BIRDLORD interview

 Hi, BIRDLORD. Greetings from Germany! What are you up to these days? Would you please introduce your band to our readers who are not aware of your music?

Hi, and we’re really happy to be part of your community! We are BIRDLORD, a three-piece rock band from Bern, Switzerland. Genre-wise, we probably fit best somewhere in the prog-rock bubble, but honestly, we draw from all kinds of influences and sounds that we enjoy.

Our frontwoman Lily Lord plays guitar and sings, Gaia Giacomelli is on drums and vocals, and Jakob Ferber plays bass. Despite our motto of “more fuzz!”, we want our music to have more than just heavy riffs and fuzz. We love dynamics, atmospheric and quiet moments, variety, and, above all, honesty.

We write all our own songs. Usually, Lily brings in the first ideas or sketches, and then the three of us develop and shape the songs together. We have purely instrumental tracks as well as songs with lots of lyrics, in both English and Spanish.

Could you give us a little insight into the formation of the band? When and how did it happen?

At the heart of BIRDLORD are best friends Lily and Gaia, who had already been making music together for many years in another band. They actually knew each other even before that. From 2017 to 2022, they played together as "Dog Daughterz", which was their first real experience of being in a band.

Over time, however, the band grew apart, while Lily and Gaia’s shared musical vision became clearer and clearer. They wanted to explore new musical territory and create a project that would fully reflect their own creative identity.

That’s how BIRDLORD was born in autumn 2023. Claudio Wyer was initially on bass, and in summer 2025 Jakob joined the band. His background in a sludge band brought another strong influence into the mix, and the whole project became even fuzzier and heavier.

At what age did you guys start playing instruments, and since when have you been into metal music?

Lily started playing electric guitar at 16 and later studied classical guitar at high school, graduating with a music-focused diploma. For a long time, music was mainly a hobby, but for the past two years she has been studying electric guitar in Winterthur and is now taking her music more professionally.

Gaia started taking drum lessons at a relatively young age, but stopped when she was around 12. Almost ten years later, she picked up the sticks again. It was really with the beginning of BIRDLORD, about three years ago, that her passion for drums fully came back to life.

Gaia has been a passionate concert-goer since she was young, especially for punk, hardcore and stoner rock shows, and she often dragged Lily along with her. There was a legendary little venue in our hometown of Olten called Coq d’Or, which hosted a lot of stoner shows with bands coming from all over the world. That definitely had an influence on us.

Jakob has been playing bass in various bands since he was 16. He actually took a three-year break from playing before joining BIRDLORD, which brought him back to the instrument.

BIRDLORD is about to release Dreams Lie In The Eagle’s Eye. Could you tell us something about it and walk us through all the track’s lyrics and meanings?

Our debut album is a really important milestone for us. It brings together the work we have created over the past two years. Some of the songs only really came together in the studio, while others had been in progress for two or three years before we finally finished them for the album.

The lyrics are written in both Spanish and English. Spanish is Lily’s mother tongue – she is Spanish-Peruvian – so using both languages feels very natural to us.

The album deals with the growing alienation between humans and nature. Across eight songs, it explores disorientation, inner conflicts and the longing for connection – with our environment, with each other and with ourselves.

Despite the heaviness of some of the themes, the central message remains hopeful: healing begins when we learn to care for one another and for ourselves again.

How has the response been so far from listeners? Have you started working on new songs?

We’ve actually received quite a lot of feedback from people we don’t know personally, which feels pretty special to us. Of course, we owe some of that to our italian label Argonauta Records, which has a great network across Europe and has been doing a lot to promote the album. But it’s also a beautiful feeling to realize that our songs are not only meaningful to us, but seem to resonate with other people too.

It’s also been really nice to see people discovering our older songs again. Someone recently wrote to us on tiktok about “Selflove”, from our second EP Serpents Prayer, saying that they really connected with the song and that it triggered something in them. Those are the kinds of messages that mean a lot to us.

And yes, we already have new songs! We wanted to have some exclusive material for our album release show, so we played a few new instrumental tracks there. We’re going to keep working on them, and maybe they’ll turn into an EP next year. Let’s see!

When and where did you play your first gig? How was the experience of going live for the first time?

Our first BIRDLORD show was at Vario Bar in Olten, the hometown of Lily and Gaia. A friend of ours organized an event called “Doom Over Olten” with three bands.

Our setlist consisted of five songs, including a Green Day cover of “She” – haha!

It was a really special show for us because it was our first gig after the split of our previous band. Lily and Gaia hadn’t been on stage together since then, so standing up there again felt like a moment of: “Okay, let’s go. We’re doing this again!”

Finally!

According to you, what is the secret behind the band’s success?

If someone figures that out, please tell us! We certainly wouldn’t mind making a little money from music. It’s an expensive hobby, haha.

But then again, does success really mean making money?

For us, success means reaching more people and getting the opportunity to play great shows and festivals. But it also means maintaining a good relationship within the band.

Lily and Gaia learned the hard way how intense and fragile band relationships can be. A band brings together so many things at once: dreams, creative expression, personal limitations, fears, wishes, ambition and expectations. It’s kind of crazy when you think about it.

