j dylan paul Unleashes 'i didnt ask to be a bird'

There’s something beautifully unforced about the arrival of i didnt ask to be a bird, the debut from j dylan paul.

j dylan paul Turns Vulnerability Into Resistance on Debut Album i didn’t ask to be a bird

j dylan paul’s debut album i didn’t ask to be a bird feels necessary in our day and age. An intimate, unflinching body of work that understands vulnerability not as aesthetic, but as survival. Across its runtime, Paul navigates desperation, addiction, yearning and aimlessness with a clarity that aches. Whether cloaked in metaphor or delivered with disarming plainness, the intention is the same: to make you feel it in your body.

The album unfolds in two halves. The first moves with force: driving rock tracks that build into explosive collisions of electric guitar and swelling synths. The second half strips everything back. It opens with the a cappella “take me”, a moment of startling intimacy, before dissolving into piano-led ballads where Paul’s voice sits exposed at the centre. The production softens, but the emotional intensity doesn’t. By the time the record circles back to its earlier ferocity, the return is a full-body catharsis rather than a sonic flourish.

Community is foundational to the conception of i didn't ask to be a bird. Paul is a member of Rotary, a queer collaborative art collective, and an active participant in the Discord community orbiting the band Pacing. Members of these spaces contributed artwork, writing, production and performances throughout the album’s creation. The record is textured not just by sound, but by shared presence.

Many of those collaborators belong to communities increasingly targeted and marginalised within the United States. i didn’t ask to be a bird becomes something defiant: a reminder that collective art-making is itself resistance. 

Though some demos trace back to 2017, the project took its definitive shape in 2022, when Paul was working as a mixing engineer on Pacing’s Real Poetry. After a prolonged writer’s block, sending demos to Pacing’s Katie McTigue became the turning point. Through collaboration, encouragement and shared experimentation, the possibility of a full LP began to feel real.

Paul’s background is layered. From 2019 to 2024 they were part of the synth-heavy, math-leaning duo Premises alongside Tim Stefaniak - who now returns on drums for this record. Outside of their own artistry, Paul works extensively as a mixing engineer in the EDM sphere, collaborating with artists including SLANDER, Dylan Matthew and ARMNHMR. That technical precision is present on i didn’t ask to be a bird, but it never overshadows the emotional rawness at its core.

Unapologetically leftist and outspoken in their advocacy for trans rights and anti-capitalist politics, Paul’s stance is clear. But the album’s power lies in the willingness to expose fragility without sanding it down.

i didn’t ask to be a bird feels like standing in the aftermath of something — grief, addiction, identity, history — and choosing to sing anyway. Not because it’s easy. But because silence would be worse. And sometimes, in a world that feels intent on hardening us, softness is the most radical act of all.