Andrew Bird

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

In the 1990s, he sang and played violin in several jazz ensembles, including Squirrel Nut Zippers and Kevin O'Donnell's Quality Six.

Trained in the Suzuki method from the age of four, Bird graduated from Lake Forest High School in 1991 and Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in violin performance in 1996.

That same year he self-released his first solo album, Music of Hair.

Vastly different from his later work, this album showcased his violin skills and paid tribute to his fascination with both American and European folk traditions, as well as jazz and blues.

Since 1996, he has released 16 studio albums, as well as several live albums and EPs, spanning various genres including swing music, indie rock, and folk music.

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

Following this, his initial commercial exposure came through collaborative work with the band Squirrel Nut Zippers, appearing on three of their albums (Hot, Sold Out, and Perennial Favorites) between 1996 and 1998.

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

Taking on the role of bandleader, Bird released Thrills on Rykodisc in 1998 with his group Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, shortly followed by a second album Oh! The Grandeur in 1999.

Both albums were heavily influenced by traditional folk, pre-war jazz, and swing, with Bird relying on the violin as his primary musical instrument, as well as providing vocals along with his trademark verbose lyrics.

The Bowl of Fire featured musicians from Bird's hometown of Chicago, including Kevin O'Donnell, Joshua Hirsch, Jon Williams, Nora O'Connor, Andy Hopkins, Jimmy Sutton, Colin Bunn, and Ryan Hembrey.

During this period, Andrew Bird was a member of the jazz group Kevin O'Donnell's Quality Six, for which he was the lead singer and violinist and contributed to arrangements and songwriting for the albums Heretic Blues (Delmark 1999) and Control Freak (Delmark 2000) (both Delmark albums were produced by Raymond Salvatore Harmon).

In 2001, the Bowl of Fire released their third album, The Swimming Hour, a dramatic departure from their previous recordings.

It featured a mixture of styles, from the zydeco-influenced "Core and Rind" to more straightforward rock songs such as "11:11".

Due to this eclectic nature, Bird has often referred to it as his "jukebox album".

Although gaining critical praise (The Swimming Hour received a 9.0 from indie music website Pitchfork ), the band failed to attain commercial success or recognition, playing to audiences as small as 40 people.

In 2002, 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 Bird performed the gig alone, and the surprising success of this solo show suggested potential new directions for his music.

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.

Each Fingerlings EP was released prior to a studio album, and presented a mixture of live performances from different shows, including old tracks, covers, and previously unreleased songs, some of which have since appeared on studio albums.

Weather Systems (2003) was his first solo album after Bowl of Fire disbandment, and it marked a departure from jazz music into indie music.

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

His two subsequent albums were released on Ani Difranco's Righteous Babe Records label.

2003's Weather Systems (originally released on Grimsey Records) was a sparse record with a dramatic change in musical direction.

It featured the tracks "Skin" and "I", proto-versions of songs that would later become "Skin Is, My" (The Mysterious Production of Eggs) and "Imitosis" (Armchair Apocrypha).

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

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

Fingerlings 2 provided Bird with an unexpected boost in recognition in 2004 when it was named album of the month by Mojo.

The Mysterious Production of Eggs (2005) continued a progression towards an eclectic indie–folk sound, and both records formed a stark stylistic break with Bird's earlier work, swapping the lush backing of a full band for carefully layered samples of sound constructed using multitrack recorders and loop pedals.

As his sound changed, Bird made increasing use of guitar, glockenspiel, and whistling in his songwriting, in addition to his traditional violin and vocals.

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

Fingerlings 3, released in October 2006, also featured studio outtakes.

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

In 2010, he appeared on a TED Talk performing his music.

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

Bird's 2019 album My Finest Work Yet was nominated for "Best Folk Album" at the 2020 Grammy Awards.

Beyond his own record releases, he has collaborated with various artists, including The Handsome Family, Dosh, Fiona Apple, and Nora O'Connor.

He has also had a career in film, as a soundtrack composer as well as an actor.

In 2019, Andrew Bird was cast for the fourth installment of Fargo, playing, "a character, written specifically for him, named 'Thurman Smutney'."