Campfire is the second single from 22 year old British singer-songwriter, Frankie Bird. We’ve been taking a few listens here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today.
Campfire is about staying true to yourself and not letting anybody change you, and this young singer-songwriter seems to be taking her own advice. Moving to London in 2021 to pursue her music career and hone her skills at local open mic events, Frankie Bird is a determined performer who is clearly working hard to progress her music career.
Campfire is a gentle, acoustic folk/rock track that gently get’s Frankie’s point across. The song comes straight in with acoustic strummed guitar and layered vocals. The song quickly develops by adding drums and a bassline and the occasional electric guitar fill between the vocals.
Frankie’s vocals are clear in the mix and reminded us, just a touch, of Lene Marlin or perhaps Natalie Imbruglia. Frankie’s voice is warm and inviting and really rather endearing.
To us, this is a track that would work perfectly as a sync placement in a TV show. Many shows, especially on the BBC, are particularly searching for this kind of warm and simple acoustic track. It may be a little long for commercial air play (they can be so fussy about the “perfect length” track) but we’d definitely suggest that Frankie contacts BBC Introducing in London and other local radio and internet shows that accept acoustic singer-songwriter tracks.
From a production perspective, a couple of EQ boosts; one around 100Hz and another around 250-300Hz would add some more depth and warmth to the track. We felt there is honky tone to the guitar so a cut around 600-700Hz on the channel would help too ease this. A wide boost centred around 5kHz would make the track seem a bit more present and defined. There is very little happening above 5kHz which is most noticeable when the drum track comes in. This can make the song seem a little muted so a boost in the top two octaves would add some brightness. However, the vocal track is very sibilant in this area so resulting in some frequencies peaking through. A combination of a boost in the top end of the backing track and a cut or maybe even a de-esser in the vocal track and this song will sound a lot more balanced.
This new young artist is a great addition to the music scene in London. We are happy to see her work her way through the ranks from a grass roots level and look forward to watching her progress.