| "When I was a kid it didn’t occur to me to be a professional musician," says Andrew Bird who began playing the violin when he was four years old. It’s a good thing that he was eventually struck by this possibility, because it has resulted in Bird becoming one of his generation’s most resonate songwriters, generously sharing some of the most delicate and powerful pop tunes with urbane music fans.
Although he is still a little bit of a secret, the 2005 release Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs attracted a great deal of attention – even more than the acclaimed Weather Systems from 2003. Thus, anticipation for his latest, Armchair Apocrypha released last month on Fat Possum records.
A beautiful ode to the gentle science of crafting music, the sounds this Bird makes are rich, simple, layered and natural, intimate and commanding, which is an incredible range for man or band alone.
"I wanted to create action-packed three-and-a-half minute pop ditties. I wanted to unfold them and create phrases that are longer and use my voice more like a beam of sound... I prefer to hear a singer that is filling a space, filling a room with their voice, not just singing for the microphone."
Committed to what can only be described as an organic process, Bird seems to be in a place of constant discovery, all the while never rejecting other methodologies.
"You know it’s tempting when you get into the studio to just do every little part as an overdub, which gives you the ultimate control, but doesn’t always give you the greatest feel. So we decided to go with the live approach even though it can be a headache later to get it to sound right, but I think it works better, ultimately."
That control can be difficult to relinquish, particularly if you are used to working on your own. Not until recently has Bird opened the door to collaborative performance with musicians Martin Dosh and Jeremy Ylvisaker, both of whom appear on Apocrypha.
"I think I found the right people to play with and I want to try and open up and try jamming again, which is something I have come to hate doing," he confesses. "But I think I can trust that they are not just going to play what they think I want them to play. They are going to come up with something that’s unusual that isn’t referencing other moments in pop history."
Now in a deliberately liminal state between being unaccompanied and loving company, this artist has learned more about himself and what he’s capable of.
"I think it’s the extremes of stimulus and solitude – it’s the combination of those two that create these songs," he says. "I want to make sure I’m not neglecting that kind of dynamic. I think the solo thing will always be a part of my process."
The results of this delicate balance recently earned him a spot on Late Night with David Letterman, which he admits was both exciting and stressful – and a little revealing in terms of industry expectations.
"We were doing all this live looping, which is very perilous to be doing on national television, and one of the stage managers is like ‘You know, you guys gotta do pro tools, cuz this is national television. You gotta get one of those samplers that will play the whole backing track for you.’ Yeah – that would be hypocritical." |
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