CMU Approved

Approved: Kills Birds

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 25 October 2018

Nina Ljeti and Jacob Loeb began writing songs together because they wanted to vent to each other, rather than anyone else. Actually letting people hear their music was an idea that came later. That feeling of just getting something out comes across powerfully in their debut single, ‘Worthy Girl’.

“Kills Birds started because Jacob and I wanted an outlet from all the frustrations we were feeling as artists in Los Angeles”, says Ljeti. “It was just something we did together organically – we’d meet up at each other’s apartments and write these funny songs that felt like little secrets. Getting Bosh [Rothman, drums] and Fielder [Thomas, bass] on board came out of a desire to just hear our music our loud. Everything else came after that”.

The band have an album recorded, put to tape by producer Justin Raisen (Charli XCX, Angel Olsen, Kim Gordon), in the space of eight hours. He explains: “The moment I heard their music I was like a magnet to the stage’s front. I looked up at Nina mesmerized by her absence. She wasn’t with me. She had gone somewhere else outside of herself. I rarely see that anymore – artist’s truly losing themselves. It was refreshing … I knew then I wanted to work with this band”.

“I spoke with Nina after the show and we exchanged phone numbers”, he goes on. “It felt like I just traded numbers with Kurt Cobain or something. After some thought, I proposed to the band recording a whole LP live in my studio behind my house (one room, no isolation) and added it was the only way I was interested in doing it. A few months later this took place. Drums, bass, guitar and vocals bleeding into each other in one room all together was the only way I felt I could try to recapture what I experienced while seeing them live. For me, it was the only way”.

Listen to ‘Worthy Girl’ here:

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