2010 saw their self-titled third studio release, Birds of Tokyo, spend over eight months on the Australian top 20, peaking at number two on the ARIA Albums Chart.
The album's follow-up single, "Wild at Heart", reached number one on the country's national airplay chart and won the band an APRA Award.
The album was certified gold within four weeks of release, and the triple-platinum single "Lanterns" was the most-played song on Australian radio for the first six months of 2013.
[1] Birds of Tokyo formed in 2004 from a collaboration between members of the Perth bands Tragic Delicate and Karnivool, from which Ian Kenny came.
The group formed after guitarist Adam Spark asked Kenny to sing on a handful of commercial demos.
They took their name from an article one member had read about the absence of birds in Tokyo's high-density central business district due to pollution and overcrowding.
2006 saw the band playing shows across Western Australia on a three-week tour in January, before returning to Melbourne to finish working on their first album, Day One.
[citation needed] Directly following the release, the band launched their Day One tour, playing in five capital cities around Australia.
[9] Birds of Tokyo recorded their second album, Universes, in Margaret River, Western Australia, and it was mixed in Los Angeles by Tim Palmer (Pearl Jam, Porcupine Tree).
In March 2010, they released the single "The Saddest Thing I Know" and announced an Australian tour by the same name, alongside the New Zealand band Midnight Youth.
[14] In March 2011, Birds of Tokyo announced via their Facebook page that bass player Anthony Jackson was leaving.
[18] In late April/early May 2011, Birds of Tokyo played at the annual Groovin' the Moo music festival alongside other Australian artists like Gotye, Washington, Art vs. Science, and Architecture in Helsinki.
[19] During an interview on Radar Radio, Adam[clarification needed] revealed that the band would be heading back into the studio to record their new album over the summer.
[21] Creating the record was a journey of "exploration and reinvention" for the band, telling the story of burning down the old and coming together to build something new.
It was certified gold within four weeks of release, and the triple-platinum single "Lanterns" was the most-played song on Australian radio in the first six months of 2013.
Birds of Tokyo completed a tour of Australia to accompany the release as well as performing at the 2013 AFL Grand Final and Splendour in the Grass 2013.
The band subsequently debuted a new song, "I'd Go with You Anywhere", confirming the release of a compilation album, titled Playlist, which came out in November 2015.
[citation needed] The band also performed the track at the closing ceremony of the event, on 27 October, at Sydney Super Dome.
[23] In February 2020, the band announced the forthcoming release of their sixth studio album, Human Design, which came out in April 2020.