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Jan 22, 2026 By Caleb Campbell

English and Irish singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Janie Price has been recording for years under the moniker Bird, returning most recently with last year’s EP, Heads or Tales. Later this year, she is set to share her latest EP, Strange As Folk, which she teased last year with her lead single, “The Film,” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay.” Today, she’s back with an early listen to her latest track, “The Boy and The Swan,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“The Boy and The Swan” steadily unfurls from the misty folk shimmer of its opening moments, taking on an expansive arrangement colored by banjo, ukulele, strings, and swelling harmonies. Bird’s vocals flit and flutter, dancing amongst the track’s swirling string crescendos and elliptical fingerpicked acoustic riffs as the instrumentation gradually ascends toward its cinematic apex. In turn, the lyrics matches the dreamy tone with a mercurial storybook undercurrent, meditating on themes of abuse, and assimilation: “This story starts with you / The boy who walked until he found a lake / Found a swan the only one / Didn’t stop to ask it’s name / He plucked it’s feathers out / One by one until they looked the same / Then he couldn’t understand he still felt mad / Nothing really changed.”

Bird wrote the track in collaboration with Belgian artist Aqua Riyaz. “I didn’t originally write ‘The Boy and The Swan’ for myself,” she says. “I had the bones of an idea in a notebook and was introduced to the brilliant Aqua Riyaz, who shared stories about his experiences growing up. That helped shape the song. While it was written for him, the message feels universal — whether it’s about personal stories or looking at how certain countries are bullying each other right now. It feels unfortunately relevant.”

Meanwhile, Bird paired with director and performance artist Jørgen Callesen (aka Miss Fish) for the accompanying video, filmed in Denmark at Warehouse 9 in Copenhagen. Bird adds, “So here’s to all the Swans out there.”

Check out the song and video below. Bird’s new EP, Strange As Folk, is due out later this year.