Quotes from Andrew Bird

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.

In school I was painfully shy. But as soon as I had to get up in front of the class and give a book report, it was alarming - I'd suddenly be very articulate.

The music that I write is often not necessarily full of doom and gloom. You'll notice in most of the darkest songs, the music is actually pretty peaceful and lulling.

I didn't have the patience for the research, or anything like that. I just like how it sets the imagination off. It's just an area that's very fertile for great words. Great metaphors, potentially.

You can build up expectations for a song before you record it, and then it's like nothing's good enough in the studio.

My favorite literature to read is fairly dry history. I like the framework, and my imagination can do the rest.

Honestly, I didn't have the patience for biology or history in an academic sense, but I always liked the kind of big questions.

I really believe there's more honesty in one live show than there may be in my whole output.

There is something comforting about going into a practice room, putting your sheet music on a stand and playing Bach over and over again.

Usually bands with violins - it's this little, poorly amplified looking kind of futile on stage, and that's not the way that my music is put together.

There was a fascinating handmade poster scene in Chicago in the '90s, and I became friends with many of the artists; the posters were often more impressive than the bands.

I don't want technology to take me so far that I don't have to use my brain anymore. It's like GPS taking over and losing your internal compass. It's always got to be tactile, still organic.

My mom had this romantic notion of her children playing classical music. The idea is you learn it when you're still learning language. It's using the same part of the brain.

Honestly, I didn't have the patience for biology or history in an academic sense, but I always liked the kind of big questions.

There's a lot of interesting words, nomenclatures, in science.

My favorite literature to read is fairly dry history. I like the framework, and my imagination can do the rest.

I don't want technology to take me so far that I don't have to use my brain anymore. It's like GPS taking over and losing your internal compass. It's always got to be tactile, still organic.

Every time I get up in the morning, melodies occur to me and I start trying to shape lyrics to melodies.

I don't write poetry and then strum some chords and then fit the words on top of the chords.

What's cool about indie rock is that one band can do effectively the same thing as another band, and one band nails it, and the other one doesn't. I like that elusiveness.

You travel with the hope that something unexpected will happen. It has to do with enjoying being lost and figuring it out and the satisfaction. I always get a little disappointed when I know too well where I'm going, or when I've lived in a place so long that there's no chance I could possibly get lost.

My mom had this romantic notion of her children playing classical music. The idea is you learn it when you're still learning language. It's using the same part of the brain.

I guess I'm attracted to more archaic words because they can be imbued with more meaning, because their definition is elusive.

My head is full of shifting patterns and polyrhythmic stuff; but I want to use all acoustic instruments and create this kind of tapestry of interlocking lulling parts.