Perfectionism or high standards, call it what you want. Either way, Andrew Bird has a bad case of it, and he hopes it won’t get the best of him–next time.
“I’m determined the next record won’t be this much of a drama.”
The drama in question is “The Mysterious Production of Eggs,” the Chicago singer-songwriter’s fifth full-length album and second since parting ways with his former band, Bowl of Fire.
Since starting “Eggs” in the fall of 2002, Bird scrapped two versions, spent time in six recording studios and put some of the songs through 40 rewrites.
“Sometimes you feel like you have to suffer for it to be valid,” he says.
The suffering and tweaking was worth it. “Eggs,” which came out Feb. 8 on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe label, is Bird’s best since 2001’s “The Swimming Hour,” the album that started his departure from the retro jump-jazz on his first two albums.
“I don’t think I’ll ever go back to writing songs based on my record collection,” Bird says. “Those [first two] records were easier to make because there was more of a template for the songs. They were dictated by what kind of music I was listening to.”
“Eggs,” like “The Swimming Hour,” is an unconventional and rewarding pop album, lush with orchestration, from glockenspiels to drum machines to Bird’s whistling, a razor-sharp secret weapon. Bird’s violin, while no longer his main instrument, is plucked, bowed and strummed throughout the album’s 14 tracks.
The album is filled out by percussionist Kevin O’Donnell, the lone holdover from Bowl of Fire’s first incarnation and the musical director for Chicago’s Redmoon and House theaters, and Chicago’s alt-country chanteuse Nora O’Connor, who’s soaring vocals perfectly compliment Bird’s deadpan tenor.
Backed by first-rate musicians on the record, Bird’s performances over the last few years–he estimates 200 concerts annually–have been largely solo. While he’ll have a proper record-release show April 16 at Metro, his two performances opening for DiFranco this weekend will be his first locally appearance since the album’s release.
It’s his freedom as a solo performer that has contributed to the unending revisions during the recording of “Eggs.”
“I’m constantly tinkering, drastically changing the melody or the words, and always trying to keep a song’s newness, which is never a problem with the live show because you can always improvise,” he says. “It’s capturing that [feeling] on the record that takes quite a bit of effort.”
Andrew Bird
opening for Ani DiFranco
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress Pkwy.
Tickets: Sold out
and
When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Vic Theatre, 3145 N. Sheffield Ave.
Tickets: Sold out
