She may ask ‘what’s up’ as she croaks through the early Perth morning, but in reality it’s more the other way around – it’s Katie Steele as the front person of Little Birdy who has the stories to tell, with bears in there, and chairs as well. Oh, and keyboards, lotsa, lotsa keyboards; the band’s comeback single from forthcoming sophomore album Hollywood is festooned with the things.

“It’s our keyboardist who’s doing all the hard work,” she says of the band’s rehearsals for their future tour around the nation. Fergus may have been with the band since debut Big Big Love, but his presence is far more pronounced on the likes of “Come On Come On”. “It wasn’t as up front as it was on this record,” she says in reference to Hollywood, “but he’s involved a lot now because he’s singing as well on the harmonies, and he adds another voice. We’ve been pretty busy getting art together and mastering finished.”

The keys have certainly been pushed further up in the mix on the likes of “Come On Come On”, and Katie says that it was something that Little Birdy felt they needed to do, and the direction that they wanted to take for their sophomore album. “We wanted to make a really synth-based record,” she states, “and make it really dirty, and heavy, and raw – with a really rock-based sound but really edgy at the same time. That’s where we wanted to take it, and that’s the really broad idea that we had. It was more Simon playing what he’d normally play on guitar and shifting it to synth, and changing it a bit.”

Given that that sort of sound has become in vogue in recent times, it’s interesting to ponder whether or not Little Birdy worried about accusations that they’d be cashing in on the fad of `80s new-wave bands at the moment. It’s a query that causes Katie to pause. “I hope not. We really don’t want to get chucked in with that,” she says in stilted tones, before making a statement about the sort of bands that make that sort of sound. “I really like to think that we’ve got the songs, and that at the end of the day is going to kept us getting chucked into that because a lot of those bands don’t have the songs. A lot of those bands it’s about the sound, and there’s not as much focus on the songwriting which is what we pride ourselves on. I like to think what we’ve done is different to a fad, because I don’t think it sounds `80s at all; I think the record sounds new-age.”

When it came to recording the album, Little Birdy decamped to America and worked on it John King, one half of famed production duo the Dust Brothers, who have worked with the likes of Beastie Boys and Beck. They also had engineer Cliff Norrell, who worked on such humongous records REM’s Automatic For the People and Jeff Buckley’s Grace. Working with two big names like that puts a certain amount of pressure on Katy as the songwriter, and the success of the album itself.

“It doesn’t now, but at the time I certainly felt under a bit of pressure,” she says of the recording experience. “I felt really intimidated, and pretty intense to be in the studio that long and deal with what you deal with when you’re working with people like that. They’ve got a high expectation on you. I got home with quite a tired head because you’re thinking the whole time about if you’re performing to your utmost ability, and at the end of the day it was a challenge, and that’s the thing – you challenge yourself and it’s a great opportunity.”

She is unsure as to whether or not the single is a good indication of what’s to come. She says that for Little Birdy every song is going to be different, and every single song on the album is a little puzzle in its own right, and that the next single will be pretty different but in the same realm – in other words, it will have a lot of synth to it.

Having demoed all the songs for a good six months, Little Birdy then spent a good six weeks in L.A. It’s certainly a far more intensive work schedule than on debut Big Big Love, but Katy assures that there are some similarities between the two releases. “I think I’m always going to write a similar style of song, and I think you can hear similarities in the songwriting between the two albums,” she assures. “As a band we’ve all got our own style, and as players you can see similarities, but I think we sound like a completely different band now, and we’re hoping that with the next album we take another leap and change it again. I’d like to strip it back on the next album and do a real country sort of album, like a Harvest Neil Young thing.”

Not THAT would suit Little Birdy, and Katy’s singing style in particular. “I write those sorts of songs all the time, but they just don’t fit in, or at least not on this album.”

The first challenge is now melding the new material with the old in the live setting. “That’s what this tour is about – playing the old songs and introducing about seven of the new, so it’s not too overwhelming and old fans won’t be too goshed by it.”

When recording, this was not something that Little Birdy thought about – they had to worry about themselves as songwriters and performers, rather than think about how pre-existing fans would embrace the ‘new’ Little Birdy. “They were attracted to something and we’re still the same band – I’ve still got the same voice, and everyone still plays. It’s still Little Birdy, but it’s just a bit different. Life’s about surprises, and if they don’t want to get surprises then that’s their bad luck.”

Littly Birdy’s new single “C’mon C’mon” is out now, with Hollywood out in October. Dates:
SEPTEMBER
Saturday 2 - Newcastle Leagues Club, Newcastle
Tuesday 5 - The Zoo, Brisbane
Wednesday 6 - The Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay
Friday 8 - Fowlers Live, Adelaide
Sunday 10 - Peninsula Lounge, Mornington Peninsula
Tuesday 12 - Rubys Lounge, Belgrave
Wednesday 13 - Corner Hotel, Richmond
Friday 15 - Prince of Wales, Bunbury
Saturday 16 - Amplifier Bar, Perth