Little Birdy were an Australian

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band formed in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia, in 2002 by singer and guitarist

Katy Steele Katy Elizabeth Steele (born 9 September 1983) is an Australian singer, guitarist and songwriter of the four-piece rock band, Little Birdy. Biography Steele was born Kate Elizabeth Steele and has a fraternal twin brother, Jake. She and her brot ...

, drummer Matt Chequer, guitarist and keyboardist Simon Leach, and bass guitarist Scott O'Donoghue. They gained public attention when their single "Relapse" gained popularity on

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

radio stations such as

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

, leading them to be signed by the record label Eleven: A Music Company. They released three studio albums (all three of which entered the top ten in the

ARIA charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

), two EPs, and ten singles.

Early history

's father Rick Steele is a local blues musician in various cover bands, and her brothers Jesse and

Luke People *Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known as ...

were both members of

The Sleepy Jackson The Sleepy Jackson are an Australian alternative rock band formed in Perth, Western Australia. The band's name was inspired by a former drummer who was narcoleptic. The band revolves around the distinctive vocal style of multi-instrumentalist ...

. Jesse left the band in 2000. Steele was the singer-songwriter and guitarist in her band, The Plastik Scene. A friend of Luke's, Simon Leach, heard Steele singing at her brother's 21st birthday party. "Katy was always there... She was around 15 when I saw her sing. Three years later, Katy and I were playing together." Steele left her band and, with Leach as drummer, they performed several gigs as a duo. Scott ('Barney') O'Donoghue later offered to play bass guitar. Leach became tired of percussion and began playing guitar when Matt Chequer joined on drums. In 2002 Little Birdy was formed, named after the

Ween Ween is an American rock band from New Hope, Pennsylvania, formed in 1984 by Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, better known by their respective stage names, Gene and Dean Ween. Generally categorized as an alternative rock band, the band a ...

song of the same name. A demo, leaked to radio, was played on alternative stations. A friend of the band dropped a copy at band manager Phil Stevens' home (manager of

The Waifs The Waifs (originally styled as The WAiFS) are an Australian folk rock band formed in 1992 by sisters Vikki Thorn (harmonica, guitar, vocals) and Donna Simpson (musician), Donna Simpson (guitar, vocals) as well as Josh Cunningham (guitar, vocal ...

John Butler Trio The John Butler Trio are an Australian roots/rock band led by guitarist and vocalist John Butler, an APRA and ARIA-award-winning musician. They formed in Fremantle in 1998 with Jason McGann on drums, Gavin Shoesmith on bass and John Butler on vo ...

and

The Flairz The Flairz were an Australian garage rock band from Perth. They were formed as a trio in late 2003 by pre-teens, Dion Mariani on guitar, bass guitar and vocals, his cousin, John Mariani on guitar, bass guitar and vocals, and Scarlett Stevens on ...

). Stevens offered his management services. The band supported

Placebo A placebo ( ) is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like Saline (medicine), saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. In general ...

Morcheeba Morcheeba is an English electronic band formed in the mid-1990s with founding members vocalist Skye Edwards and the brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey. They mix influences from trip hop, rock music, rock, folk rock and downtempo, and have produced ...

, and

The Superjesus The Superjesus are an Australian rock band formed in Adelaide in late 1994. Their debut album, ''Sumo'' (February 1998), peaked at No. 2 on the ARIA Albums Chart, their second album, ''Jet Age'' (October 2000) reached No. 5 and their ...

in Perth concerts. A home recording of one of their songs won a WAMi Award for "Indie-Alternative Song of the Year".

, a national radio station, started playing an early version of "Relapse", while local Perth radio station

Nova 93.7 Nova 93.7 (call sign: 6PER) is a commercial radio station in Perth, Western Australia. Jointly owned by NOVA Entertainment and Australian Radio Network, it was established in the Perth market on 5 December 2002. Nova 93.7 was launched at 3pm b ...

aired a demo of "Baby Blue". As a result of independent media coverage and radio playing demos, Australian labels sought to sign the band. Little Birdy opted for the independent

Eleven Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12 * one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *'' ...

label with distribution through

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

. Steele, along with Leach, who was a

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

, quit their jobs and became full-time musicians after the signing.

Recording career

Little Birdy released their self-titled debut EP ''

Little Birdy Little Birdy were an Australian alternative rock band formed in Perth, Western Australia, in 2002 by singer and guitarist Katy Steele, drummer Matt Chequer, guitarist and keyboardist Simon Leach, and bass guitarist Scott O'Donoghue. They gaine ...

'' in October 2003, which peaked at No. 27 on the ARIA Singles Chart. "Relapse" reached No. 16 on the

Triple J Hottest 100 The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music listener poll hosted by the publicly-funded, national Australian youth radio station, Triple J. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite Australian and alternative music of the ...

and "Baby Blue" attained No. 25. In September, Steele, in an interview on Whammo.com.au, described the band's progress: "I think we've already written a lot of the first album already. A lot of songs we play live would be awesome if they were recorded". The band played gigs in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

later that year, with interest from international record companies. Their second EP, '' This Is a Love Song'', was issued in March 2004 and debuted at No. 22. Also in that month, Steele won the inaugural Jessica Michalik Contemporary Music Award, presented by

The Big Day Out The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typically in January of eac ...

