Hi everyone,

Last year was a monolithic year for us, for many many reasons. Most significantly, it signalled a return to live music. Here is a long overdue highlights reel of some of the many adventures, edited by James O'Connor (From The Pit).

Thanks to everyone for your wonderful support.

Just a quick update on the documentary and where things are at too.

When we originally launched this project in May 2021, we were in a period of time where things were open but live music was not yet back to normal. I had planned to be able to conduct all the interviews during the following few months, whilst artists were living their lives normally, albeit without touring commitments.

Obviously, what followed was the most brutal of all the lockdowns to date. I didn't want this to become a Zoom documentary and I also didn't want to impose creative obligations on artists who were just trying to get by and function like the rest of us during this 4-6 month period.

When things finally opened up again late in 2021, again, I did not feel it would be appropriate to ask artists to go straight back into interview mode. People needed to experience life, see their families and friends, have their long delayed weddings, honeymoons and holidays.

By the time 2022 rolled around, we were now faced with more issues.

A backlog of touring, releases and more. Tours were still being rescheduled (sleepmakeswaves for example) and interrupted (We Lost The Sea/The Jezabels, Chelsea Wolfe, Emma Ruth Rundle).

A worldwide vinyl supply chain squeeze which delayed thousands of records and annoyed thousands of customers. The upkeep on simply replying to emails was hours each day.

Quite frankly, it was madness. There was no way for me to properly service the artists and audiences who had waited so long for live music and also produce a documentary at the same time.

By the end of 2022, we were all finally able to take a breath and look to making the doco.

Since then, we've done over 50 hours of interviews, filmed dozens of shows and so far produced a few little snippets that you'll see in the final doco - our love letter to Dunk Festival is one of our favourites so far.

There are still a handful of interviews still to come, but we're entering the editing phase now. From here, the plan is not to delay things further and drop a massive amount of content all in one go. Rather, we're going to put out episodes as they take shape for people to enjoy whilst we work on the big one.

This is a story that continues to be written and I'm excited to share more of it with all of you.

I also want to say a big thanks (so far) to James O'Connor, Nate Hill, Andy Dowling & Simeon Bartholomew for their help with the interviews so far.

A couple of other notes:

• The full Bird's Robe 5th Birthday Concert (aka Mikefest) is now available to watch for free on our YouTube channel, along with our mini doco produced in 2021. Thanks to everyone who joined in to watch this with us during the lockdown and all of your kind words, it really meant a lot to all the artists involved and it's a big part of what's enabled us to share this with you.

• Thanks to those of you who have been patiently waiting for the BR subscription launch. It's here now and you're getting 27 additional releases for free. I know that doesn't quite make up for the wait, but hopefully it goes some way to compensating you. More news on this soon, or you can follow at birdsrobe.bandcamp.com

• Most of the past decade of Bird's Robe I have been working by myself a lot of the time - and it shows, for better or for worse. I'm really happy to say that as of 2023, the team has grown. Bridget Donnellan, Tom Gilmore & Sheree Blake have been working behind the scenes (and sometimes in front of scenes) to help level things up. Keeping overhead costs low is still super important (whilst making sure everyone is looked after), but I am confident that we'll be able to provide a much improved level of service to both artists and fans in future. They are all awesome people and truly a dream to be sharing this with.

• Feedback is always super welcome, please email, comment or DM anytime with your thoughts and ideas.

• 2024 is going to be a MASSIVE year. Stay tuned for a lot of big announcements. I'm so excited and unbelievably grateful for the opportunity to be involved with all of this. Thank you again.

best,

Mike

- Jan 2024