She is well-known for her passionate live shows and accomplished solo artistry, but Irish artist Wallis Bird is changing tack for her new album.

The Berlin-based musician’s latest project is a collaboration with German classical quintet Spark on a new album, 'Visions of Venus', which showcases a thousand years of female composers - from Clara Schumann to Joni Mitchell, Björk to Hildegard von Bingen. 

The album has just been released, so we caught up with Wallis to ask her some important questions.

1. In three words, describe the minute before you walk on stage.
Focused. Loose. Excited.

2. How do you wind down after a gig?
The buzz from onstage simply continues on until bedtime. Hug the team, chat about everyone's experience, have a drink of something, meet people, write a post about it in bed, usually fall asleep smiling.

3. What's the one song (by another artist) you wish you'd written or recorded first?
You're So Vain' by Carly Simon or 'Mandinka' by Sinéad O'Connor.

4. What is your pet peeve?
Superiority complex. Disrespect. Not thinking of others.

5. Name one record, one book and one film that everyone should hear / read / see. 
Record: Vespertine by Björk. Classical in scope, electronic by vision, lusting, and a deep rooted celestially enlightening perfect album from a modern musical icon, in the real sense of the word. There is no one who reaches like Björk - she is surefire bravery in music.

Book: 1984 by George Orwell. Terrifyingly eye opening and prophetic taste of a capitalistic political landscape we are walking into. First published in 1949, it could have been written in 2049, sadly.

Film: Soap Dish. A fab cast, comedic mastery. The storyline follows the worst kind of spoiled demigod soap stars and their dramatic pettiness intertwining, always trying to one up each other!

6. Pick the director and lead actor(s) for a biopic about your life.
Director: Alan Parker or Maggie Gyllenhall. Who would play me? Let's go with Kristen Wiig for the craic. She kills me!

7. You're ordering take-away, what do you get?
Whatever's going- I'll try anything twice.

8. Describe your perfect day off.
A walk with a friend, a swim, a lie in the grass, playing trumpet a bit, then a long fun dinner with a load of friends in our house and subsequent mad dancing sesh. Maybe all of us head to a few pubs and an early club if we're feeling too awake still.

9. Tell us, in one sentence, why we should come to your next gig (whenever it may be.)
My shows are more like a gathering. The veil between space and time is loose because I believe music and concerts are for healing, outpouring, cackling, dancing, consciousness and community - you'll be surrounded by open minded weirdos and nerds, it's a good vibe.

10. Recommend a podcast and tell us why we should subscribe to it.
I don't really do podcasts but I enjoy The Wild Geeze, for their comedic feminine bratness duo titfortat. They shirk nothing, the more awkward and tough the funnier! Esther Perel is a wonderful relationships councillor, is so kind and blunt with it and Michael Sandel is a great conversation guider who lectures philosophy from Harvard and has a lust to bring reflection and soft morality to the masculine world of commerce and career.

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'Visions of Venus' by Wallis Bird & Spark is out now.