Birds and Beasts are Leo and Anna Brazil, a duo from the UK who write songs inspired by animals. Their songs relate the natural world to the human condition, featuring themes of love, betrayal, death, loss, instinct, family, survival and birth.

Birds and Beasts started writing songs together whilst visiting Anna's parents in Germany.

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“We were staying in a log cabin in the forest and ended up snowed in with a log fire, acoustic guitar and some nature documentaries on the television," Leo says. “We wrote about five songs in a couple of days, and just ran with the theme!”

Leo learnt violin and piano as a child before teaching himself guitar by playing along to Beatles records. Anna sang in choirs in Germany before moving to UK.

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Their first album together, Entwined, is a beautifully well put-together introduction to Birds and Beasts. It is an emotional record with powerful themes of loss, love and family. Leo and Anna self-penned all of the songs on the album.

Birds and Beasts have been lucky enough to share the stage with amazing artists and performers such as Romeo and Michele Stodart (The Magic Numbers), Space, Miles Hunt, Dan Sealey (Merrymaker/Ocean Colour Scene), and Chris Helme (Seahorses).

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Over lockdown, the band recorded their next album Kozmik Disko, which features a fusion of musical styles such as, folk, rock and roll, pop, blues and psychedelia.

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“We have been experimenting with electronic music and learning to use drum machines and sequencers as part of our live shows. The album was built around pre-existing songs that we then orchestrated using this technology,” states Anna.

“The songs cover quite a wide range of styles and subjects - from scorpions walking miles and miles to find a mate to ants' self sacrifice to protect their communities from disease.”

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The first release from the upcoming album Kozmik Disko is called ‘Dancemaster’. It is a perfect song to get people dancing and to raise vibrations in these times of change. In true Birds and Beasts style, the song is inspired by the flamboyant lance-tailed manakin, a bird that uses its dance to impress a potential mate. Leo explains:

“Two males will team up to perform a dance which will lead to one of them mating if the dance is judged to be impressive enough. However, this approach means that only one of the males gets to mate, one is dominant and the other ‘the wingman’ who plays a supporting role. So this song is sort of dedicated to those friends who help us to be our best; it is a song about teamwork, essentially.”

Kozmik Disko is due for release in March 2021.

Purchase the new single ‘Dancemaster’ now and pre-order your copy of Kozmik Disko online atbirdsandbeasts.net/shop.