Q&A: Jade Bird Breaks the Cycle with New Album ‘Who Wants To Talk About Love?’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
JADE BIRD GETS REAL ON ‘WHO WANTS TO TALK ABOUT LOVE?’ — Jade Bird returns with her most personal and emotionally raw project to date in Who Wants To Talk About Love?, a third studio album that marks both a creative evolution and a deep internal reckoning. Executive produced by platinum-selling producer Andrew Wells, with additional contributions by Andrew Sarlo and Greg Kurstin, the album finds Bird channeling years of complex emotional buildup into a cathartic release.
Described as a “self-induced therapy album,” Who Wants To Talk About Love? is a body of work shaped by introspection, heartbreak and the long shadows cast by familial dynamics. “I wrote this album while trying to make sense of the broken relationships in my family—my parents, both sets of grandparents—and the way they echoed into my own life when my engagement ended,” Bird says. “It’s as much a question as an answer, wondering if I could break the cycle while finding my own path to forgiveness—not just from my dad, but for myself.”
What emerges is an album steeped in emotional nuance—an excavation of love, loss, resentment and ultimately, release. From the album’s title to its lyrical themes, Bird is unafraid to ask the hard questions. The result is a record that reads like a conversation with the self, one that allows space for vulnerability and transformation.
Bird’s artistic journey has always been marked by her genre-defying sound and fierce independence. Since signing to Glassnote Records as a teenager, she has experimented between Americana, indie rock, pop, soul, folk, and country without ever compromising her identity. With Who Wants To Talk About Love?, she hones her storytelling with newfound clarity, showing the same mastery of form while bringing an elevated sense of purpose and healing to the music.
The album doesn’t shy away from the pain at its core, but it also doesn't dwell in it. Instead, it’s about breaking patterns, releasing inherited grief and making peace with the past. As she unpacks generational wounds and personal heartbreak, Bird also builds a new foundation for herself—one rooted in compassion and the freedom that comes with honest self-exploration.
Who Wants To Talk About Love? is not just a powerful new chapter in Jade Bird’s career—it’s a full-circle moment. A moment where she reclaims her story not only through genre-bending songwriting, but by asking the questions that unlock her future.
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what kind of atmosphere or sonic world do you aim to create for your listeners?
JADE: I think the atmosphere of the album right now feels a lot like this conversation—intimate, open and a little raw. That’s actually why I wanted to call it Who Wants to Talk About Love? It’s the most vulnerable work I’ve created so far, at least in terms of how honest I’ve been with the songwriting. In the past, I’d write songs that were more vague—I wouldn’t really say who they were about or get too specific. But with this album, I made a conscious effort to change that. I came out of a relationship, and I wrote about it. I haven’t spoken to my dad in a long time, and that’s in there too. I just wanted to be more direct, to open the door for people to feel seen and maybe find themselves in these stories.
As for the sound, I could throw out labels like folk rock or Americana—and sonically, it is acoustic-based—but I think it goes a little deeper than genre. It’s about emotional resonance more than anything else.
LUNA: What’s the best kind of atmosphere to experience your music in?
JADE: I feel like all the albums that are closest to my heart I listen to in the car. If I'm driving somewhere and I could be going through it, or I could be feeling really great, I feel like the car for me is where I listen to all my records that are close to my heart. I would hope that in the car, my stuff sounds pretty good for other people.
LUNA: You are about to release your third record Who Wants to Talk About Love? and a huge congratulations is in order! This record touches on healing and confronting relationships with your family and your personal history. What inspired you to explore these themes and emotions and how do they show up across the project?
JADE: I think I did a lot of living. I didn't release an album for four years, and in that time, these huge life changes happened, and I was writing these songs through it, and honestly, I couldn't put out an album because I wasn't sure how it all fit together because my life felt like these puzzle pieces that weren't quite all in place yet. I don't know if that's just being in your mid 20s or what, so I think that's why it became this open ended thing. In life, you're always going through it, but that's definitely the reason it took me so long to make this record.
LUNA: Working with producers like Andrew Wells, Andrew Sarlo, and Greg Kurstin must have brought a range of creative perspectives. How did they each shape or challenge your vision for this record?
JADE: Me and Andrew Wells are together and have been for years now in the making of this record. I think it allowed me to be truly seen in the production and have an actual input in the production, unlike any of my earlier stuff, because I'm genuinely seen, for myself as a human and as an artist. That was what I feel the most excited about this record. I feel like I'm actually getting to the core of what I want to sound like, which has been a whole journey, as you can probably hear from my previous record. And then obviously, there's just these gems, like Andrew Sarlo, who I have such admiration for. He's one of the purest individuals I know—musically and just as a human being. I just feel super honored to have written and produced with those other incredible producers.
LUNA: Do you have a favorite song on Who Wants to Talk About Love? — or maybe one that feels the most personally significant to you? What about it hits closest to home?
JADE: There's this song called “Wish You Well” that finishes the record, and that's the one that's about my dad that I talk about when I play it live, because it's important to the context. The whole thing about the song is, it's about forgiveness, and I'll still wish you well. I think the reason it finishes the record, and the reason it's my favorite, is it's not something I feel like I've reached yet fully. It's this dialogue with myself as I'm playing it live and as I'm processing it. I think it forms this attachment with people who come up to me after my show and hear it, and have these relationships in their own lives that are fractured. I feel like that's some of the deepest interactions I've had with people from a song.
LUNA: Did you experience any personal breakthroughs or lessons while working on this album that have shifted how you view yourself or your artistry?
JADE: I think yes. I think this year, specifically, because of the way everything's at the minute, be it the music industry or the world, I feel this real inclination to not live in fear or to work in fear anymore. I think if you're an artist trying to sustain yourself and sustain your career, I think it's nice to create away from that a little bit more confidently, or with more assurance that this is what I do and will always do, be that to a certain success degree or whatever. I think that's been my mantra for 27 and will be until I'm in my 30s. Let's try and figure out where I can minimize fear in my work.
LUNA: Compared to Different Kinds of Light, did you take any creative risks or experiment with new approaches on Who Wants to Talk About Love? What felt different this time around in how you expressed yourself?
JADE: Different Kinds of Light I did in Nashville with a guy called Dave Cobb, who's an incredible producer, but everything we did was in the room with a band. I would take in a song, and the band would hear it and play it for the first time, and then we'd be pretty much recording it three takes in. It was this really unique experience that made for that unique record. This one has been more about going into the production a little bit more. It's not been arduous. It's not been more like how do I want the drum part to sound? How do I want to layer this vocal take? Instead of that live band sound. Risks were taken in the songwriting realm.
LUNA: Looking back on the past decade of your career, what do you think the Jade who released her self-titled debut record would say to the Jade who made this record?
JADE: I've been thinking about that recently. I know it's pretty emotional. I think she'd be really proud of this record, and it's definitely the closest I've come to being exactly what I want to say in the way I want to say it.
LUNA: What do you hope listeners carry with them after hearing Who Wants To Talk About Love?—especially those who might be navigating their own cycles of heartbreak or healing?
JADE: I hope it drives any self acceptance or healing for people out there, because it's something I definitely struggle with. I think these songs are just honest, messy confessions. If anyone hears that and goes, ‘that was a conclusion I couldn't draw for myself.’
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would like to share with Luna?
JADE: I just put on an in store tour in the UK, which is exciting. And then a couple of festivals. I've got Glastonbury in two weeks. It's being back on the road. I'm on tour with Tom Odell in September. I'm really excited about that.
