Blah blah blah, Carcass reunion, blah blah blah. Get to the good part.

The good part was this year at Roadburn when Firebird (yes, and Carcass) guitarist/vocalist Bill Steer — who was apparently sick as hell at the time — started belting out songs through his harmonica, drummer Ludwig Witt and bassist Smok Smoczkiewicz throwing down infectiously grooving rhythms to match every solo, chorus and verse of riffy ’70s guitar rock. Shortly thereafter, with the release of the fifth Firebird record, Grand Union, the band proved the energy they captured on stage they could easily match in the studio, providing fitting covers of Humble Pie and James Taylor alongside original highlights “Jack the Lad” and “Wild Honey” while showing the retro sect there’s more to it than vintage gear and fuzzy promo photos.

Indeed, Grand Union’s second greatest strength (the first being the songwriting) might be its modern sound. In the digital age of endless recording possibilities, Firebird sound natural, unforced and entirely void of pretense. As ever, the trio executes their material with a keen eye on hard rock’s lineage but both feet planted in the present.

Steer was kind enough to take some time out recently for a phoner to talk about the album, Firebird in general, and his plans for the future, including the revelation (spoiler alert) that he’s joined Gentleman’s Pistols on lead guitar. Enjoy.

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Firebird guitarist/vocalist Bill Steer probably wasn’t thinking there’s a chain of grocery stores on the east coast of the US called Grand Union when he came up with the title for his band’s fifth album. In all likelihood, he just went with it because it sounded cool and ’70s-ish, which, out of the context of the shopping list, it does. Produce aisle be damned.

Based out of foggy London town, Steer is probably best known as the guitarist for grind gods Carcass, and if Grand Union serves as anything, it’s a reminder of why Steer looked so damn bored on stage when I saw their reunion tour last year. Sure, he ripped through solos and shredded when it was dictated he do so, but, decked in bellbottoms and a white t-shirt, he seemed out of his element and disinterested. By contrast, when Firebird played Roadburn this April, he was excited to the point that he couldn’t stand still.

Though, to be fair, Firebird’s music is the type of classic ’70s rock that’ll have just about anyone shaking their ass. Certainly the crowd in The Netherlands was into it, and Steer — joined by drummer Ludwig Witt and new bassist Smok Smoczkiewicz — locked onto the energy as the band ran through Grand Union tracks like “Four Day Creep,” “Silent Stranger,” “Wild Honey” and Duster Bennett’s harmonica-led “Worried Mind.” New songs or old, it was good-time rock and roll, which just so happens to be Firebird’s specialty.

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