Birdy Bardot

San Diego-based singer and musician, known for her work with the New Kinetics, the Rosalyns, and her solo material. Emily Reilly took singing lessons from childhood, and moved from New York to San Diego in 2004 to join the surf culture. In 2010 she began exploring the local music scene, taking guitar lessons, and writing songs, and came up with the stage name Birdy Bardot. She and her husband Brian Reilly formed the garage rock band The New Kinetics, who released an EP (2010's Rock & Roll Has Got To Go) and two albums (2011's Contact and 2012's In Stereo) before breaking up at the end of 2016. Bardot and other area musicians also formed the all-female cover band The Rosalyns, paying homage to the 1960s "Girls in the Garage" sound; the band has released one EP (2014's Hide And Seek) and one album (2019's Outta Reach). In early 2014 she also started up a partnership with Al Howard of The Heavy Guilt and The Midnight Pine to work on a collaborative project which became her self-titled solo album, on which she was backed by several San Diego musicians who also make up her live band. Released in July 2015, it was the first release on San Diego indie label The Redwoods Music, which also operates as a musical collective; each release shares many of the same musicians, many of whom also have a creative and curatorial role in how the label operates. Her second album, II, followed in 2017 through the label and involved many of the same collaborators. Bardot has also performed with El Vez as one of his backing singers, the "Elvettes".