Andrew Bird Quotes
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There's a lot of interesting words, nomenclatures, in science.
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I've always had levity in my songs, so I like to turn things over, twist them around, and make fun of myself.
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My favorite literature to read is fairly dry history. I like the framework, and my imagination can do the rest.
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It's like you don't know you're making a record unless you're half-killing yourself.
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There's songs that could either be taken as a conversation between two people, like "The Privateers," or "Why," from a much earlier record. Or "Glass Figurine." That's my version of a relationship song.
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Pretty much any given day, barring some major distraction, I get melodies coming to me. Lyrics don't come quite as easily. So I've been inventing little projects and challenges to sort of kick my ass with the lyrics.
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The real drag is trying to fly from country to country, day of show, with all your gear. You get hassled all the time. It's hard trying to keep it together.
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I think any songwriter or record, no matter how good it is, can become tedious if it's the same person's point of view. After four tracks, you start to get worn down no matter how good it is. It can be relentlessly good, but it's still going to wear you out.
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I guess I'm attracted to more archaic words because they can be imbued with more meaning, because their definition is elusive.
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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.
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Some of my earlier songs are kind of more about mental illness.
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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.
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All the folks I play with come from jazz backgrounds or at least appreciate spontaneity within the parameters of a pop song.
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With the words, a lot of things start with questions. Some word kind of piques my interest, and I love the way it sounds, but I really don't know what it means. And I honestly don't care for a while.
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Most of the songs that I appreciate are lyrically vague.
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I am, in some sense, a writer. Even though I kinda downplay the word thing, I do enjoy writing sometimes.
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When I start asking my friends, "What do you think this means?" And it leads to way more interesting conversations than what it actually ends up meaning in the dictionary. Like "apocryphal," for instance.
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I don't write poetry and then strum some chords and then fit the words on top of the chords.
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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.
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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.
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There is something comforting about going into a practice room, putting your sheet music on a stand and playing Bach over and over again.
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I can't relate to the process of just disappearing and writing a record, all at the same time, followed by the sort of drudgery of going out on tour and trying to recreate the record, playing the same 12 songs every night.
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Every time I make a record, it's kind of like scarification or something. You work 15 hours until you're stupid. You're just kind of all jittery.
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The way I work, I'm not a confessional singer-songwriter.
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What you see with your eyes when you're making music is going to have a profound effect on what you hear.
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The orchestra's an amazing instrument, but I don't want to just arrange my songs for it. I think that might be kind of boring and a little bit overdramatic, perhaps. I'm still just having too much fun doing it my way, for the time being.
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I also don't believe that "everything happens for a reason," which is in a similar category of world-views.
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I still play solo shows. And some of those shows are still some of the best, most gratifying shows.
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No, it's not dissatisfaction that inspires me to tinker with my songs, it's just restlessness.
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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.
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