How did you come together?

We are a Birmingham-based band called Red Bird Sky, which was set up in mid-2010, when Bernie Maguire (vocalist) and Mike Seal (guitarist) met and started to write songs together.

Bernie had advertised on the internet for a guitarist to join her to perform at a songwriters’ festival in Belfast and Mike answered the ad ... a few months too late ... but as chance would have it it turned out they lived almost next door to each other and met up anyway.

How did you get into playing music?

Mike is a seasoned musician who started playing as a teen and had journeyed fromplaying guitar in punk bands through to double bass in the London-based Jazz band, Blue Soup.

Having recently returned to live in Birmingham from London Mike was keen to get involved in a newmusic project when he happened on Bernie’s ad. Bernie, however, had followed a very different musical path and had only started to learn to play guitar in her 40s, as soon as she knew three chords she quickly turned her hand to writing songs!

Somehow we just clicked and set up as an acoustic duo and began writing our own original songs to perform. In recent months the band has expanded to include a fiddle/mandolin player, Percussionist and Backing singer and we are currently working toward developing our own unique sound and style as a band... but at the core remain the songs.

What’s your best live experience?

We were very fortunate to go to Canada in late 2011 to record an albumat The Shell Lane Studios on Prince Edward Island. While there we got to gig in Halifax, Nova Scotia; Charlottestown, PEI and at the wonderfulVintage Bistro and Lounge in Hampton, NewBrunswick – which was a fantastic experience.

However, we still hold a very special place for our first real gig – performed at The Abri Cafe in Birmingham in January 2010 – in front of dozens of friends, family and well-wishers – it was the first time we had put our songs out there ... and the first time that Bernie ... andmany of her friends and family realised that the girl could sing!

What are you working on at the moment?

Wehave been very fortunate to recently be signed by Les King to his Treetops Records label and are just about to release a standalone, download track called, Stories on December 10, prior to our first album coming out in early 2013.

Stories is really a lullaby for adults about all the things that you want to share when you fall in love!

The album- Every Lesson In Its Turn is made up of 10 songs that we recorded in Canada and was produced by Paul Milner. So it’s exciting times for us. We are also continuing to write prolifically and develop as a band. Mike is also developing his production skills – so, hopefully, there will be another albumalong pretty soon!

Where can we catch you live?

Wehave performed at The Moseley Folk Festival, The Belfast-Nashville Songwriters Festival and on The Birmingham songwriters’ Cafe Internet Radio Showthis year and will be doing a live set on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire on December 18.

Weare generally performing at a variety of venues locally including folk clubs, theatres and art cafes in and around Birmingham and are starting to graduallymove further afield and are setting up festival bookings for 2013.

Hopefully, you can catch us inWales when we come down to see you all.

Keep in touch with Red Bird Sky online

  • redbirdskymusic.com
  • reverbnation.com/redbirdsky