Andrew Bird (musician)
Andrew Bird (born July 11, 1973 in Chicago , Illinois ) is an American singer-songwriter and musician . He completed classical training on the violin , and his musical repertoire also includes guitar , mandolin , whistle and the glockenspiel . His early work was heavily influenced by the American folk and jazz tradition, in more recent publications he moved closer to pop music , which made him accessible to a wider audience.
life and work
Bird began to learn to play the violin using the Suzuki method at the age of four and graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor's degree in 1996 . In the same year his solo album Music of Hair was released .
Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire (1997 to 2001)
1997 released Bird Thrills , his first album with the band Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire , of which he was the band leader. Kevin O'Donnell played drums, Josh Hirsch on bass guitar and Colin Bunn on guitar. In 1998 the album Oh! The grandeur . Both albums focus on the violin and are based on the folk, blues and jazz traditions of the first half of the 20th century. The debut album Thrills is in the tradition of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill , it borrows from Django Reinhardt , Fats Waller and Stephane Grappelli , according to a review by Allmusic . It was recorded in just five days in New Orleans - the band played the songs live into a single, centrally positioned ribbon microphone, echoing early American jazz .
The second album largely retains this style, including Oh! The Grandeur gives the impression of being recorded in a single take.
The third release of the formation appeared in 2001 with the title The Swimming Hour . The folk aspect takes a back seat, the music mixes different styles and represents a “foray into the history of music in the 20th century”.
Solo career (since 2003)
In 2003, Bird released his first solo album entitled Weather Systems . He left his previous label Rykodisc , switched to the indie label Grimsey (which later became part of Ani Di Franco's Righteous Babe label ) and moved from Chicago to his parents' farm in northwest Illinois, where he also set up a studio. According to his own statements, he got the idea of starting a solo career when the mood in the band sank more and more due to a lack of financial success and he was forced to appear in a pub as support for an Irish folk band due to scheduling obligations of the other band members to play alone. He brought a loop machine with him and thus multiplied the sound of his violin on stage. Bird took a liking to this technique: On Weather Systems , the violin is accordingly the central instrument, but the musical style of the album opens up to different influences. Bird's willingness to experiment with different genres is expressed on this album.
Several concert tours followed, including in the opening act for Ani Di Franco. The financial success is still denied Bird, an important source of income for him is to sell CDs after the concerts, which he buys beforehand for a special price from his own label.
With the 2005 album Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs , he made a name for himself in the US independent scene. The album continues the cross-genre claim of its predecessor, the production contains many electronic elements as well as a rich instrumentation with guitar, glockenspiel and the characteristic Andrew Bird whistle.
In 2007, the album Armchair Apocrypha was released , which made him known to the general public for the first time: He was noticed by renowned media outlets such as The New Yorker , Newsweek and The New York Times . Appearances on the late night shows of David Letterman and Conan O'Brien contributed to the sales of the record, which sold more than 100,000 copies.
This was followed by a tour of the USA and Europe, where Bird - unusual in pop music - varied the set sequence at each concert; The instrumental arrangements of the songs also changed from appearance to appearance. Bird played his biggest concert to date in his hometown of Chicago on September 3, 2008 in front of an audience of 15,000.
During the production of his next studio album Noble Beast , Bird documented his work on a blog for the New York Times. He produced most of the album at a beach house in Nashville. It was released in 2009.
Noble Beast is by far the artist's most pop album. Bird treads paths that are atypical for pop music, which is evident not only in the experimental forms of mixing electronic and acoustic instruments, but also in the production and in the demands. For the piece Oh No on the album Noble Beast , for example, he said he was inspired by a crying child in an airplane, whose childlike way of dealing with fear and thoughts of flight impressed him. Bird tried to recreate the boy's wailing Oh No in the piece on the guitar.
Influences and reception
In childhood, Bird was mainly influenced by classical music. He himself counts Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart among the most formative influences in his early musical training. In high school, he turned away from classical music because he found it too static just to read music from sheet music. He developed a taste for Irish and Scottish folk music, as well as for bluegrass . His first jazz role models were Johnny Hodges , Lester Young and Fats Waller .
The musical comparisons drawn by critics are varied. The press attested Bird parallels with The Magnetic Fields and Lambchop , Thom Yorke , Damien Rice , Tim Buckley and David Byrne .
Quotes
“The musician from Chicago knows how to write pop hits - he just doesn't know if he really wants to. The virtuoso fights with the pop fan and the sensitive arranger. "
"There is a lot going on in Bird's songs, including a lot of the unusual and surprising, but they are always full of air and space - and full of seductive elegance."
"A classically trained musician who makes self-consciously wordy music, Bird is among those American musicians who are almost like Victorian children - polite to the point of being seen, and very nearly, not heard. The very opposite of the "complaint rock" that one is supposed to have once blasted from college dorms, Bird's music is melodic, accomplished and - above all - cheerfully placid. "
Discography
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With Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire
- 1998: Thrills
- 1999: Oh! The grandeur
- 2001: The Swimming Hour
solo
- 1996: Music of Hair
- 2003: Weather Systems
- 2005: Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs
- 2007: Armchair Apocrypha
- 2009: Noble Beast
- 2010: Useless Creatures
- 2012: Break It Yourself
- 2012: Hands of Glory
- 2013: I Want to See Pulaski at Night
- 2014: Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of
- 2015: Echolocations: Canyon
- 2016: Are You Serious
- 2019: My Finest Work Yet
live
- 2002: fingerlings
- 2004: Fingerlings 2
- 2006: Fingerlings 3
- 2008: Live in Montreal
- 2010: Fingerlings 4
EPs and singles
- 2002: The Ballad of the Red Shoes
- 2005: Sovay
- 2006: Live at Bonnaroo Music Festival (Live EP)
- 2007: Soldier On (EP)
- 2009: Fitz and the Dizzy Spells
- 2009: Anonymous
- 2012: Break It Yourself
Filmography
- 2017: Outside In
swell
- ↑ a b c d e biography on andrewbird.net (pdf; 41 kB) (accessed on January 3, 2010)
- ↑ "The Thrills" -Rieview on allmusic.com
- ↑ a b c d e f Andrew Bird Discovers His Inner Operatic Folkie. In: New York Times Magazine . January 2, 2009.
- ↑ "Oh! The Grandeur" review on allmusic.com
- ^ "The Swimming Hour" review on allmusic.com
- ^ "Weather Systems" review at allmusic.com
- ↑ a b The Dirty Dozen. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . August 27, 2009, p. 13.
- ↑ concertlivewire.com /
- ↑ Interview: Andrew Bird - Houstonist
- ↑ Dynamic for the inconspicuous. In: the daily newspaper . June 25, 2007, p. 30.
- ^ A wide-ranging 'Beast' from Bird. In: Boston Globe . January 19, 2009.
- ^ Addressing the Messiness of Life With Precision, Intellect and Plenty of Melancholy. In: The New York Times. January 30, 2009.
- ↑ SZ of January 21, 2009, p. 12.
- ↑ NZZ. May 15, 2009, p. 41.
- ^ The Guardian. May 9, 2009, p. 29.
- ↑ Chart sources: CH US
Web links
- www.andrewbird.net - Andrew Bird's website
- www.avclub.com - Extensive interview with the artist
- abcnews.go.com Video interview by broadcaster ABC
- Andrew Bird in the Internet Movie Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bird, Andrew |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American singer-songwriter and musician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 11, 1973 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chicago , Illinois , USA |