Andrew Bird Quotes

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Andrew Bird

Profession : Musician

Birth : July 11, 1973

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

Andrew Bird

The fact that I wasn't expected to read music at all and was absorbing everything by ear... it had a huge affect on the kind of musician that I became.

Andrew Bird

A good espresso to me is a little bit salty; you just become used to a good taste. Anytime I go into a new place and they don't clean their machine properly or the water temperature isn't right, it tastes awful.

Andrew Bird

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

Andrew Bird

I've always been fascinated and stared at maps for hours as a kid. I've especially been most intrigued by the uninhabited or lonelier places on the planet. Like Greenland, for instance, or just recently flying over Alaska and a chain of icy, mountainous islands, uninhabited.

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.

Andrew Bird

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.

Andrew Bird

The first notes I still play when I start a sound check are classical. Those are my roots.

Andrew Bird

I've always found that whatever you say about indie rock, it is the most inclusive genre or title for anything. It doesn't pin you down too much, like other labels would. It's just newer, it has less baggage. I'm happy to be in that category.

Andrew Bird

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

Andrew Bird

I create little challenges for myself, like, 'Okay, whatever you do in this song, you've got to somehow work in Greek Cypriots,' or something like that.

Andrew Bird

Well, my main instrument is violin, but I think of myself as a songwriter who happens to play violin.

Andrew Bird

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.

Andrew Bird

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

Andrew Bird

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

Andrew Bird

I still kind of believe this absurd line that if you have to write it down, it's not worth remembering.

Andrew Bird

All the folks I play with come from jazz backgrounds or at least appreciate spontaneity within the parameters of a pop song.

Andrew Bird

Melodies are just honest. They can only be what they are. Words have the capacity for deception. They're all full of subtext, and some of them are cliche and overused and vernacular. They're tricky. All I can say is, words are tricky.

Andrew Bird

I am, in some sense, a writer. Even though I kinda downplay the word thing, I do enjoy writing sometimes.

Andrew Bird

The way I work, I'm not a confessional singer-songwriter.

Andrew Bird