It’s been a long time coming, but today has seen Australia’s beloved Birds Of Tokyo releasing their long-awaited sixth album, the powerful Human Design.
When Birds Of Tokyo issued BRACE back in 2016, few knew that the wait for another record from the group would take them all the way into 2020.
Sadly, the seeds of a new album were not sewn in a garden of happiness, with frontman Ian Kenny going through the breakup of his marriage in 2017. As a form of catharsis, the resilient artist began to write new songs, using Birds Of Tokyo as a form of “free therapy”, resulting in heartbreaking tracks such as ‘Good Lord’.
“In the first instance I was just writing words to stop myself going nuts,” Kenny explained in a statement. “Creating this music with the guys in the band was really a form of free therapy that’s then played out later in public so this album is really the culmination of that whole process.”
Check out ‘Good Lord’ by Birds Of Tokyo:
Undoubtedly one of their strongest and most cohesive albums to date, in addition to being their most powerful and most vulnerable, Human Design was a number of years in the making, with Kenny recently telling Rolling Stone Australia that the record has been an essential tool on the road to recovery.
“I don’t think I would be in the good position I am now without having an outlet, or without having to sort of dig deep and find a way to talk about this shit through the record, so it’s been massive,” he explained.
Birds Of Tokyo had previously announced a national tour alongside Australian symphony orchestras, which was set to kick off next week. However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the tour has been postponed, with the band announcing a run of new dates for 2021 earlier today.
“They’re such big moving pieces of machinery, and we’re just five dudes, so we have it pretty easy,” explained guitarist Adam “Sparky” Spark to Rolling Stone Australia. “But these guys have so much consideration in terms of players, venues, insurance, and all sorts of crazy shit that’s above our heads.”
Now set to take place in January and February of 2021, Birds of Tokyo have also managed to add extra dates for the Brisbane fans, with a pre-sale kicking off on Monday. Check out all the details below.
Meanwhile, in addition to sharing the lyric video for their latest single ‘Dive’, the band are also set to perform at the Music From The Home Front concert tomorrow night, which will see some of Australia’s biggest names performing a livestreamed set of performances which will be broadcast on the Nine Network.
Birds of Tokyo’s Human Design is out now via EMI.
Check out Human Design by Birds Of Tokyo:
Birds of Tokyo Symphonic Tour 2021
With the West Australian Symphony Orchestra
Thursday, January 14th
Perth Concert Hall, Perth, WA
Friday, January 15th
Perth Concert Hall, Perth, WA
Saturday, January 16th
Perth Concert Hall, Perth, WA
With the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Friday, January 22nd
Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne, VIC
Saturday, January 23rd
Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne, VIC
With the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Thursday, February 4th
Sydney Town Hall, Sydney, NSW
Friday, February 5th
Sydney Town Hall, Sydney, NSW
Saturday, February 6th
Sydney Coliseum Theatre, West HQ, Sydney, NSW
With the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Friday, February 12th
QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane, QLD
Saturday, February 13th
QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane, QLD
Brisbane fan sale via the band’s website from 10am (local time), Monday, April 27th
General public on sale from 10am (local time), Friday, May 1st
