[Repost from Blood Makes Noise; March 24, 2025]
11 Short Fictions is the sophomore album from Wilmington, North Carolina band, Kicking Bird. Filled with the same jangly hooks and interwoven vocals that the band is known for, the record also dives into a soundscape and lyrical content that is much darker and heavier. “I’ll talk when I’m ready,” sings Shaylah Paul on the blistering waltz "Too Much Talking," and it seems like the band is ready to talk. Subject matter like blood spots, black magick and boathouse rendezvous are layered with far out guitar licks and carnally violent drums.
INTERVIEW (with Shaylah Paul + Shaun Paul)
Q: In your opinion, what are the essential qualities that make a “good songwriter”?
Shaylah: They write good songs. No, just kidding. To me a good songwriter possesses the ability to organize language that evokes a feeling and creates a collective experience into a melodic and rhythmic structure that people will remember.
Shaun: I feel like the best songwriters are voracious consumers of media. Everything, books, records, movies, TV, horoscopes, all of it is great for generating ideas as well as having more vocabulary and point of reference. The more stories and imagery you have bouncing around your head the larger palate you have. That's why I love how much inclusivity there is in the Wilmington music scene. So many people are creating right now in this town.
Q: What is the basis for writing attention-grabbing music in this day and age?
Shaylah: In this day and age, music grabs peoples attention by making them want to dance, fuck, cry or they think they can make money off it. But isn't that how it's always been?
Shaun: I don't think it differs from age to age. It's always going to be music that relates to shared experience. Sometimes that is something topical and very on the dot for the moment, or sometimes it's a feeling or message that could have come from anywhere or anytime. The trick is when you can be that broad but still not be vague.
Q: Can you pinpoint some specific songs and songwriters that changed the way you write music?
Shaylah: It's hard to pinpoint any specific example that changed the way I write music, but over the last year or two I've started listening to more of a diverse array of genres, including a lot more pop music. There's a stigma a lot of musicians hold over pop - that it is inherently lacking in substance, but it's way harder to write a decent, memorable hook than you might think, so it always impresses me.
Shaun: I'm very inspired by sci-fi novels. I love Ray Bradbury, Frank Herbert, and Alan Moore. Comic books are a regular part of my songwriting diet. As far as songwriters, I really love the classics. Dylan, Springsteen, Waits, Cohen, they are the greatest lyricists in American history. Nebraska, Blood On The Tracks and Death Of A Ladies Man should be required listening for anyone who wants to write lyrics.
Q: Do you find it hard to be inspired by your peers? Can you name any new artists you find inspiring?
Shaylah: Not at all. I'm inspired by them and when I hear them write and perform a great song I'm happy for them, but then I go home and try to write something better, which I think is a healthy thing a lot of people do. Locally, I'm obsessed with Chloe Torres from Pearl, an incredible voice and stage presence. And I've always been humbled and driven by Shaun's songwriting. I can't write lyrics like he does. As far as on a grander scale, new artists I find inspiring are everyone, unless I don't like it.
Shaun: I'm pushed by my peers. It's always inspiring to see anyone who feels compelled to write and share what they have created. Wilmington has a wonderful musical community. The scene has quickly grown to include some really amazing artists. I saw Taylor from The Unbearable Lightness perform a song he wrote based off of a dream with just a harmonium for accompaniment and it brought me to tears. It was shattering.
Q: For your new album, what inspired the lyrical content, album title, and overall vibe?
Shaylah: For my three songs on this record, the throughline is that they were all written with a very specific memory, or experience, in mind and I tried to transport myself into that moment and pull things out of it: the colors, the details, the encounters, what I remember versus what other people tell me they remember, and amalgamate them into the song. There's a lot of sensuality, jealousy, vulnerability, and secret confessions in this record, thematically.
Shaun: This album is very much a collection of stories. We have sci-fi, horror, fantasy, erotica, and even comics. We wanted to put together an anthology of individual tales. 11 Short Fictions is exactly that, short snippets of time.
Q: Do you find that you ruminate over writing songs and hold on to them for a long time before including them on a record? Or do you prefer to write them, release them, and be done with them? Do you ever re-visit old material to do a re-write or once it’s done it’s done?
Shaylah: For me, the best songs - or the songs that get shared with the band and make it onto the record - are written pretty quickly because something is an instant inspiration and then all the components fall together. If it takes longer, it usually starts to feel forced and contrived. From time to time, parts of an older song that never went anywhere get repurposed.
Shaun: I feel like we can tell almost instantly if a song is going to work for the band. Sometimes a phrase or concept will come back into a song in the future, but if they don't work we normally just toss them into the fire. We prefer to have the record be current music, once we write a song, we get stoked and want to share it as soon as we can.
Q: Were there any lessons you learned in the writing and recording process for your current release that you will take with you into your next project?
Shaylah: There's more of a sense of urgency in writing new material, as much as possible, and starting the recording process right away. Because the post-recording process takes a while. And, for this record, we partnered with local artists for the album and single art and I'd like to continue that for future records. It takes a lot of pressure off us as band members who aren't experts in those fields, and we love the collaborative spirit of partnering with artists in the community.
Shaun: The shorthand that we have with each other makes the process really rewarding. It's such an amazing experience to get to break these songs down to tiny parts and fill in cracks and add decorations. We have plans for a few different instruments and recording techniques that we are excited to try on the next one, but really we are just excited for 11 Short Fictions. It's something that we've worked really hard on and very much want to share.