. At the

ARIA Music Awards of 2004 The 18th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply the ARIAs) were held on 17 October 2004 at the Sydney Superdome within the Sydney Olympic Complex. The ceremony, hosted by Ro ...

, "Relapse" was nominated for 'Breakthrough Artist - Single'. In October, the band released their debut album, ''

BigBigLove ''BigBigLove'' is the debut studio album by Australian indie rock band Little Birdy, released in Australia on 4 October 2004. It reached number 5 in the ARIA music charts and was certified gold less than a month after its release. The album was ...

'', which was produced and engineered by

Paul McKercher Paul McKercher is an Australian record producer, audio engineer, sound mixer and multi-instrumentalist. He has received five ARIA Artisan Awards and has produced over 50 albums. McKercher has worked with Australian artists Josh Pyke, Ber ...

( The Cruel Sea, Spiderbait,

Augie March Augie (sometimes spelled Auggie) is a nickname for variations of the name August, which derives from the Latin name Augustus. It may refer to: People *Augie Auer (1940–2007), meteorologist *Augie Galan (1912–1993), Major League Baseball play ...

) and peaked at No. 5 on the ARIA Albums Chart. It contains new versions of "Beautiful" (renamed " Beautiful to Me") and "Relapse", and includes "I Should've Known" with its original title of "Andy Warhol". The album received generally positive critical reviews. Two tracks reached the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2004, "Beautiful to Me" at No. 8 and " Tonight's the Night" at No. 78. Another track, "This Is a Love Song", taken from their '' This Is a Love Song'', attained No. 40. In 2005, at the WAMi Awards, Steele won 'Best Female Vocalist' and "Beautiful to Me" won 'Most Popular Music Video'. Additional nominations were, Leach for 'Best Guitarist', the band for 'Best Popular Act', 'Most Popular Commercial Pop Act' and 'Best Indie/Pop Act', and ''BigBigLove'' as 'Most Popular Album'. At the

ARIA Music Awards of 2005 The 19th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAS) were held on 23 October 2005 at the Sydney Superdome at the Sydney Olympic Park complex, thus continuing the pre ...

, ''BigBigLove'' was nominated in four categories: 'Breakthrough Artist - Album', 'Best Rock Album', 'Producer of the Year" (McKercher), and ' Engineer of the Year' (McKercher). Also that year, Little Birdy's version of "

Six Months in a Leaky Boat "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" is a song by New Zealand art rock group Split Enz. It was released in May 1982 as the second single from the group's seventh studio album, '' Time and Tide''. The title is a reference to the time it took pioneers to ...

" from the tribute album, ''

She Will Have Her Way ''She Will Have Her Way'' is a compilation album featuring female Australian and New Zealand musicians performing songs written by Neil Finn and Tim Finn ( The Finn Brothers), members of Split Enz and Crowded House. A follow up album, '' He W ...

'', of

Neil Neil is a masculine name of Gaelic and Irish origin. The name is an anglicisation of the Irish ''Niall'' which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "honour" or "champion".. A ...

and

Tim Finn Brian Timothy Finn (born 25 June 1952) is a New Zealand singer and musician. His musical career includes forming 1970s and 1980s New Zealand rock group Split Enz, a number of solo albums, temporary membership in his brother Neil's band Crowd ...

songs performed by female Australian and New Zealand musicians, reached No. 96 on Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2005. During 2006, the band recorded tracks for their second album, '' Hollywood'', which peaked at No. 9 in October. The first single was "

Come on Come on ''Come On Come On'' is the fourth studio album by American country music artist Mary Chapin Carpenter. Seven of its tracks became ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles hits in 1992, 1993, and 1994. They were, chronologically, "I Feel Lucky" at #4, "N ...

", in September, which reached No. 18 – the group's highest charting single to date. It was placed 11th on the

Triple J Hottest 100, 2006 The 2006 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on Australia Day, 26 January 2007. It is the fourteenth such countdown of the most popular songs of the year, as voted by listeners of the Australian radio station Triple J. Voting began on 1 January ...

. In 2008, the band relocated to Melbourne and started recording a third album, ''

Confetti Confetti are small pieces or streamers of paper, mylar, or metallic material which are usually thrown at celebrations, especially parades and weddings. The origins are from the Latin ''confectum'', with ''confetti'' the plural of Italian ''co ...

'', which they released in May 2009 and peaked at No. 6. A website was created for previews of new recordings and videos of studio sessions. The album was self-produced and the band worked with engineer-mixer Steven Schram. It was nominated for 'Best Adult Contemporary Album' and 'Engineer of the Year' (Schram) at the

ARIA Music Awards of 2009 The 23rd Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) took place on 26 November 2009 at the Acer Arena at the Sydney Olympic Park complex. The ceremony was telecast o ...

