Babybird

Baby Bird, aka Stephen Jones was enjoying cult status among keen music lovers and fickle critics in the mid-1990’s until something happened that changed everything…mainstream success.

Creative by nature, Jones advanced his artistic talents at Nottingham Trent University. Upon graduating with a degree in creative arts, Jones received a grant from the Arts Council. With it, he started Dogs in Honey, an experimental theater group that Jones called “anti-theater” taking on such light subject matters as nuclear war. It was during this time, composing soundtracks for the company’s controversial productions, on a 4-track paid for by the Council that Jones realized his true love was for music.

Armed with incredible gifts for crafting sunny, unforgettable melodies and whip-smart lyrics, and a heart-melting voice that’s been likened to Bono and Ian McCulloch, Jones quickly built a loyal underground following, including McCulloch, himself. “The first time I met Ian McCulloch, he pulled me into his dressing room and locked the door. I really thought he was going to kill me since I had been compared to him. Instead he walked over to me, poured a half-liter of Jack Daniels into my beer and told me he was a fan.”

The lo-fi releases garnered a tremendous amount of critical acclaim from all the major publications including Melody Maker, NME, The Guardian and The Independent. When the final lo-fi album, Dying Happy was released in 1997, the series – meant to represent an entire lifecycle of a man - was finally completed. Eventually all five albums were repackaged into a boxed set, in 2002 by Sanctuary, called The Original Lo-Fi. Not surprisingly, the set received tremendous praise including the All Music Guide which raved, “The Original Lo-Fi should cement Baby Bird’s reputation as one of the finest experimental pop artists of his time...Written, performed, and produced as only Stephen Jones is capable of, the songs are easily among the finest musical confections of a generation.”