Amanda Breese, Jenna Ellefson, and Rose Gerber hail from Portland, Ore., where they formed the band Yellow Birds. Formed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the group features an eclectic mix of Americana sounds tied together by the three vocalists’ harmonies.
The band is performing April 3 at Eleven Winery on Bainbridge Island. We spoke with Gerber about starting a band during a pandemic, the Portland music scene, and the synchronicitous moment that led to the group’s band name.
The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Your website describes yourselves as three mainstays of the local music scene in Portland. How did the three of you come together to form this particular group?
We each kind of came to Portland on our own for various reasons, but also to play music. We were attracted to the music scene here. I moved here from Vermont and came here for grad school and music.
Amanda moved here from Pennsylvania. She came here for grad school and music. Jenna is from the Salem area originally, specifically Silver Falls, Ore. But she also moved up here to do music and we each found our own ways, with solo albums, solo careers in Portland playing the local scene.
From left to right: Jenna Ellefson, Amanda Breese, and Rose Gerber of Yellow Birds. (Photo courtesy of Yellow Birds)
Portland’s a small big town, so once you start playing music here you really get to know a lot of folks real quick in the music scene and start to plug into certain venues and groups. After being here a few years myself, I started a band with some folks I met. Essentially, some of the folks that I was playing with began playing with Amanda and Jenna in different capacities. And Amanda and Jenna had already met up and started doing their own duo for a while, playing on each other’s albums, performing out together, singing in people’s bands together.
And I knew about them; I’d seen them play with some of my bandmates at various shows while they were in other projects, and always loved their voices and their playing. One day I bumped into them at a venue in town here called Alberta Street Pub. I saw them play a set together and I thought their voices were just incredibly beautiful together and I wanted so badly to sing harmony with them.
After the show I introduced myself and asked if they wanted to sing sometime. This was at kind of the tail end of the heavier part of COVID. And when things lightened up a few months later, we got together in my backyard, sang some songs, and really enjoyed it, and just kept at it. That was less than a year ago. That was last April, so almost a year ago.
What style of music do you play?
I would say Americana is probably a good way to describe it. Some kind of roots, a little bit of folk and maybe a touch of bluegrass. But definitely an Americana sound, and there might be just an overall American vibe, mixing pop and folk and bluegrass, mostly centering our voices. Writing songs that carry harmonies as well.
Where does the name Yellow Birds come from?
We were getting more serious about playing out and we decided we’d get ourselves a name. I’m a very active dreamer; I have vivid dreams and I had had a crazy dream, which was kind of a funny dream, about music and it involved a yellow chicken in my guitar case. I won’t sit here and explain the whole dream to you. It’s pretty funny and epic, but it would take a long time.
So I had this dream in my head and thought, “Well, Yellow Birds might be a fun name for a band.” And I brought it up to Amanda and Jenna, and Jenna looks at me, eyes wide open, her mouth drops. She’s like, “Are you kidding me? Do you know what my personal Instagram handle is?” And at that point I didn’t, because I hadn’t known her that long. And it was “tinyyellowbirds,” because she had a dream where a bunch of yellow birds were flying out of her chest up into the sky.
And Amanda says, “Well, I was just starting to write a song about a yellow bird last week.” So we were like: Boom! Band name. That’s kind of a no-brainer.
That’s crazy. I’m really into the concept of synchronicity and things that might just be coincidences, but seem like they have a deeper meaning. That seems like such a weird synchronicitous moment. Did it feel like fate when that happened?
Yeah, absolutely. We just kind of all agreed that that was meant to be, in a way. And we have other weird synchronicities. Like, we all have G clef tattoos. But two of us have them on their neck. … I have a G clef tattoo on the back of my neck, and so does Jenna. Amanda has a C clef, I think. She’s a bass player. But we all just happen to have similar tattoos. It is definitely a nice round of synchronicities.
I imagine in terms of the sound and playing together, that fell into place pretty naturally?
I would say it did. We kind of jumped right in, so a lot of our songs are individual songs of covers, or songs we each brought to the table, because we’re each songwriters. It took us a minute to find our voice as a band. It was interesting to see it evolve as we also started writing new songs for the band. And also just learning each other’s voices, learning the songs. I would say only in the last few months have we felt like we’re coming into ourselves as a more confident, established sound. Because again, being together for only 11 months now, it’s still kind of new and exciting figuring out what we’re up to.
You’re based out of Oregon and you’re coming up to Washington; I see that in addition to Bainbridge Island, you’re also playing a show in Chimacum. Is this your first foray out of Oregon?
We play pretty extensively around the Portland area, including a bit into wine country around Oregon, so Hood River, Willamette Valley, and up to Astoria. We haven’t been able to get out of state until now. So this will be our first kind of mini Washington weekend tour.
We have been throwing around the idea of maybe trying a little extended tour to Montana or something at some point, but, you know, we’ve all got our day jobs and things, so we can’t do the 20-somethings thing and live in a house together and throw everything in a van. But we love getting out, we love road trips, and we’ll probably try to build out a couple small adventures here and there between our local shows.
How long ago did you say it was since you’ve formed?
We didn’t technically form until last May or June. We first sang together in April of 2021 and I would say we probably came up with the name Yellow Birds in May or June of 2021.
I’ve talked to a lot of people who formed bands or played music before COVID, but you guys kind of formed right in the midst of the pandemic. Was that a good opportunity to have that time to practice and refine your sound? What’s it like forming a band during a pandemic?
We all got COVID at one point after meeting each other, so we had to kind of dance around that. We just kind of pulled each other into each other’s bubbles and trusted that we’d try to be respectful of not getting each other sick. But, we sang together. Since we met kind of toward the end of the first wave of seeing things open up for our first few months together, we had that privilege of getting out and playing some gigs and being in the same room together and singing.
But then, we’ve been together about nine months, or 10 months, I’d say, and two or three of that was hampered pretty well by COVID realities and by getting sick. We try to be mindful of not putting too much pressure on ourselves. It was a joyful experience for everyone, but some of us are in two or three projects outside of this band, and between our day jobs and the rest of our lives, we are often feeling overtaxed, so we want Yellow Birds to really be something we look forward to and not a chore. That means taking our time, building out our sound the way we want to, picking the gigs we want to do, not trying to pressure ourselves to get out there just for the sake of getting out there. So in that respect, it’s been a nice organic evolution and low pressure. It kind of goes with the Yellow Birds joy and fullness of the dreams and ethos we founded the band on.
To what extent has social media been a tool to get your name out there? Has that been a big thing for you?
Yeah, I’d say we’ve gotten a few followers here and there from around the country, and maybe a few in Nashville, and the northeast where my folks are — I’m from the northeast, so a lot of my old friends have followed me on there and become fans.
I built out a website for us and I get to track who’s visiting from what platforms and where in the country. We seem to be getting a few hits here and there from different places. But again, we’re so young and new as a band, so we’re still trying to build that audience. Social media is definitely a great tool for it, for sure.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
We recently recorded a few songs, which are new for us. They’re on our website. It’s kind of our first attempt at getting some actual music people can listen to together. It’s on Bandcamp as well. We’re excited about that.
Yellow Birds performs 1-4 p.m., April 3, at Eleven Winery, 7671 NE Day Road W., Bainbridge Island.
Learn more about Yellow Birds on the band's website, or check out their music on Bandcamp.
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