What music is for | Wallis Bird

**Elise Hu** (0:03)
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hume.
Wallis Bird was handed her first guitar when she was six months old. She's been playing music ever since. And if you've ever seen her on stage, you know she plays with a kind of energy that seems almost too big for one body to hold. Where does it come from?

**Wallis Bird** (0:26)
I just realized that it's something that was handed to me from elsewhere, something very cosmic. I feel it very strongly.

**Elise Hu** (0:33)
Wallis, an Irish musician and songwriter, took to the TED stage to perform three original songs. And afterwards, she sat down with TED's music curator, Anna Bulbrook, for a special Beyond the Talk conversation to explore her work and the stories behind the songs she performed. For Wallis, songwriting isn't really about invention. It's about listening to the world, to the cosmos, and to the songs themselves, which she treats less like things she makes than company she keeps.

**Wallis Bird** (1:00)
I consider my songs my friends, so I have a listen to what they're telling me, and I'm constantly checking in. I always try and give it a lot of respect and a lot of time.

**Elise Hu** (1:13)
What follows is a conversation with Wallis' performance woven throughout, about joy, grief, activism, and what it takes to keep making things that bring people together, even when the world gives you every reason to look away.

**Wallis Bird** (1:26)
I'd like to die on stage and people to feel like I try to be warm and inviting and hoping for a nicer future.

**Elise Hu** (1:35)
That's coming up right after a short break. And now our TED Conversation of the Day.

**Anna Bulbrook** (1:49)
Okay, we're going to start with an easy one. Tell us who you are and what you do.

**Wallis Bird** (1:53)
Oh my God, that's not easy.
My name is Wallis Bird. That's my real name. I was born in Ireland and I was given my first guitar at six months old. And I have been chasing music ever since.
I love anything to do with music. I love people that are involved in it. And I think about the rhythm of the planet and my part in it. The first song that I performed at TED was To My Bones. It's quite an old song. Should I talk about it? Yeah. Okay. It's about 15 years old. And I feel like it's my flagship song. It's the one that I wrote that makes me happiest where it's brought me and what it's given me. It's about joy and a perfect moment out with friends. And the way people have connected with it and the amount of joy that it's brought me and other people, especially kids, is really, really special to me. So, yeah, that's what that song is about.

**Anna Bulbrook** (2:53)
You want to grab your guitar?

**Wallis Bird** (2:54)
Cool.

**Anna Bulbrook** (2:57)
Maybe we can talk about how you receive transmissions.
Or maybe something you want to elucidate about a songwriting moment with one of these songs. Is there like a lick that stands out to you as like a inciting incident for one of these songs? A lick or a rhythm or a bit?

**Wallis Bird** (3:13)
Yeah.

**Anna Bulbrook** (3:14)
Something that unlocked something?

**Wallis Bird** (3:15)
Yeah, yeah.
And then I lose my mind at the end of that. It's just a mantra. It's just this keep going and keep going and go further and further and further. And I think that's just my calling. Keep going and go further. I'm not saying I'm excellent or anything, but I definitely love doing that.

**Anna Bulbrook** (3:58)
That was a really good closing line. Where did the lyric, Oh life, I love you to my bones come from?

**Wallis Bird** (4:05)
It was just a feeling. It was a feeling of ecstasy. There was this moment where we were all in a pub and it was a disco pub, and we started doing the same dance choreography at the same time. I don't know how that happened. And we were doing limbo. Like it's about this moment in a bar with strangers where the moment just felt too good to be true. And I remember just that line kept coming to me, Oh life, I love you to my bones, as if you can't handle how good the moment is. So it just came out, actually. Yeah. Hi, yeah.
So my name is Ted.
You're all very welcome to my world. And I'm going to sing you three songs. The first one is for joy. And the second one is for humanity. And the last one is for the heart. So they're real depressing. You're welcome. See you.