Andrew Bird Quotes

I create little challenges for myself, like, 'Okay, whatever you do in this song, you've got to somehow work in Greek Cypriots,' or something like that. 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. A day off after a show with no agenda in a foreign city is about the most fertile creative situation I can imagine. Just walking with nothing to do, killing time and hearing the sights and sounds of an unfamiliar place. What you see with your eyes when you're making music is going to have a profound effect on what you hear. Well, my main instrument is violin, but I think of myself as a songwriter who happens to play violin. There's a lot of interesting words, nomenclatures, in science. There is something comforting about going into a practice room, putting your sheet music on a stand and playing Bach over and over again. The way I work, I'm not a confessional singer-songwriter. The idea of writing songs because you're depressed and you need to communicate it somehow, that isn't really true for me. The first notes I still play when I start a sound check are classical. Those are my roots. No, it's not dissatisfaction that inspires me to tinker with my songs, it's just restlessness. My favorite literature to read is fairly dry history. I like the framework, and my imagination can do the rest. Music as a social conduit has always been important to me. 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. I write a lot more when I'm happy, because you're hopeful, you're motivated. I think I'm still a little too intense for my own good sometimes. I still kind of believe this absurd line that if you have to write it down, it's not worth remembering. I guess I'm attracted to more archaic words because they can be imbued with more meaning, because their definition is elusive. I don't write poetry and then strum some chords and then fit the words on top of the chords. I am, in some sense, a writer. Even though I kinda downplay the word thing, I do enjoy writing sometimes. Honestly, I didn't have the patience for biology or history in an academic sense, but I always liked the kind of big questions. Guitars are kind of just, you know, sexy, especially old vintage ones. Every time I get up in the morning, melodies occur to me and I start trying to shape lyrics to melodies. All the folks I play with come from jazz backgrounds or at least appreciate spontaneity within the parameters of a pop song. Playing the violin and singing and whistling are just three different ways of making sound. I've literally opened it up to suggestions and it's totally chaotic and kind of a bad idea. You don't need the actual feedback to get a sense. When you're showing a song for the first time, people can feel that newness. The first splurge of creativity is kind of free, and the last 30 percent is painstakingly hard work, but it's good to light a fire and make it public and create that expectation. It's become part of the writing process, really, a way to ask the audience what they think, how they think it's going. I can't write songs in a vacuum. There's kind of this unequaled thrill of playing a half-finished song, it's kind of sense of slight embarrassment; like you're blushing. I like doing that. I did that with 'Eyeoneye' and it was almost a curse on the song for a while; I debuted it when it was half-finished in a very public way Norman is a very up-close, personal, character drama and I'd like to do something more zoomed out, a little more pastoral, some sweeping epic. I'd like to try something different. I also don't believe that 'everything happens for a reason,' which is in a similar category of world-views.