So if we had to define success, we’d say it’s about not losing the joy of making music together – and not losing sight of why you started in the first place.

Have you ever had an epic fail moment during a gig?

Yep. Definitely.

Actually, at our album release show on September 25th, Lily completely messed up the ballad. It was the first time we had ever played it live, and she simply couldn’t find or hit the notes. It happens.

And honestly, that kind of mistake is probably harder to hide than a guitar or drum mistake. At one point we skipped entire sections, and all three of us were basically in completely different places in the song.

But we just kept playing and pretended everything was totally fine.

So in the end, it wasn’t a fail. It was a success!

If asked to differentiate BIRDLORD from other rock bands in Switzerland, how would you respond?

Luckily, there are more and more women-led rock bands in Switzerland, which we’re really happy about. But we’re still a minority in the rock scene, so our perspective as three women definitely shapes BIRDLORD, not only musically, but also visually and in the way we approach being a rock band.

We have a very strong shared vision, and our friendship is probably one of the most important things that makes BIRDLORD what it is.

Musically, we love contrast. We can be loud, heavy and fuzzy, but we also leave room for quiet and atmospheric moments. We like dynamics, repetition and riffs that slowly pull you in. We’re not afraid to take our time with a song and let it develop.

And visually, we don’t really fit the stereotypical image of a rock band either. We love colour, batik, glitter and weird little details. We’re not always dressed in black, and we don’t feel the need to look dark just because we play heavy music.

I think we’re simply trying to be on stage the same people we are off stage and that authenticity is probably one of the most important things about BIRDLORD.

How compatible are the band members with each other?

Surprisingly compatible!

Of course, we have different personalities, different opinions and sometimes completely different ideas about how a song should develop. But we’ve learned that this can actually be a strength.

The most important thing is that we trust each other. We can be honest, say when we don’t like something, challenge each other and still leave rehearsal as friends.

And we genuinely enjoy playing together. I think you can hear that in our music.

Which bands/artists do you draw your influences from, and which are your favorite local bands?

Our influences are pretty diverse. We love psychedelic and stoner rock, but also progressive rock, doom, punk, grunge and alternative rock. Some bands that have influenced us include God Is An Astronaut, Acid King, Naxatras, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Tool, All Them Witches, The Aristocrats, Wind Hand, RHCP, Green Day..... but there are honestly far too many to name.

We also love discovering smaller and local bands, especially within the Swiss underground scene. There are so many great DIY bands here that deserve more attention!

One thing we really love about the Swiss scene is how interconnected it can be. You meet other bands at shows, play together, exchange contacts and end up supporting each other. That community means a lot to us.

How do you guys manage your jobs and gigs, and how often do you gather altogether just for fun?

Honestly, the three of us don’t meet that often just to hang out without music being involved.

Lily and Gaia do spend time together outside the band – usually going to concerts, playing basketball or just doing things together. But the three of us? It’s actually much more common for us to meet in the rehearsal room and jam.

Balancing jobs and gigs definitely requires some planning. We often play gigs on Fridays, which can be difficult when everyone has to work during the day. Sometimes one of us has to take time off or rearrange work.

Lily and Gaia both work part-time, partly to make enough room for music. Jakob is the only one working full-time but, as the bassist stereotype goes, he doesn’t really have any other hobbies anyway, so it works out LOL.

BIRDLORD is a very promising formation. Looking at your future, where do you see yourselves in 2 years?

Thank you for saying that! We really hope so, your word in God’s ear!

In two years, we’d love to be touring more internationally, especially in Germany, England, Spain and Italy. Hopefully we’ll be recording our second album somewhere in the middle of nature, spending two weeks doing nothing but making music. (If anyone reading this happens to have a place where three musicians can disappear for two weeks and record an album… please get in touch!)

We also want to find ourselves on the line-ups of some really cool festivals and continue growing our audience beyond Switzerland.

And on a more personal level… maybe some of us will have children by then, and they’ll come on tour with us! That would honestly be pretty cool.

Well, that’s it. Thanks a lot for your time. Could you speak out to all your fans and supporters?

Especially to the women and girls reading this and particularly to those of you who play instruments:

There’s often this feeling that you have to prove yourself even more, be even better and work even harder to be taken seriously in a male-dominated rock scene. But putting that pressure on yourself can become really harmful. It can paralyze you and, most importantly, take away the joy of playing music.

So please don’t lose that joy. Keep playing your instrument. Keep making noise. And find people to do it with.

That’s something we’ve learned ourselves: doing this together is so much easier than doing it alone. Find your people, support each other and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

And if you ever need advice, tips or simply someone to talk to about being a woman in music, feel free to reach out to us!

And to everyone who supports us: thank you so much for listening to our music, following us and coming to our shows. We know how much it means when people show up for a DIY band.

We’re a DIY band ourselves, and we try to support other DIY bands whenever we can, because we know how important that support can be.

See you at a show! <3

https://birdlord.bandcamp.com/album/dreams-lie-in-the-eagles-eye