What We Say
Chicago-born and now LA-based performer, film score composer, multi-instrumentalist and lyricist Andrew Bird picked up his first violin at the age of four and spent his formative years soaking up classical repertoire completely by ear. As a teen Bird became interested in a variety of styles including early jazz, country blues and folk music, synthesizing them into his unique brand of pop.
Since beginning his recording career in 1997 he has released 12 albums and played several hundred shows worldwide. Bird has recorded with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, appeared as "Dr. Stringz" on Jack's Big Music Show, and headlined concerts at New York's Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, and festivals worldwide. In 2004, Mojo Magazine declared him "simply incredible live."
In recent years he has composed his first film score for the movie Norman (hailed as "a probing, thoughtful score" by The New York Times), contributed to the soundtrack of The Muppets, and collaborated with inventor Ian Schneller on Sonic Arboretum, an installation that debuted at New York's Guggenheim Museum and exhibited most recently at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art. In 2012, he released two critically-acclaimed albums, Break It Yourself, and Hands of Glory, followed by the EP I Want To See Pulaski At Night in 2013, and a collection of Handsome Family covers titled Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of… in 2014.
Bird is currently working on a series of site-specific improvisational short films and recordings called Echolocations, the first of which was created in one day in a remote Utah canyon, and his next studio album, due out in spring 2016.
