38 Facts About Andrew Bird

Andrew Wegman Bird was born on July 11,1973 and is an American indie rock multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter.

Andrew Bird is primarily known for his unique style of violin playing, accompanied by loop and effect pedals, whistling, and voice.

Andrew Bird went on to start his own swing ensemble, Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, which released three albums between 1998 and 2001.

Andrew Bird has had a career in film, as a soundtrack composer as well as an actor.

Andrew Bird appeared as "Dr Stringz" in a 2007 episode of Jack's Big Music Show.

Andrew Bird wrote and performed "The Whistling Caruso" for The Muppets movie in 2011, and composed the score for the television series Baskets, released in 2016.

In 2002, Andrew Bird was asked to open for a band in his hometown of Chicago, but fellow Bowl of Fire members were unavailable for the date.

The reluctant Andrew Bird performed the gig alone, and the surprising success of this solo show suggested potential new directions for his music.

The Bowl of Fire unofficially disbanded in 2003, and Andrew Bird went on to radically reinvent himself as a solo artist.

On May 10,2004, Andrew Bird appeared on the Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour where he performed "First Song" and "Action Adventure" both from the Weather Systems album.

Andrew Bird discussed and demonstrated looping, which was how he could perform solo and still have a fully finished sound.

Andrew Bird is noted for improvising and reworking his songs during live performance, as can be seen in his series of self-released live compilations entitled Fingerlings, Fingerlings 2, Fingerlings 3, and Fingerlings 4, the first of which was released in 2002.

In 2005, collaborator Martin Dosh joined Andrew Bird's line-up, adding percussion and keyboards to his sound.

In September 2006, Andrew Bird signed to Fat Possum Records, and in March 2007 he released his third post-Bowl of Fire album, Armchair Apocrypha.

In promotion of Armchair Apocrypha, Andrew Bird made his network television debut on April 10,2007, performing "Plasticities" on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Andrew Bird appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on June 14,2007, performing "Imitosis" from the same album.

In January 2007, Andrew Bird made an appearance on the Noggin television network's Jack's Big Music Show, playing the part of Dr Stringz and appearing in order to mend Mary's broken dulcimer.

Andrew Bird sang a brief song called "Dr Stringz", written specially for the show.

Since March 2008, Andrew Bird has contributed to "Measure for Measure", a New York Times blog in which musicians write about their songwriting process.

Andrew Bird's performance included a preview of new song "Section 8 City", a ten-minute re-imagining of "Sectionate City", which originally appeared on the Soldier on EP.

On May 11,2009, Andrew Bird released the EP "Fitz and the Dizzy Spells".

Andrew Bird did a La Blogoteque performance at a house party in Paris, collaborating with St Vincent.

In late 2011 Andrew Bird signed to the record label Mom + Pop Music.

Andrew Bird sequenced the soundtrack to flow as a stand-alone album rather than a compilation of music from the film.

On December 6, Andrew Bird announced a new album Break it Yourself, the follow-up to 2009's Noble Beast.

In September 2012, Andrew Bird announced Hands Of Glory, a companion EP to Break it Yourself.

Andrew Bird toured in support of Are You Serious through much of 2016 and 2017.

On March 22,2019, Andrew Bird released My Finest Work Yet via Loma Vista Recordings.

On March 5,2021, Andrew Bird released These 13, a collaborative album with Jimbo Mathus.

On June 3,2022, Andrew Bird released Inside Problems via Loma Vista Recordings.

Andrew Bird cites English and Scottish folk music as an early influence.

Andrew Bird has had a number of classical influences such as Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Bela Bartok.

Andrew Bird has stated that, at 22, he found a lot of indie rock and pop music repetitive and boring, but now understands it better.

Andrew Bird appears to have a close relationship with The Handsome Family, an Americana band from Illinois.

Andrew Bird's recasting of our work gives me the strange and wonderful pleasure of understanding my own songs better by hearing him perform them.

One of Andrew Bird's primary instruments is a violin which he acquired when he was 16.

Andrew Bird uses an octave pedal to give the violin the range of a bass.

Andrew Bird began using loop pedals to compensate when performing alone on stage, but later found that looping helped him to "embrace repetition," and compose his songs in a more straightforward manner, since he felt his writing style was too chaotic.