Andrew Bird famous quotes

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

#Long #Littles #Satisfaction

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.
-- Andrew Bird

#Country #Real #Trying

What's cool about indie rock is that one band can do effectively the same thing as another band, and one band nails it, and the other one doesn't. I like that elusiveness.
-- Andrew Bird

#Rocks #Nails #Band

The problem is, when you're working with orchestras, you only get the orchestra for about two hours before the performance to pull it all together, and that doesn't sound like a real collaboration.
-- Andrew Bird

#Real #Two #Together

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.
-- Andrew Bird

#Song #Fun #Thinking

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.
-- Andrew Bird

#Thinking #Views #Track

Some of your best songs come from a desperate attempt to escape, so sitting in an airport for hours I can just start pulling out little fragments of songs from my head. A lot of times a melody will just occur to me and be my companion for a couple of months.
-- Andrew Bird

#Song #Couple #Airports

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.
-- Andrew Bird

#Song #Writing #Night

I don't like to disappear between records. I like to play shows while I'm making the record.
-- Andrew Bird

#Play #Records #Disappear

I put a lot into my records, and I won't release anything I'm not totally thrilled with.
-- Andrew Bird

#Records #Release

I really believe there's more honesty in one live show than there may be in my whole output.
-- Andrew Bird

#Honesty #Believe #May

There's always a tension between wanting to write a really concise, instant gratification type song that gets under your skin the first time you hear it, and wanting to really stretch out. I think it's a healthy tension.
-- Andrew Bird

#Song #Writing #Thinking

I've never approached classical music in a formal way, ever. I couldn't read very well. I'd have to play every piece and internalize it, almost as if I had written it myself.
-- Andrew Bird

#Play #Pieces #Way

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.
-- Andrew Bird

#Rocks #Titles #Labels

Correlation across replicated environments adds a whole new dimension of complexity of the environment, ... You would expect most application groups to have the same set of policies. In reality, you have differences in policies. That reflects back to that whole process of manual storing in the environment.
-- Andrew Bird

#Reality #Differences #Groups

Music as a social conduit has always been important to me.
-- Andrew Bird

#Important #Social

My favorite literature to read is fairly dry history. I like the framework, and my imagination can do the rest.
-- Andrew Bird

#Imagination #Literature #Dry

No, it's not dissatisfaction that inspires me to tinker with my songs, it's just restlessness.
-- Andrew Bird

#Song #Inspire #Dissatisfaction

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

#Interesting #Nomenclature

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

#Thinking #Play #Violin

What you see with your eyes when you're making music is going to have a profound effect on what you hear.
-- Andrew Bird

#Eye #Profound #Music Is

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

#Cities #Sight #Creative

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

#Espresso #Water #Littles

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

#Song #Challenges #Greek

The anti-aging advert that I would like to see is a baby covered in cream saying, 'Aah, I've used too much'
-- Andrew Bird

#Baby #Too Much #Aging

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

#Deception #Honest #Cliche

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.
-- Andrew Bird

#Fun #Musician #Done

I write a lot more when I'm happy, because you're hopeful, you're motivated.
-- Andrew Bird

#Writing #Hopeful #Motivated

I think I'm still a little too intense for my own good sometimes.
-- Andrew Bird

#Thinking #Littles #Sometimes

Just don't let the human factor fail to be a factor at all
-- Andrew Bird

#Failing #Humans

Songwriters can sort of get away with murder. You can throw out crazy theories and not have to back it up with data or graphs or research.
-- Andrew Bird

#Motivation #Crazy #Inspiration

Playing the violin and singing and whistling are just three different ways of making sound.
-- Andrew Bird

#Singing #Sound #Different

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

#Song #Play #Appreciate

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

#Morning #Trying #Shapes

Guitars are kind of just, you know, sexy, especially old vintage ones.
-- Andrew Bird

#Sexy #Guitar #Vintage

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

#Kind #Biology #Academic

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

#Writing #Sometimes #Enjoy

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

#Writing #Fit #Chords

I guess I'm attracted to more archaic words because they can be imbued with more meaning, because their definition is elusive.
-- Andrew Bird

#Definitions #Elusive

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

#Believe #Writing #Lines

I think when I was pretty young I got really into the tone of my instrument and I remember just playing one note for an hour to just kind of feel the resonance of the violin.
-- Andrew Bird

#Thinking #Violin #Tone

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

#Practice #Comforting #Rooms

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

#Singers #Way #Singer-songwriters

The idea of writing songs because you're depressed and you need to communicate it somehow, that isn't really true for me.
-- Andrew Bird

#Song #Writing #Ideas

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

#Play #Roots #Sound