The shopman in the antique record store is noticeably stunned after Wallis Bird finished her song “Measuring Cities” in his little first-floor music kingdom. In between Mozart records, Falco posters (yes, we are in Austria!) and Rock’n’Roll-LP’s, the haunting rendition of this melancholic, soulful song makes him want to include her records in his collection at once. Wallis Bird did not only win him over, but also the whole audience that watched her show at the Blue Bird Festival the day before. Despite being the opening act, Wallis easily succeeded in electrifying the crowd and was heavily applauded when she got back on stage two hours later for one song during SoKo’s set. After Wallis did some intense partying in the night, we met up with the 26-year-old Irish songwriter in the late afternoon the next day. As soon as we found a nice spot for her performance of “Blossoms In The Street”, the weather circumstances turned apocalyptic, including sudden cloudburst and thunderstorm during the song. Everybody was soaking wet by the end, but no one cared. Still, reason made us look for shelter in the antique record store to do the second song.

wallisbird.com