KATY STEELE of LITTLE BIRDY explains to JODY MACGREGOR what their new album Confetti is all about and why it’s especially important to them.

Little Birdy aren’t so little any more. They’ve grown up. Bigbiglove, their first album, was the sound of birth, the first rush of creative energy that comes at the beginning of any new endeavour. Second album Hollywood found them young and lost in America, off the trail in a forest of synth that resulted with them releasing album that sounded a little over-considered and measured (and a lot like Metric). They’ve just finished an album called Confetti that pulls off the neat trick of simultaneously returning to something closer to their early sound, but building on it rather than rehashing. It’s their growth spurt album.

“It’s not every day you make a record,” Katy Steele says. “This is our third one, so we’ve had the experience of making two other ones and, I don’t know, in my case I suppose I wasn’t mentally 100% there on the second one. I was a little bit overwhelmed with what had happened to us in such a short amount of time. So with this one, man, I was so ready. I’m here and I’m here right now and I’m gonna live this to the ultimate. As much as I can do this I’m gonna do it and we all did and it was great. We just can’t wait to play the songs now.”

As part of that process – living it to the ultimate – they took charge and produced the album on their own, free from outside influence. “We didn’t really need anyone else’s opinion. Not in an arrogant way – it was like there were so many ideas already. One of the main thoughts of the direction was to keep it as simple as possible anyway, so having an extra voice was something we didn’t really want or need.”

Except for when it came to the voices of actual backing singers, of course. As well as the guests and session performers pulled in from the Melbourne scene (they recorded at Sing Sing after relocating from Perth), there was a familiar voice. “We had theremin, we had pedal steel, we had all kinds of guests, it was great. Also, not to mention the – dunno if you’ve heard of him, but Paul Kelly was also on there?” she laughs. Kelly provided harmonica and backing vocals to the album’s opener, Brother, which features some of Steele’s most personal lyrics to date. “Barney [O’Donoghue] is doing the harmonica at the moment, but I think Fergus [Deasy] will probably sing the extra parts. When we do it live Fergus and Barney both I think are singing the Paul Kelly parts. They might have to make their voice a little more croony, a little more Aussie.”

There are a lot of backing singers on Confetti, bringing in something of the ’60s girl group aesthetic at times. Along with the theremin, Mellotron, harpsichord, horns and handclaps they’ve got all the ingredients of a classic pop sound. “I was personally really influenced by the Shangri-Las as one example and people like Dusty Springfield,” Steele says. “We just wanted to make a record that we would like in 20 years. I know that’s been said before but we wanted it to be something that we would listen to. Not that we wouldn’t listen to the other two records. I don’t know … it’s hard to explain. It had to be really real. Handclaps, that’s a real organic sound, organic feeling. It has depth and touch to it.”

The other old-fashioned influence detectable on Confetti is that of country music. Honky tonk piano and twangy guitar both make appearances. “I’ve always really liked country-sounding songs. I suppose why I really like that type of music is because it’s got really great melody and that’s one thing I’ve always gone on about from an early age, is that I really like melodic songs. And the thing about a good country song is it’s usually got a really good vocal melody, so I suppose a lot of the songs cry out for that. It’s that timeless sound so it was just natural. With all the songs we just did whatever felt right. With a song like Crazy, that was a little more influenced by the ‘60s, like The Kinks was a bit of an influence for that song, with the harpsichord. I remember when I was playing that by myself I was like, ‘I really want this to have harpsichord,’ and obviously we couldn’t get a real harpsichord ’cause they’re about a million dollars and they’re so heavy. We couldn’t get one, so we used one that hopefully sounded real.”

The beginnings of the songs came, as they always have with Little Birdy, from Steele herself. She showed up in the studio with lyrics and melodies (some of them songs she’d performed acoustic versions of in her solo performances, like those supporting Paul Kelly) and let the band take them to pieces. “Sometimes I have a really strong idea of what I want, but I have absolutely no idea how to play drums or play bass or play guitar really – I can only really play chords – so usually I work really vague like ideas of like, ‘It’s gotta be like John Lennon. The drums should be like Lennon,’ and have these random influences. The guys are good at understanding me now and taking on the ideas that are really good and the ideas that are really shit ... They have a really good interpretation of that now. They’re very instrumental in their opinions,” she laughs, “if that makes sense.”

Confetti ends with a hidden track, a heartsick instrumental called Porcelain written by guitarist Simon Leach about a girl with china-white skin. It’s like the final step in this stage of growth, the point at which the rest of the band get a moment to speak for themselves. “The guys were really great, they had a really respectful approach to it themselves. I think there’s something really classy about a musician that knows when to not play in a way and it’s the same with singing. I totally take the same token with my approach to music; that I need to know when to shut up as well. I think there’s something really classy about that. You’ve got to know when someone else is taking over the song or when the song needs space or when the lyric needs to be up front.”

And now comes the live show. It’s time to take Confetti on the road and introduce the adult Little Birdy, fresh from the chrysalis, to the country. Do they have anything special planned? “I’m not gonna say the obvious, like, ‘Confetti falling from the sky!’ We don’t have that planned if that’s what you want. Just a good show. We’ve tried to pride ourself on sounding really good live. I don’t know, I’m not gonna lie to you and say it’s gonna be like an Elton John show.”

LITTLE BIRDY will launch CONFETTI at The Hi Fi Bar on Wednesday May 6 with support from Felicity Groom and Oh Mercy. The album will be available through Universal from May 8. www.myspace.com/littlebirdy

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