Tokyosongbird shares single ‘Songbird’ - out now!

"Songbird started it all." The genre-spanning Tokyosongbird offers about the third Tokyo single since the Welsh-born Sheffielder Justin Lewis turned his back on years of folky orchestral indie to embrace a harder, more analogue synth-layered sound. "I’d lost my way and just seemed to never finish anything, then last year I realised I might be neurodiverse, and everything changed. Songbird, and the Tokyosongbird project, appeared shortly afterwards."

To marry the soft beauty of his musical past with a more powerful, robust sound, Justin brought in help in the form of producer Dave Sanderson (65daysofstatic, Reverend and the Makers) and has worked with a range of collaborators on the 'Never Too Late' album, planned for 2025. The Songbird single features both Ruiz! (adding some very filthy fuzz bass) and Sheffield electronica royalty Hiem chiming in with a remix. Whilst it's been over a decade since Justin graced the airwaves and festival stages, the emergence of Tokyosongbird is beginning to offer something very special.

"Influences? That’s always tough. My love of The Beach Boys, Nick Drake, Stina Nordenstam, Bon Iver, Bowie, Fleet Foxes, and even REM is perhaps obvious, but I’ve also a deep love of John Grant, Radiohead, Mini Mansions, and even throwbacks like Yello and Mahalia Jackson—it’s all in there. I’m constantly listening to new stuff and right now I’m obsessed with a band called hey, nothing, just a couple of middle-America kids singing their hearts out and showing us all how this works."

Songbird is available on all good streaming platforms on 29 July 2024.