New To Hot Press: Jealous of the Birds

Naomi Hamilton, aka Jealous Of The Birds, has been garnering quite a bit of attention for her solo songwriting project. “I only started writing songs about three years ago,” she says. “I released a little EP on Bandcamp, and then people around the Belfast music scene started hearing it. It kind of took off from there.”

With a slot at the Other Voices stage at Electric Picnic in the offing, Hamilton’s star is most definitely in the ascendant. “We played Other Voices in Dingle last year, so I’m so excited to be on that stage,” she enthuses. “I love Saint Sister, who are playing as well. The last time I saw them they were playing just as a two-piece, and now they’ve got a full band behind them.”

As for the songs themselves, Naomi leans on literary influences for inspiration. “I’m really into poetry,” she notes. “I love impressionist writers, the beat poets, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac. Also Virginia Woolf. Writing that really depends on images and metaphors, with a strong visual feel. That stuff often gets incorporated into my songwriting in some form.”

Hamilton has also been collaborating with some of Ireland’s best and brightest, having just released a new track with Ryan Vail.

“Working with Ryan was so stress-free and simple,” she reflects. “It’s been kind of weird to see how that track’s been received. We just together like, hey, let’s do this thing, and it turned out to be really cool!”