Different Kinds of Light

The Northumberland-born star has veered from her Americana-influenced sound after – ironically – a stint in Nashville broadened her palette.

When Jade Bird began to garner attention back in 2017, she was quickly categorised as a country-folk singer; many of the Northumberland-born star’s songs were acoustic guitar ballads against Americana-tinged vocals – her first EP was aptly named ‘Something American’. But despite Bird embracing her Southern influences, she wants people to know there’s more to her as a musician. “I always felt like people were really trying to box me into a genre and a style,” she told NME in her recent digital cover story.

It’s ironic, then, that Bird found the new alt-rock sound that courses through her second album, ‘Different Kinds Of Light’, in Nashville, America’s home of country music. Now settled in Austin, and having performed onstage with American songwriting legends such as Sheryl Crow and Brandi Carlile, Bird recorded much of the album in Nashville’s famed RCA Studios alongside veteran producer Dave Cobb. The setting’s cultural aura proved to be the artist’s muse – the vessel for her to channel a more grown-up, well-travelled Jade Bird.