Wallis Bird (born 29 January 1982) is an Irish musician. She has released a series of studio albums, including Architect in 2014 and Home in 2016. Bird was apparently two years old when she got her first guitar. From age 11 she has been involved in diverse projects, musically and otherwise, having written soundtracks to and acted in short films and plays. Bird has been gigging on the Irish music circuit since the age of 17, playing a catalogue of gigs from tiny, smokie, dim-lit bars to big bri...
Wallis Bird (born 29 January 1982) is an Irish musician. She has released a series of studio albums, including Architect in 2014 and Home in 2016.
Bird was apparently two years old when she got her first guitar. From age 11 she has been involved in diverse projects, musically and otherwise, having written soundtracks to and acted in short films and plays. Bird has been gigging on the Irish music circuit since the age of 17, playing a catalogue of gigs from tiny, smokie, dim-lit bars to big bright festivals; all building up her reputation as a confident performer with songs written in many styles ranging from folk to rock to jazz to contemporary.
At the age of 1, Bird had an accident which cut all her fingers from her left hand. From this, she then began to start over with her guitar playing at the age of 4, but this time she learned to do it the way she is noted for now...a right hand guitar played upside down: "Nobody ever showed me how to play the guitar properly! So I just kept going with it and developed my own style. I only have 4 fingers, but I feel like it is my special "mojo" so I'm very proud of it!"
She began to play with various bands and groups before going solo. Through music college in Ballyfermot "rock School" in Dublin, Ireland, she was given the chance to attend a European music workshop in 2005 that was to change her life: "When I got to Hammelburg in Germany, where the European music workshop was, I thought that it was going to be a week of drinking and maybe a little music, I never expected it to turn out the way it did!"
"I was assigned a band and we were thrown in at the deep end to get as many songs together as possible to perform a concert at the end of the week. So it was a total shock for me, I had never worked so hard and so intensely, but it made me open my eyes to the possibility of my music, I had never heard it being played that way, so I just knew that the feeling in my heart was right - I wanted to follow this band. I felt right from the start, so now I'm living together with the band in Germany to be close , and I have no regrets."
So far things have been going upwards, and the feeling is right which is evident in the music Wallis plays to this day, it is more mature, and sure of its direction. Definitely a sign that you should follow your heart, even if it means moving to a different country and leaving Ireland, the country she loves!!!
"I just got up and went, I knew I really like the guys, we instantly had a great connection and they felt strongly about the music, so I knew that I couldn't just let this chance pass, otherwise I would always be wondering ...but now I'm wondering "what next? It's the most exciting time of my life!" Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