. In February, they issued a music video for the first song, "Brother". The song features Paul Kelly on backing vocals and harmonica. ''Confettis first official single, "Summarize", was released in April, it was followed by "Hairdo" and "Stay Wild". In February 2010, Chequer announced on the band's website that Steele moved to New York and expected to work on her debut solo album, Leach was working on solo material, O'Donoghue was working with other bands, and Chequer himself was doing production work. Steele trialled some solo material at four Australian concerts in May.

Touring

Little Birdy undertook their own concerts throughout Australia in 2004 and 2005. They supported

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternati ...

during the Australian leg of their world tour in 2005. Little Birdy appeared at national festivals in 2007, including

Falls Festival Falls Music & Arts Festival (commonly known as Falls) is a multi-day music festival held annually in Lorne (Victoria), Marion Bay (Tasmania), Byron Bay (New South Wales) and Fremantle (Western Australia), Australia over the New Year's Eve ...

, Big Day Out, Sonic Bloom Festival, Southbound (in

Busselton, Western Australia Busselton is a city in the South West region of the state of Western Australia approximately south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destination for Western Australians; however, the closure of the Busselto ...

), and Great Escape Festival (Sydney). Little Birdy appeared at

Sound Relief Sound Relief was a multi-venue rock music concert held on 14 March 2009, which was announced by the Premier of Victoria, John Brumby on 24 February 2009. The event was organised by Michael Gudinski, Michael Chugg, Amanda Pelman, Joe Segreto & To ...

at the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...

in March 2009, which was a benefit concert for victims of Victorian bush fires and Queensland floods.

Members

* Matt Chequer – drums, percussion * Simon Leach – guitar, synthesiser,

steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...

* Scott 'Barney' O'Donoghue – bass guitar, vocals,

melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usual ...

, harmonica *

– vocals, guitar * Fergus Deasy – keyboards, vocals, synthesiser, guitar

Discography

; Studio albums * ''

'' (2004) * '' Hollywood'' (2006) * ''

'' (2009)

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

The

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of

Australian music The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions of ...

. They commenced in 1987. ! , - , 2004 , "Relapse" , ARIA Award for Breakthrough Artist - Single , , , - , rowspan="4" ,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, rowspan="2" , ''BigBigLove'' ,

ARIA Award for Breakthrough Artist - Album In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

, , rowspan="4" , , - ,

ARIA Award for Best Rock Album The ARIA Music Award for Best Rock Album, is an award presented at the annual ARIA Music Awards, which recognises "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", since 1987. It is handed out by the Australian Recording Indust ...

, , - , rowspan="2" ,

for Little Birdy's ''BigBigLove'' ,

ARIA Award for Engineer of the Year The ARIA Music Award for Engineer of the Year, is an award presented within the Artisan Awards at the annual ARIA Music Awards. The ARIA Awards recognise "the many achievements of Australian artists across all music genres", and have been given ...

, , - ,

ARIA Award for Producer of the Year The ARIA Music Award for Producer of the Year, is an award presented within the Artisan Awards at the annual ARIA Music Awards. The ARIA Awards recognise "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", and have been given by t ...

, , -

WAM Song of the Year

The

WAM Song of the Year WAM was originally formed as the Western Australian Rock Music Industry Association Inc. (WARMIA) in 1985, with its main aim to develop and run annual awards recognising achievements within the music industry in Western Australia. WAM first receiv ...

was formed by the Western Australian Rock Music Industry Association Inc. (WARMIA) in 1985, with its main aim to develop and run annual awards recognising achievements within the music industry in Western Australia. , - , 2003 , "Andy Warhol" , Indi Pop/Rock , , -

West Australian Music Industry Awards

The

West Australian Music Industry Awards The Western Australian Music Industry Awards (commonly known as WAMis) are annual awards presented to the local contemporary music industry, put on by the Western Australian Music Industry Association Inc (WAM). The WAMi Awards are Western Aust ...

(WAMIs) are annual awards presented to the local contemporary music industry, put on annually by the Western Australian Music Industry Association Inc (WAM). Little Birdy won five awards.2005 West Australian Music Industry Award Winners
(wins only) , - , rowspan="2", 2003 , Little Birdy , Most Popular Local Original New Act , , - ,

(Little Birdy) , Most Popular Local Original Female Vocalist , , - , rowspan="2", 2005 , "Beautiful to Me" , Most Popular Music Video , , - , Katy Steele (Little Birdy) , Best Female Vocalist , , - , 2006 , Katy Steele (Little Birdy) , Best Female Vocalist , , -

References

External links

* {{Authority control Australian indie rock groups Musical groups established in 2002 Western Australian musical groups Musical groups from Perth, Western Australia 2002 establishments in Australia