Andrew Bird Interview

American musician, songwriter, and multi instrumentalist. Andrew performed as band leader with US based 'Bowl of Fire' until 2003. Andrew is now a succesfull solo artist, currently recieving critical aclaim for his new album 'Armchair Apocrypha'.

http://www.andrewbird.net/

HOLV: Congratulations on your stunning new album Andrew, how are things?

AB: Considering I'm into my fourth month on tour, so far I've achieved my goal of not dying.

HOLV: Just how important has it been to have the likes of Martin Dosh, Haley Bonar, Chris Morrisey and Jeremy Ylvisaker on board when making Armchair Apocrypha?

AB: I've been more or less solitary for the last 5 years so its a big deal to be collaborating again.  Minneapolis has a wealth of creative musicians who don't sound like anyone else. Dosh has been my main constituent.  He inhabits his own distinct universe that happens to compliment mine.  We're both accustomed to working alone and controlling everything.  He is also a master of live looping and working in that tension between structure and chaos. 

HOLV: I see July will be a busy month for you, starting with a date at the Hollywood Bowl supporting the Decemberists. You then fly over for gigs In the UK including a visit to Glasgow here in Scotland. How excited are you about the upcoming tour?

AB: I will say I've been taken with Glasgow since I first played in those catacombs beneath the train station 5 years ago.  

HOLV: It's been ten years now since the release of 'Music of Hair' in 1997. What have been your most memorable highlights during this period?

AB: Early on I spent a lot of time touring and recording in the South - New Orleans, Memphis and Chapel Hill. There is a thickness, sadness, a self-destructive wildness to that place and time.  The goth thing goes deeper than teenagers in corsets with tears of blood. I think the most memorable show was in Columbia South Carolina where we played with a psychotic-high-kicking punk band for 30 people. Cockroaches and droplets of water rained from the ceiling throughout the show and all of us were a bit unhinged. Around then, I also enjoyed riding my bike around Chicago, putting up hand printed posters. Every show was an event.

HOLV: I have heard you picked up your first violin at the tender age of  four. Throughout your younger years who were your main musical influences?

AB: I didn't get on that well with my teachers.  I just had my repertoire tapes of Mozart, Bach. . . I learned by ear and refused to practice scales and etudes.   It’s hard to say what influenced me. From an early age I began making up my own tunes that were Bach-like.  My folk music just happened to be classical.

HOLV: Your new album is being tipped as one of the best so far in 2007, which is turning out to be an interesting year for music. What new albums have caught your eye so far?

AB: Midlake, Cornelius, I just heard the Psychic Paramount record last night,- mindnumbing, thunderous, distortion.  It sounded correct.

Armchair Apocrypha - Out Now

Interviewed By Greg