Photo credit: Amanda Demme
Andrew Bird
Discussing with protean musician Andrew Bird about his creative process is a little like talking to Einstein about the universe. The subject is vast, with insights based as much on introspection and theory as on education and science. In the end, the intuitive nuance of Bird’s process may rival Einstein’s theoretical vision and then some.
Bird, who appears with guitarist Madison Cunningham Thursday, Sept. 26, at the Riverside Theater, takes an almost organic approach to his genre-bending music. Some of that stems from the early 2000s, when he moved from his native Chicago to a refurbished barn in western Illinois’ “driftless” region. Isolating himself from society, Bird’s only companions were his instruments and a loop pedal that enabled him to record, alter, replay and harmonize with his own music.
The loop pedal was but another tool for the multi-instrumentalist, who began studying the Suzuki violin method at age 4. Bird walked away from the barn with a style unique to his talents and a personal musical ethos that few share. Creativity, it’s fair to say, is a part of Bird’s lifestyle and comes as naturally as breathing.
“I think of it like the knobs on a faucet, one of which pours a steady stream of melodies on a daily basis,” Bird explains. “I don’t write them down or record them, but if it comes around a second time then I know it’s worth keeping.
“Think of it as a river of ideas freely flowing,” he adds. “If there is a branch that snags some passing debris, the river eventually dams, and you have a song.”
Bird has parlayed that musical “debris” into 15 albums, including My Finest Work Yet, his latest. He’s performed with the Squirrel Nut Zippers, made short films, had a role designed for him on the FX cable series “Fargo” and even gave a TED talk demonstrating the loop composition process. “When you’re playing music by yourself, you become very experimental, but when you start playing with a band, things start to normalize,” he says. “I try hard to resist that normalization and keep things idiosyncratic and strange.”
Nevertheless, he plays frequently with a band of what he describes as “very good jazz musicians” and admits to having jazz leanings himself. But that’s not always the pigeonhole in which he likes to perch.
“I have this reputation for being erudite and having literary lyrics, and I don’t feel like that,” Bird says. “When people ask me to describe my music, I default to rock and roll because of the way I feel on stage. It’s like I’m totally connected to all living things. It’s just an extraordinary thing to do with your day.”
Andrew Bird performs at the Riverside Theater on Thursday, Sept. 26, at 8 p.m.
