The Wind-Up Birds

All the people at art school had nothing to say at all," reflects Paul Ackroyd, vocalist/lyricist with The Wind-Up Birds. "We all had to go round once and say what we wanted out of art. 49 people said 'I want to be famous'. On a fucking art course? I said I wanted to change the world or some bollocks. But it wasn't bollocks, it was heartfelt – I just said I wanted to kind of change things. It was true though - when you go into the foyer of a big office, there's these supposedly expressionist paintings, and that's all they did. It meant this, it meant that, but it didn't – it meant they could sell it to a company. Whereas I did pictures of people breaking into shopping centres and getting run over by the police."

The Wind-Up Birds came together in early 2003. Ben (bass) was working in a pub outside Elland Road. "These guys used to come in and they were the only people in the pub who'd put good songs on the jukebox." As a result, he soon found himself joining forces with Mat (guitar/vocals) and original guitarist Neil.

Oli, in true drummer fashion, replied to an advert and Paul was recruited to write lyrics to Neil's songs and play keyboards. "I'd never done owt like that before. I liked bands but never wanted to be in one. But I liked writing lyrics and no-one else could sing them."

The band name came from the title of a novel by Haruki Murakami. "It's about someone who things just happen to, but he ends up kind of saving the world. I liked the idea of this guy who's just involved in events but has no control. It seemed like a good concept for us."

The departure in 2005 of Neil forced a rethink. Paul: "We had a lot of problems with drink in the first band... everyone was kind of professional, except me and the other guitarist who were just hammered all the time. He left and we worked out that we didn't need another person."

The Wind-Up Birds had become a unit for the first time. Paul took over as main vocalist, immediately giving the band a distinctive stamp thanks to his whining snarl. Mat, who had essentially been fronting the band, was freed up to concentrate on guitar. "It was kind of forced upon us. The guitarist we'd got in couldn't play a gig and a recording that we did, so I just had to do everything. We pulled together doing it and I think we really enjoyed it."

The resulting EP, 'The Wind-Up Birds Are Long Term Sick', set the blueprint for much of the band's work since: brash, sinewy guitar pop, devoid of flab, providing the ideal background for Paul's literate, straight-to-the-point lyrics.

Some obvious musical comparisons: Wire, Magazine, Buzzcocks. Do The Wind-Up Birds consider themselves to be a punk band? Paul: "I don't. I've read a lot about punk and it was such a contrived thing anyway. I think we're punk in the sense of original '60s garage punk. It's not about musicianship, it's about getting in, chorus, backing vocals, and get back out again. It's not about fashion, which is what I would take punk as being about."

"I think the one unifying thing is that we all love music but we've never wanted to be musos," adds Mat. "There's never been this idea that it's got to be dead perfect. Because we don't want to be, not because we can't be bothered. I'm quite proud that we don't sound like any of the other bands that we play with. You can go to a small venue in Leeds, see four bands, three of them will try to sound like Oasis and the other one will try to sound like The Libertines."

"What was interesting about English punk was the contrast between the working class street thing and art school," continues Paul. "There's an element of that in there; a mish-mash of backgrounds. A lot of bands in Leeds have maybe come from the same college, or they're four lads who've got into Oasis and they've come from that. I think we've all got really different backgrounds."

The Wind-Up Birds all have respectable day-jobs. It's clearly essential to what makes the band work. "I can't imagine how you could write songs if that's all you do. The last sort of poem you'd want to read is one that's written by a poet. This idea that you have to be on the dole to be tortured enough to be an artist... it's a real middle-class idea of art. I like people like Magritte, who was a clerk in Belgium for 40-odd years, but on the side banging out all these visually tricky pieces of work. I meet more creative artistic people at work than when we ever do gigs."

The lyrics, once described on the band's website as songs about car parks, and songs about pubs, and songs about work, and songs about escape, are a consistent stand-out. "I try to write about things that either aren't covered," explains Paul, "or if they are covered it's in quite a patronising way. Pop stars will try to write lyrics about work or the homeless without having a clue and it'll be right condescending. I know to a lot of people lyrics don't matter, but every band I've liked it's because of the combination of really moving lyrics and a good tune."

The Wind-Up Birds will never be famous. For one thing that's clearly not what they're interested in pursuing. For another they're clearly too obstinate, too damn interesting. "If we have the choice to do something the way that seems really obvious or try to struggle through, we'll take the odd way. That's part of the enjoyment– if you can still get something that's catchy out of it then it's twice as good. Cos you've had a bit of a mission to get there."

Interview by Mark Sturdy
Photography by George Coppock

Download the 'The Wind-Up Birds Are Long Term Sick' from www.myspace.com/thewindupbirds