NYC's Silverbird make a forceful return with "Brooklyn" [Premiere]

The dueling guitars and thudding bass that propel the song from its opening seconds give the impression of an old tenement building on fire, falling apart floor by floor as the sound layers up and intensifies. But even when the chaotic instrumentation falls away, lead singer Tim Barr’s vocals are there to pick up the torch. His voice glides on hot air, then ascends into a cracked mess as he shouts “I get high in Brooklyn” and “I don’t ever wanna die”.

That voice is smoke moving through the vent, shifting shapes and giving remnants of the past a charred, damaged quality through sheer force of smoldering will. Everything burns out with a hypoxic dream of “angels hanging out of windows” and the narrator admitting “I’ve been careless, yeah I couldn’t care less”. Try as he might to feign disinterest, however, it’s clear that only time will clear the air of ashes.

Barr says of "Brooklyn": “This is a song I wrote while living in a zen monastery. I was thinking a lot about death and trying to come to terms with my own mortality at the time. I never have an intention when writing songs, I just start singing stuff and then whatever comes out I work with it.

"Clearly there are some references from my past in there as far as some of the troubles I went through in my younger years. I sum it up as part of a bigger picture and an effort to try to see the whole mirror through a single shard of glass.”

Pureland is set for release 18 September.