an incantation, a mantra, imbued with the potential for a blissful enchantment that is as inextricable to the human experience as breathing itself. ‘A seed of bliss was there, waiting patiently to feel the air.’ ‘Before we made fire, we made noise. Before we had fire, we had voice.’” — Jack Tolan, Birds of Play

Birds of Play · Tarab

Photo Credit: Sarah Schwabb

LISTEN: Birds of Play, “Not Alone”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Birds of Play
Hometown: Ophir, Colorado
Song: “Not Alone”
Album: Murmurations Vol. 1
Release Date: September 3, 2021

In Their Words: “‘Not Alone’ was written in the thick of lockdown, early April 2020. I was sitting down to read a book when I found out that John Prine had died. I put my book down and picked up my guitar and played his songs for a couple hours. Somewhere in the midst of that celebration and mourning this song appeared. I wrote it over the course of that night and the next morning as a bit of a reflection on our shared lot. It feels cathartic to sing and still unfortunately relevant.” — Alex Paul, Birds of Play

Photo credit: Sarah Schwab