Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - EP 183: Andrew Bird

Episode Date: August 2, 2022

In the immortal words of Andee "Beats" Avila: "Mama's, don't let your daughters grow up to date Frasco." Andy shares some feelings and procures a bit of catharsis for himself; Nick pitches an Alone sp...in-off show. And on the Interview Hour we got a real legend; the Sultan of Songs, Strings & Whistles: Andrew Bird! Some parting wisdom from Beats: "Wash your butts and don't talk to your girlfriend hammered." This is EP 183. Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For more information on Andy Frasco, the band and/or the blog, go to: AndyFrasco.com Check out Andy's new song, "Puff Break (Believe That)" on iTunes, Spotify  Learn some new words while listening to something beautiful: www.andrewbird.net Produced by Andy Frasco Joe Angelhow Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Andee "Beats" Avila Shawn Eckels Arno Bakker

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Now, a message from the UN. Don't let them drink whiskey or eat lots of drugs Let them be doctors and lawyers and such Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be frasco Cause they'll never be home, they'll be beaten off alone Even with someone they love Frasco ain't easy to love and he smokes lots of weed he'd rather give you some shrooms than something you actually need shrooms than something you actually need.
Starting point is 00:01:07 Birkin socks, sandals, and old Lakers jerseys. Each night begins a new day. If he doesn't text back and he don't die young, he'll probably just crowd surf away. Mamas, don't let your daughters grow up to date frasco. Cause he'll cuss at Thanksgiving, smoke pot with grandma, and stink up your whole goddamn
Starting point is 00:01:37 house. Mamas, don't let your daughters grow up to date frasco. Don't let your daughters Grow up to date Frasco They'll have lots of sex Get HPV Blame it on her Ex-boyfriend's mouth Fucking beautiful
Starting point is 00:01:58 Wow We're doing a podcast now. Hey, and we're back. We're just bitching. We bitched before we even started. If that would have been the podcast, we'd be rich. Hey, Andy Avila is just out here before taking a shower. Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast.
Starting point is 00:02:19 I'm Andy Frasco. How's our heads? How's our minds? My ADD just flared up there. I got people in the background. I got a full house at the Frasco has her heads. How's her mind? ADD just flared up there. I got like people in the background. I got a full house at the Frasco house today. We're recording our record. Let's go. I noticed Chris is on the record. This is a good, what do you do? Oh, he's a hoe. What do you do? He quit the band. He didn't quit the band, but he, he like hurt
Starting point is 00:02:42 his shoulder and he's telling everyone else. He hold his, hurt his shoulder, but me and now he can't make the August tour and he won't tell me he's telling everyone else. Why would he, I don't understand what he wants to. Okay. Before he texted me, at least keep me updated. What's the release picture for the asshole? Like MRI, you play fucking punk bait. You're supposed to be injured. Dumbass anyway, pussy. I'm just so fed up with communication. Now you're the mad one this week. Oh man, I'm getting it from all ends. It was so funny. Last week you were like this, this is you or can we use that? Nick was so negative and everybody's like best opening. I've heard a long time. Fuck Floyd. No, I'm've heard fuck Floyd like Floyd but it's
Starting point is 00:03:29 just um I'm just getting it all ends of it yep what else is going on what else are you mad at oh you know fighting with my girlfriend dude that's hard she doesn't listen I feel like girlfriend shouldn't listen to the podcast oh she does and she gets pissed. Well, it's just, you know, it is part of me because I don't of course it is. It's how relationships work. This is how I go. Here we go. This is how it goes with me when I'm working on something, a project or if I'm on tour or whatever I'm working on podcast, I'm in tunnel vision. This is why I kind of feel like I'm a little autistic. No, you're more like OCD probably or probably whatever, because I don't think about anything else besides I've been there finishing the task.
Starting point is 00:04:15 Super annoying actually to be around you. So yeah, cause I'm, you know, like you'll talk to my conversation when I'm editing a podcast or fucking working on the spreadsheets for the band and I'm just super dialed in on that. I mean, it's a good thing in about shout out to dialed in gummies, but I'm dialed in. I just, I don't know. This is just who I am. Yep. You're 35. You're not changing now. I thought I told, I told her that on the phone yesterday. I'm like, I'm 34. She has been chiseled away.
Starting point is 00:04:30 The marble is on the floor around you. The statue of David is done. Okay. There's no more. I'm in my prime. Now I'm just chasing. I'm just chasing. I'm just chasing.
Starting point is 00:04:38 I'm just chasing. I'm just chasing. I'm just chasing. I'm just chasing. I'm just chasing. I'm just chasing. I'm just chasing. I'm just chasing. I'm just chasing. I'm just chasing. I'm just chasing. 34 years old. The statue has been chiseled away. The marble is on the floor around you. The statue of David is done. Okay. There's no more.
Starting point is 00:04:47 I'm in my prime. Now I'm just chipping away. Prime. No, you're just done. I don't know about prime. Anyway, we got Andrew Bird on the show today. Oh yeah. Big time guest. I never really checked him out. I have some friends that are like obsessed with him though. Oh yeah. I did this did this interview well he's the you know for my sister who's right now what what's your sister do i'd rather hear about that than andrew bird now get into your sister my sister no no she's sweet steph's sweet
Starting point is 00:05:15 but san diego's sister oh yeah she's and she's the reason a guy got into music and she's all jealous of me and my other sister and why is she being a bitch right now, though? I love family. I love family. She's a scientist, and she doesn't think I'm taking the COVID virus seriously. Oh, she's a liberal cuck. What am I supposed to do? I work.
