If you don't instantly recognise the name, their song 'You're Gorgeous' is guaranteed to be something you've heard at least three times before.

Here's our interview with main man Stephen Jones!

Hi Stephen, I hope you’re well! How has your day been so far?

Gym...singing...kids...staying off the booze...bed...and repeat.

We’re seeing you return to Bristol and The Fleece soon. You last played there in February 2012. What do you remember about that last visit?

Since then we played on a boat but I can’t recall the name [Thekla - PC], but The Fleece I remember chiefly for my mum and dad coming wearing t-shirts with the five band members' heads stuck on five babybirds sat in a nest. I also remember the gig being a good one. My brother lived in Bristol and I know the docks, Clifton and Clevedon a little. It’s also near Monmouth where my family grew up.

You played a couple of shows last year after a five-year break. Did your heart attack earlier in the year prompt these shows?

It was actually a coincidence that Tim Bailey (who incidentally is based in Bristol) asked, I think without knowing about the health, would we like to do some gigs, and that’s how the December London church ones came about. Testers to see if I wouldn’t drop dead mid-song! I put my heart and soul into performing, even hyperventilating on long notes, so it was a risk but only in that I had no idea what the consequences of a mild heart attack are. And the gigs were brilliant, so it was a good step to take. Also there was, and is, no record company pressure in terms of the gigs being a tool for promotion.

Did such an event mean that you approached your writing any differently? Either in your process or thematically?

I’ve always written about the big subjects in a realistic way. So alongside marriage, kids, life, religion, love etc…….death has always been a part of my songs. The way it hovers over everything, and how life is the distraction. So in terms of my personal life, it is there, but I’ve never wanted to bore people directly with my ‘problems’ so it filters the subjects I write about subconsciously. Shit that sounds pretentious!

You have remained resolutely ‘Indie’ in the truest sense of the word for the majority of your career, self-releasing most of your catalogue. Aside from the creative freedom it affords you, why do you prefer it? (if at all?)

I’m not a fan of the word ‘indie’ being a corporate phrase like the dreadful ‘britpop’ label. I’m old enough to have caught the few years after punk, so I prefer the punk aesthetic. Joy Division, UK Subs, The Damned, Stranglers, where music was put out DIY on Flexi discs and handmade sleeves.

The internet changed that personal touch, so I prefer that creative freedom, as I'm a technological neanderthal. Even the music I write is still not much different from the way I recorded back in the late 70s, 80s, 90s, using equipment that isn’t so far removed from four track tape recorders etc and Casio organs of my youth.

There has always been a deeper, darker tone to your lyrics, examining the human condition in all its failings and base motivators (most recently on the King Of Nothing recordings). Where does that fascination come from for you?

Real life. I love David Lynch and hip hop where pretence is stripped back. Simple and minimalist. Deep dark feeling. The KON recordings deal with darkness and light. I like subverting the old-fashioned pop song and a lot of the songs include the word love, as a love-hate of all things. But essentially the music, whether it's a slow song or fast, has to be uplifting as a foundation for the lyrics. The tune has to connect immediately if possible.

Before Babybird, you were already a prolific writer with some 400 plus songs to your credit. Who were you writing for in those days?

Just for myself and friends. I’ve always written like that, without having an audience in mind. With the hits the band had, people don’t believe it, but I’ve never had an audience in mind. Even though most popular music is written for a demographic like supermarket food. Those 400 songs that appeared on the five Lo-fi albums are like a diary of me being on the dole for five years. Cries for help, time killers, desperate times but always with a sense of humour. Some of those early songs were of the time and some were silly, but the link to now is that hopefully the humour grew up and became more serious, like finding an ear in the long grass (Blue Velvet).

How do you maintain inspiration to keep producing such consistently great pieces of work?

There’s only one thing in life I can do well-ish and that’s write music, that’s it. I don’t think about it too much so I never stress or get writer’s block. Mowing the garden or emptying the dishwasher, doing taxes, driving in traffic, that’s where the complication is.

The King of Nothing Part Three teaser is available on bandcamp with the song ‘Little Kid’, what can we expect from the new album, and when do you anticipate it coming out?

KON3 came out, and already onto the next. Called ‘You and Me Is Wrong’ and there’s a seven track taster on the band camp site. The CD version sold out but will be a full download soon. I’m finishing the packages now. I hand draw and personally sign each double CD, with gifts etc. I try to release 10 to 12 CDs each year, and in the last 5 years put out 100 albums, which is insane and difficult to maintain, but so far...

What can people who have never seen Babybird expect from your live shows?

A lot of in-between song chat and sometimes mid song chat (ouch), plus on this tour a very stripped down sound. No piano for the first time in years. There is never a pattern to the gigs and they tangent off any direction and always come back to the songs, of which there are many! And I won’t be blowing my own trumpet. Very self-depreciating affair all round!