Andrew Bird: Taking wing

Singer/songwriter Andrew Bird elevates the indie pop aesthetic

By Mike Prevatt

The conventional order of promotion is where an artist will release an album and then tour behind it. In some cases, though, he will tour before an album's release, whether to test material before recording or to gauge reaction to it.

Illinois-based singer/songwriter and Bowl of Fire founder Andrew Bird is taking the latter approach this summer, as a support act for Ani Difranco, his boss over at Righteous Babe Records. He'll still draw heavily from his last album, 2003's acclaimed Weather Systems, but he'll also flesh out earlier recordings, as well as fresh material he's either just recorded or slated to record when the tour concludes.

"I've been playing these songs and they still haven't been on a record [after] three years," says Bird. "I don't subscribe to the whole schedule of disappearance. For me, it's this continual process. I'll play whatever I'm feeling and into at the time, whether it corresponds to a current record or not."

It's just one marker among many of how atypical a musician Andrew Bird is. For a singer/songwriter, he's remarkably free of clichés. He didn't start out in a garage band. He plays the violin as a guitar, and when he does play an actual guitar, he doesn't use a pick. He's mostly influenced by classical music, early '20s jazz and the Alan Lomax field recordings. And his live presentation has him singing while simultaneously juggling several instruments and samplers.

What's most unconventional--and intriguing--about Bird is his musical evolution, starting when he was very young and climaxing as a teenager. He learned classical through the Suzuki method at age 4 and by ear, before jumping into what he refers to as orchestral culture. However, as he grew older, he felt restrained by his musical education, and even his own instrument, the violin.

"I just never felt comfortable in the classical structure," he says. "I was not a prodigy or a prize student. They would say I have good tone and was very musical, but [they'd also say] `You don`t do your work.' I wanted to show them what I was working on or interested in. So that caused some friction. I would rebel in my own way. But I stuck with it all the way through conservatory. I don't know why...I guess I was a glutton for punishment."

At 22, Bird began writing songs and developing his unique live act. He couldn't sing while playing the violin, so he began playing it as a guitar. Furthermore, he eventually incorporated a sampler into his show, as well as the glockenspiel, an organ and some whistling. On recent tours, he has been assisted by former Bowl of Fire bandmates Kevin O'Donnell (percussion and glockenspiel) and Nora O'Connor (guitar and vocals). However, the bulk of the musical output on stage is created and negotiated by him. He might incorporate some pizzicato string-play on his violin, then switch over to the guitar while activating some sampled loops before he sings a note.

This sounds highly complex, but Bird contends it's not exactly brain surgery--at least not for him.

"There are fewer distractions, and the songs are simpler," he says. "I'm into stripping away what might be a distraction from writing a good song. Sometimes the violin can be distracting. Sometimes I can whip out all [kinds of] stuff and it's fun. Sometimes I have too much fun. Playing the violin, I guess I'm in this process where my songs used to be more complicated--more outros, intros, double choruses--and lately I've been into the few chords you can work with, and fewer limitations. And if you can still fuck with people, you've done something even better."