Andrew Bird: some rockers bust up hotel rooms—this one busts up genres

Interview, April, 2007 by Matt Diehl

"I never really know what my record's going to sound like before I start working on it," Andrew Bird explains. "When I fully reproduce what's in my head, there's no mystery--and I want to be surprised." A violin prodigy since the age of 4 who often performs as a one-man band, Bird started releasing records back in 1997.

Performing either solo, with his group Bowl of Fire, or with his frequent associates Squirrel Nut Zippers, the native Chicagoan became known as the king of quirk, rambling through genres like jazz and soul in a highly stylized manner. With his previous album, 2005's Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs (Righteous Babe), and especially with his newest, the recently released Armchair Apocrypha (Fat Possum), Bird has boiled his sound down to its uncanny essence--while the ghosts of iconoclasts like Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley may hover over his music, those influences can't fully articulate the epic, sometimes lo-fi, always beguiling sway of his songs.

"On my earlier records, I was still learning--I was enamored of my record collection," Bird says. "Then I became averse to any elements of style or ornamentation at all. Out in my barn, I would get obsessed and just play two chords over and over again for, like, two weeks. I wanted to see how much I could do with as little as possible and maybe get to a more honest place. I feel like the stuff that I'm going to just pull out of nowhere is more inclined to be from a different universe."

Matt Diehl is a contributing music editor at Interview. Above: Clothes by DIOR HOMME BY HEDI SLIMANE. Skin products by L'OREAL MEN'S EXPERT. Hair products by HENKEL GOT 2B, Styling: SAM SPECTOR/Aartist Loft. Grooming: SUSIE SOBOL. Special thanks: DAYSPACE STUDIOS, Fashion details page 159, Photos: JENNIFER TZAR.

Above: Andrew Bird wears a shirt and pants by BURBERRY PRORSUM. Fragrance: BURBERRY LONDON.