Quote

I have some irrepressible pop impulses to write an appealing, concise song. And I also have some irrepressible kind of restlessness as well, and I need to keep myself interested. When I'm left to my own devices, there's a struggle.

Andrew Bird

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Andrew Bird
Age: 51
Born: 1973
Born: July 11
Fiddler
Film Editor
Guitarist
Jazz Musician
Musician
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Chicago
Illinois
Andrew Wegman Bird
Andrew W. Bird
Also
Pops
Wells
Impulse
Well
Interested
Irrepressible
Need
Struggle
Concise
Needs
Song
Restlessness
Writing
Write
Impulses
Kind
Left
Appealing
Keep
Devices

More quotes by Andrew Bird

Image
Anyway, I'm digressing, but this is just kind of this 10-and-a-half-minute, ambient - you hear cicadas and birds and the wind outside and crickets as I'm swelling the piece. I could never do that on a pop record. I could, but why would I want to be agitating?
Andrew Bird
Image
When I'm onstage, I'm completely comfortable, and I feel very vital and alive.
Andrew Bird
Image
I don't write poetry and then strum some chords and then fit the words on top of the chords.
Andrew Bird
Image
I've done my share of busking, and it's fun until it isn't. There are musicians in the subways that will make you cry, they're so good.
Andrew Bird
Image
I still play solo shows. And some of those shows are still some of the best, most gratifying shows.
Andrew Bird
Image
A good espresso to me is a little bit salty you just become used to a good taste. Anytime I go into a new place and they don't clean their machine properly or the water temperature isn't right, it tastes awful.
Andrew Bird
Image
The instrumental record is a bit subtler. It's the kind of stuff on sound check, when I first pick up my violin and start to play, the kind of melodies that just pour out of me. Some of them sound very classical. Some of them sound experimental, polyrhythmic loops that I make.
Andrew Bird
Image
There's always a tension between wanting to write a really concise, instant gratification type song that gets under your skin the first time you hear it, and wanting to really stretch out. I think it's a healthy tension.
Andrew Bird
Image
I've never approached classical music in a formal way, ever. I couldn't read very well. I'd have to play every piece and internalize it, almost as if I had written it myself.
Andrew Bird
Image
The problem is, when you're working with orchestras, you only get the orchestra for about two hours before the performance to pull it all together, and that doesn't sound like a real collaboration.
Andrew Bird
Image
Every time I get up in the morning, melodies occur to me and I start trying to shape lyrics to melodies.
Andrew Bird
Image
Guitars are kind of just, you know, sexy, especially old vintage ones.
Andrew Bird
Image
I really believe there's more honesty in one live show than there may be in my whole output.
Andrew Bird
Image
All the folks I play with come from jazz backgrounds or at least appreciate spontaneity within the parameters of a pop song.
Andrew Bird
Image
I finished touring the last record and I started recording new .I never really left the bubble, which is I think a good thing. I was just very focused. Maybe I should have taken a break or something, and not done such a long push.
Andrew Bird
Image
The melodies come out so strong that I'm like, Oh, crap. It's really better if they could both be kind of able to compromise, but the melodies, even more recently, they come out very fully cast and formed.
Andrew Bird
Image
There's a lot of interesting words, nomenclatures, in science.
Andrew Bird
Image
The idea of writing songs because you're depressed and you need to communicate it somehow, that isn't really true for me.
Andrew Bird
Image
Most records, you build from the drums and bass up. This one, we started with the vocals in Nashville and recorded them live with just the guitars and tried to make that complete and lovely-sounding without any adornment at all. I really wanted to get something with the vocal that I've never gotten before Armchair Apocrypha.
Andrew Bird
Image
You can build up expectations for a song before you record it, and then it's like nothing's good enough in the studio.
Andrew Bird