Monroe’s hosts rising folk band Kicking Bird

The up-and-coming acoustic four-piece Kicking Bird play the Backstage Bar in Monroe’s Live on Sunday, September 28. The Dublin based folk-alt band is made up of Shannen Byrne (vocal/ukulele/guitar) Michéal ‘Hali’ Smith (vocals/guitar), Daniel Montgomery (bass) and Keith Saul (drums/percussion).

Kicking Bird has had a busy summer, most recently playing at Knockanstockan in Wicklow this July. That festival gives a platform to young Irish bands, and has built up a loyal following. Shannen was delighted to be part of it.

“That was our goal this year,” she says. “I’d never really been to a festival before. We knew a couple of lads that had played on it before, and they were like ‘Knockanstockan is brilliant, it’s great craic’. Then lo and behold, we ended up getting on it and we were absolutely chuffed.”

Kicking Bird former two years ago, after a previous project that Shannen and Daniel were involved in didn’t work out.

“I didn’t really feel the style of the first band I was in I wanted something more acoustic, a more laidback kind of music,” Shannen says. “I asked Dan if he’d be up for doing bass again and he said ‘why not?’

“I was talking to Hali about it, through the whole ordeal and I said ‘now all I need is a guitar player’. I never imagined Hali would be in my band, he was so talented. He ended up saying ‘sure I’ll do it; I want to get better at lead guitar anyway’.”

The line-up was complete when Keith joined the Kicking Bird family just before Christmas.

“Ever since we’ve been rehearsing like crazy, gigging like crazy and we’re loving it. Putting a lot of hard work in,” observes Shannen.

Kicking Bird’s sound evokes Laurel Canyon acts like Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, as well as the more modern folk sounds of Laura Marling.

“She’s awesome! My sister introduced me to her,” Shannen says about the English folk singer.

Like Mitchell and Marling, Shannen writes personal songs with strong vocals.

“It would be from emotion and experience,” she says of the process. “I wouldn’t just be able to conjure a song from nothing, from a thought-out thing; it would have to be something I feel. I think Hali would be the same.”

Kicking Bird has two singer-songwriters in the band, with Shannen and Hali sharing the writing duties.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.