What’s it like to create music with heart and soul? We sat down with Tilly Birds to dive into their creative journey, share their stories, and celebrate their latest hit, Retro-39!
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00:00We were looking for this missing puzzle.
00:03The song that would give out the vibe of this fun and easygoing and nostalgic.
00:17Hi everybody! It's me again and today I am with some friends all the way from Thailand.
00:23Hello! Say hello!
00:25Hello!
00:27I'm excited to have you guys on shop today.
00:31So we want to talk about you and your music.
00:34But first of all, could you give a little shout out to your Malaysian fans here?
00:39And share with us one fun fact about you guys, about yourself.
00:45Yeah, fun fact about Tilly Bird is that we are totally random people.
00:53Like, we have different interests if you might not notice.
01:00But I think that also results in Tilly Bird itself as well.
01:04That's cute. I love that. I love that.
01:07Okay, so we want to start off the interview and we want to talk about your single, Retro 39.
01:14So just to make it a little bit fun, can you describe the single in just three emojis and why?
01:21Ooh, let me look up emojis, hold on.
01:24What emoji feels like Retro 39?
01:28Okay, I got one.
01:30Okay.
01:31My first one is the teary eye one.
01:34The teary eye one?
01:35The, the, the, this one, the...
01:40Like, smiling teary eye one?
01:42Yeah, the, the, it's not exactly smiling, but it's like hoping like...
01:46That's pretty cute.
01:48Yeah.
01:48That's pretty cute.
01:48Because it's manifesting her coming back to you, them coming back to you.
01:55And it's, it's just, you know, please, please.
01:58Yeah.
01:59The first one is, you know, like a tape, videotape.
02:05So that, that, that stands for like good memories or the memories that, you know, you had it before.
02:13Like, even though it's been a while or a long time, but you still hold on to it.
02:20And that teary face is that you, you've, you feel good about that, those memories.
02:26Okay.
02:26And the last emoji is like back.
02:29So you kind of want to go back to that memory.
02:32Ah, that's pretty cute.
02:33Okay.
02:33I love that.
02:34I love that.
02:35Let's talk about your single now.
02:37And what's the creative journey behind the song?
02:40We were looking for this missing, missing puzzle.
02:43The song that would give out the vibe of this fun and easygoing and nostalgic, nostalgia.
02:52Once I heard the music that they made, I thought of, you know, the reminiscence, the feeling of
03:00and wanting to turn back time or to go back, knowing fully that you can't.
03:06But you're still manifesting.
03:08You're still holding on, lingering on to it.
03:11And, and, and, and you feel, and you feel good about missing someone too.
03:18Although it's killing you inside, but you know, it's still fun.
03:21It's still, it's still, you know, warm and not too complicated to understand.
03:29I love that.
03:30Okay.
03:31So with each of your new releases, Dilly Birds keeps, you know, evolving with the music.
03:37Your sound, how would you say your sound has changed from your early days until now?
03:45It's a bit more concise now.
03:47Like, it's not that big of a change, I suppose, but like more concise, more,
03:52more like focused nowadays.
03:55But, but I have a, I have a feeling that it would take another turn,
03:59like a different route again, next album or something.
04:03So how do you choose which films that you want to include?
04:09And what was it like stepping into, you know, the director's side of producing a music video?
04:16It was a tough job because we got such films at time, timeframe, you know, it was very limited.
04:25But so for that, I got another director to help me and a co-director.
04:30His name is Tehadoo.
04:32And yeah, we made it together, but mainly the screenplay was by me.
04:39I wrote it and I incorporated all the themes that I love since the video shop days, you know,
04:47renting rom-coms and classic movies from that time, which was around 2000s.
04:55You know, what is a better way to commemorate my childhood, to celebrate my love in films and music
05:04and along with the band, I picked the bands according to my friends.
05:11Seeing Third directed this one reminded me of how good he is,
05:15actually, as a director and a screenwriter.
05:18And I think we landed a perfect video for this one.
05:22And yeah, I couldn't hope any other way around.
05:26Yeah, he was meant to do this video for this song.
05:30Okay, so you guys, each of you has a different, you know, role in creating songs for your band.
05:36Walk me through what the typical songwriting and production session looks like for Tiddy Birds.
05:43Okay, I'll walk you through that.
05:46So the three of us for the song, so exclude all the videos and everything.
05:52So just for the songs, the three of us have different roles.
05:56But we also help each other in many ways.
05:59So Third will be in charge of like lyrics, what to tell the story, what story to tell.
06:06Milo will be in charge of composition.
06:09So every note you hear, every chord, every changes, every transition is Milo's.
