183 Quotes by Andrew Bird

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

Norman is a very up-close, personal, character drama and I’d like to do something more zoomed out, a little more pastoral, some sweeping epic. I’d like to try something different.

No, it’s not dissatisfaction that inspires me to tinker with my songs, it’s just restlessness.

Playing the violin and singing and whistling are just three different ways of making sound. It’s not trying to replace a band, per se. It’s become a completely different thing. And it’s not just simply an effect. It’s just a very surprisingly intuitive thing.