Jealous of the Birds – the acclaimed musical moniker of Northern Ireland-based singer-songwriter Naomi Hamilton – has announced her new album, Hinterland, due via Canvasback/Atlantic on Friday, May 19th. Produced, engineered and mixed by Declan Legge, the album is heralded by today’s premiere of the first single, “Morse Code,” available now at all DSPs and streaming services. An official animated video – directed by filmmaker Andrew William Ralph (Lil Uzi Vert, Iggy Pop) – premieres today at YouTube. Jealous of the Birds will mark the arrival of Hinterland with a wide-ranging live schedule, beginning with a series of intimate performances across Ireland and the UK. North American dates will be announced soon.

“We often find ourselves navigating what exactly our place is in the world,” says Naomi Hamilton, “especially in our twenties and thirties. Suddenly things get serious and there’s a simmering pressure to figure things out. ‘Morse Code’ taps into that and acts as a gentle encouragement that the only thing that really matters is the fact you’re alive, so try not to overthink it and just live as best you can.”

The poet and painter, songwriter and musician – Hamilton spent lockdown working on an array of projects, including the publication of Heat of the Sun, a chapbook of forty poems and photographic work captured on a manual Canon 35mm camera. New music soon emerged, inspired in part by the untamed figure of Walt Whitman, American sensualist, vagabond and laureate of the wild spaces. Armed with potent, patient new songs like “Beginner’s Luck” and “Borderwalker,” Jealous of the Birds set to recording Hinterland at studios in Northern Ireland including Newry’s Big Space Studios and Analogue Catalogue Vintage Recording Studio. Hamilton was joined by longtime collaborator Declan Legge and JOTB core players including Peter Close (bass), Jamie Hewitt (drums), Ciaran Coyle (guitar) and Matt Evans (piano, synths), and cellist Laura McFadden, the latter of whom adds evocative melancholy to the album standout, “Quiet Blues.”

“Hinterland’ is an old Germanic word dating back to the 19th Century that literally translates to ‘behind land,’” says Hamilton. “It conjures up images of remote tundras and desolate places beyond the boundaries of what is known and explored. The past two or three years of pandemic and unrest have occupied a very liminal space for me personally, but also for the industry I work in, and more significantly for our collective humanity and planet. We are grappling with unknowns and trying to attribute meaning and action as best we can.

“This record is one person weighing up the ways in which we’re isolated from one another, with the ways we are deeply connected in perilous times. How we hold the capacity not only to be repelled by the chaos of civilization towards the peace of a hinterland, but also to be drawn out of the remoteness of our mental landscapes toward a renewed sense of belonging.”

Jealous Of The Birds
Hinterland
Tracklist

Beginner’s Luck
Borderwalker
Cynic’s Song
Morse Code
Out of Orbit
Inside/Outside
A Shárú
Quiet Blues
Not Today
Ursa Minor

JEALOUS OF THE BIRDS 2023 Tour Dates

JUNE

6 – Cork, Ireland – Wavelength
7 – Limerick, Ireland – Kasbah
8 – Galway, Ireland – Roisin Dubh
13 – London, UK – The Social
15 – Belfast, Northern Ireland – Ulster Sports Club

JULY

15 – Dublin, Ireland – Iveagh Gardens

Pre-order Hinterland by Jealous Of The Birds HERE