[Repost from V13; by Aaron Willschick, February 1, 2025]
There’s a good story behind “What Did You Expect (with Such A Beautiful Wife),” and Kicking Bird would love to share it. The band has arrived today with the premiere of their brand-new single. It comes from their forthcoming new full-length record, 11 Short Fictions.
This is the first song from the band’s highly anticipated sophomore effort, coming April 4th on Fort Lowell Records. It’s the follow-up to their 2023 debut album, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, with more of that jangly, upbeat indie rock you’ve come to expect from the band.
Commenting on the song, frontwoman Shaylah Paul states:
“‘What Did You Expect (with Such A Beautiful Wife)’ is based on real people and a real place. But none of it is true. Like most of my songs, it’s rooted in my debilitating nostalgia for the past. When I write I try to focus on a memory and zero in on a place, the people in it, how things looked, and what I knew (and didn’t know) about everything in that moment.
“Before I moved to Wilmington from Chicago, I managed a second-run, artsy movie theatre. ‘What Did You Expect (with Such A Beautiful Wife)’ is loosely inspired by my time there. The old men in the neighbourhood who made me keep the lights on until they’d had enough of their expensive, secret tequila, a desultory crush on the guy in the ticket box, and a despicable yet charismatic adulterer who led a double life.
“If you asked about a specific line, I might able to say ‘I’ll tell you exactly who that’s about.’ The rest is just patchwork. I love singing songs like this that even if the audience doesn’t get it, it transports me back to how that moment in time felt, in all senses.”
Discussing the recording process, Paul tells us:
“We recorded this before the band had played it live, so it really became a complete song in the studio. I don’t think I was there the day Robin laid his lead guitar down, so when I heard his parts I was like ‘oh ok!’ In a good way. It’s cool what having five musicians with unique points of view can do to a song from the onset to the finished product. And recording vocals, we usually do mine last and Tom (who records us) is great to work with because he doesn’t hesitate to say ‘I think you can do it better’ and he suggests the best ways to double vocals (or not).”
We previously got to know Kicking Bird a couple of years ago when guitarist Shaun Paul joined us for a High Huddle interview. That was around the time of the release of Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. The band worked hard to ensure there would not be a significant gap between their debut and its follow-up. 11 Short Fictions was recorded in the same style as its predecessor, but this time, the soundscapes are a little more diverse, and the lyrical content is darker and heavier. You’ll hear about topics as unexpected and random as blood sports, black magic, and boathouse rendezvous.
Featuring, you guessed it, eleven tracks, the album title implies the storytelling element of the record. That’s why much of the subject matter is on the racy or even scandalous side. The band shows both a cheeky and a daring side at the same time. It’s just another step in the evolution of Kicking Bird.