06:17And me, I'm the production guy.
06:21So I put them all together.
06:24So how we start the song, we can start it three different ways.
06:30From Third, from Milo, or from me.
06:33So it will come in a variety of ways.
06:37So like, if it comes from Third, it might just be an idea, like a big idea or like a catchy phrase,
06:44or like, just even the song title.
06:47So like, same page, คิดจะไม่ถึง, Third had that idea, and he worked on it.
06:52And he had this one version of it.
06:54And then he just sent it to us.
06:56We kept working on it until we got the final one.
07:01So if it's from Milo, sometimes from Milo, you get everything.
07:04You get lyrics, you get concept, you get melodies.
07:06You even get the project file as well.
07:11But if it's from me, it will be something more like a feeling, like this kind of like vibe.
07:19And then these two will just vibe to it and then put something on top of it.
07:23So that's maybe the three ways we start the song.
07:28We haven't figured out any other ways yet.
07:31Wow, that's crazy.
07:32Making a song is not easy.
07:35It is fun.
07:35It is fun.
07:36It's like, you know, it's like you blindfolded and you pin something together.
07:42So you've toured across Asia, and you played at major music festivals, right?
07:47What's been your most memorable or unexpected moment on stage?
07:52Seeing them sing in Thai is mind-blowing enough.
07:56But seeing them dress like a Thai student, or the school uniform,
08:03the school uniform, yeah, that was quite memorable.
08:08And, you know, to see them really engage with us and work hard,
08:15you know, to come to the concert, to the show, it really gives us joy.
08:21So you meet fans from different cultures, and it must be like a unique experience.
08:26So what's one thing, you know, you've learned or loved from these different interactions?
08:33They get speechless when they meet in person, and then they write.
08:39And I've read all the letters, and it gives me such a good energy boost.
08:47That's one interaction I love.
08:49And I never get bored, you know, when it comes to the photo time, the handshake,
08:58the fan benefit part, you know, I never got tired of that.
09:03Meeting the fans has always given us this energy.
09:08All right.
09:08So where have you not been yet?
09:12And where do you guys want to play next?
09:16What's in your dream list?
09:19I mean, there are more places we haven't been to than the places we have been to, so.
09:25Makes sense.
09:26So that is going to be a long answer, I'm telling you.
09:29It's going to be a long, long list of answers.
09:31What's at the top of your head right now?
09:35A country, a place, a festival?
09:37I mean, we haven't been to Europe or America, so I mean, we can start there.
09:41Okay, lovely.
09:42Because we've been touring Asia.
09:46A lot of artists have told me this, you know.
09:49Songs can itch people, if you get what it means.
09:55So if you could be any Tilly Bird songs, which one would it be and why?
10:00I would go for those very classic Tilly Birds.
10:04So like, I'm Not Boring, You're Just Bored, Who I Am, Bangkok Winter.
10:12I think the main attitude behind this answer is that
10:17like, I don't really care if people like it, I like it.
10:20I would go for The One.
10:24Yeah, this song magically helped me in my darkest times.
10:29Through heartbreak, through desperation, and failures after failure,
10:36this song really helped me.
10:38And it really tells you that you really should love yourself.
10:43You're all that you have.
10:46Yeah.
10:46Tilly Bird's song that represents me is The One, but now it's changed.
10:50That's so interesting for me.
10:53But like, now I'm really like, not got some great answer.
11:00But maybe I would say Ordinary.
11:03So before we go, what's the biggest message you hope that fans take away from Retro 39?
11:11And what's next for Tilly Birds?
11:15I just, you know, want to see them vibe with the song, have fun, dance.
11:20And, you know, you really cannot go back in time.
11:24You can only visit them in your dreams or in your imagination and pictures.
11:31And I hope this song will take you to good old times, not the bad ones.
11:37If you cry, I hope it's tears of joy.
11:41If you think of someone, I hope it's someone who will give you good old memories.
11:49So one last thing, anything you want to say to all your Malaysian fans before we go?
11:54We hope to see you guys again.
11:56Malaysia has always been our favorite and we can't wait to go back.
12:01And we wish that we have new stuff being released yet.
12:06And we can go do live and make some great music together because we made that.
12:14But just wait for a little bit more time and we will, yeah,
12:20when we will finally see you and play those amazing songs.
12:25We miss you all.
12:26We miss everything in Malaysia and can't wait to go back with our new album
12:32because you guys are the reasons why we do what we do.
12:36And we even have some Malaysian fans come to Thailand.
12:40So we really appreciate you guys.
12:42And I hope it won't be too long until we meet again.