Zitat des Tages von Andrew Bird:
I write a lot more when I'm happy, because you're hopeful, you're motivated.
No, it's not dissatisfaction that inspires me to tinker with my songs, it's just restlessness.
Guitars are kind of just, you know, sexy, especially old vintage ones.
The problem is, when you're working with orchestras, you only get the orchestra for about two hours before the performance to pull it all together, and that doesn't sound like a real collaboration.
Well, my main instrument is violin, but I think of myself as a songwriter who happens to play violin.
What you see with your eyes when you're making music is going to have a profound effect on what you hear.
I've done my share of busking, and it's fun until it isn't. There are musicians in the subways that will make you cry, they're so good.
I create little challenges for myself, like, 'Okay, whatever you do in this song, you've got to somehow work in Greek Cypriots,' or something like that.
There is something comforting about going into a practice room, putting your sheet music on a stand and playing Bach over and over again.
I don't write poetry and then strum some chords and then fit the words on top of the chords.
A good espresso to me is a little bit salty; you just become used to a good taste. Anytime I go into a new place and they don't clean their machine properly or the water temperature isn't right, it tastes awful.
I guess I'm attracted to more archaic words because they can be imbued with more meaning, because their definition is elusive.
The first notes I still play when I start a sound check are classical. Those are my roots.
I spend a lot of time working by myself developing songs, but I really need some other counterpart to help me pull it all together, because you go nuts working if I had to finish an entire project all within my own head.
In school I was painfully shy. But as soon as I had to get up in front of the class and give a book report, it was alarming - I'd suddenly be very articulate.
You travel with the hope that something unexpected will happen. It has to do with enjoying being lost and figuring it out and the satisfaction. I always get a little disappointed when I know too well where I'm going, or when I've lived in a place so long that there's no chance I could possibly get lost.
The idea of writing songs because you're depressed and you need to communicate it somehow, that isn't really true for me.
Since I first picked up the violin, I've been very interested in tone and texture: I would have very visceral reactions to the texture of a snare drum or a pedal steel guitar or a violin.
Playing the violin and singing and whistling are just three different ways of making sound.
I still kind of believe this absurd line that if you have to write it down, it's not worth remembering.