Starting point is 00:05:35 Now she's getting mad? Like, three years? No, no. This is just a defense that she doesn't want to hang out with our family. Oh, that's fair. You know? Why didn't she just say,
Starting point is 00:05:43 I don't want to hang out with you guys? That'd be a lot more... That's all you have to say. This is like last week when we're like, that's fair. You know, why don't you just say, I don't want to hang out with you guys. It'd be a lot more. That's all. That's all you have to say. Like what was like last week when we're like, don't lie. I don't want to be around you guys. Yeah. I don't try to hang out with her. My sister tries to be like, you know, a Buddha and try to glue this whole, cause she's like the other one. Yeah. The one I'm cool with Steph. She's bad. What's the other one's name Melissa okay she just sucks and it's like it's just she's like she's not I don't know jealousy or whatever it is I know she's jealous she's a doctor well she's always been jealous of my sister which one
Starting point is 00:06:15 oh you only have one sister two sisters yeah what uh why my sisters are two years apart so they went to high school and then you're way after them, right? Yeah, so I'm not even in this beef. So they have a lot more... They have a lot more juice. Oh yeah, two girls in high school at the same time? That's basically Vietnam. No difference. So, you know, she's always had one
Starting point is 00:06:37 against my sister, Steph, and I've always had my sister, Steph's, back. Who's older? Sweet Melissa. Yeah. And Steph, she's just a nice person. They're both smart, huh? Me and Steph relate because we're tunnel vision.
Starting point is 00:06:53 This is why the people who love us are so frustrated with us because we just go die. We just go straight into that fucking wormhole. So one of them is really scared really scared of COVID and diseases. And the other one's like licking tabletops and moving to Louisville,
Starting point is 00:07:11 Kentucky. Yeah. And she just moved back. She's like, I'm done with Louisville. Oh, that didn't last that long. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:07:17 What? Why? Just didn't like it there? No, she's kind of bougie. Did they move there for a job? Um, yeah,
Starting point is 00:07:22 my, my, how do you just decide to move back? Cause I don't oh is this like an okay podcast does this talk about family yeah i guess so your podcast yeah my my sister's uh husband what are they called my brother-in-law yeah yeah it's called your brother -in-law i don't really with him either he's kind of a douche but yeah this is awesome but i love my sister so she if she loves him, this is why me and my
Starting point is 00:07:45 family keep it. Yeah. You keep it distant. There's no friction though. Yeah. Can't get friction if you don't rub together. He, he like invent, he didn't invent, but he's, he's a really smart guy. He saw that Amazon marketplace had an Epson salt, didn't have a lot of people selling Epson salt. So he built this whole Epson salt company. Within there? Within the e-commerce, Amazon. And now they're just fucking killing it. They're killing it.
Starting point is 00:08:12 I hate people like that. Shout out to... I'm so jealous. Yeah, me too. I can never have good ideas. He supports my sister and I got to love him for it. All my ideas are like, we should go to a G major here.
Starting point is 00:08:21 Right. It doesn't pay anything. No. No one cares about chords. No one cares about songs anymore either. I know. Songs are dying. Songs are dying. It doesn't pay anything. No cares about chords. I don't cares about songs anymore either. I know songs are dying. It's just TV. No. Anyway, if you're in a band, rexy.com get in a band and you want to go play your sister's wedding. Oh God, the music industry is so fucked up right now. What happened now? This is fucked. A lot of people aren't selling tickets. A lot of bands are breaking up.
Starting point is 00:08:49 I read an article that there's a lot of newer bands taking the risk and going on tour. Well, yeah, because they have less overhead. No, they're not going on tour. Oh, they're not. Because they're not going to take the risk. Well, that's dumb. If they're going to fail, you have to take risks. So sign in to a repsy.com. Hey Andy, get in here. Yeah. Andy Avila is here. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a positive family members. You want to
Starting point is 00:09:16 pitch about you had any family members you want to bitch about, give me, we got Andy Give me... I was thinking about the blow with Gerlach right now. We got Andy, a drummer in the building. He's from L.A. Andy, what do I do about the whole relationship thing? What do I need to do? Listen. Andy's married. Andy doesn't know... So, you know when you're like in high school
Starting point is 00:09:37 and you have a bunch of girlfriends and you fuck up all the time and you do all this dumbass shit because you don't know what you're doing? He's doing that now at 35. so you're figuring it out i'll figure it out and she also needs to realize that too you've never had a girlfriend really your whole life so no it's a little give and take man she's got to figure it out too you know i know she's cool you're cool she's cool you're cool you're at that weird cool three-month stage you know i'm at seven months you've been together for seven months already
Starting point is 00:10:12 right no way i swear february holy it's almost august we're all surprised it's the hump the hump just shut up when you're drunk stop Stop talking about shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or when I'm tired. Never speak to a woman unless you're fully alert, have coffee, have been eating already, maybe a little high on time, maybe you got paid that day. That's when you talk to women.
Starting point is 00:10:39 You don't talk to women when you're drunk or tired or at work. It's just my personality she's not fucking with right now. Yeah, that's almost worse. Because this is just who I am. I'm not doing anything wrong wrong she just doesn't like the core person that i am deep down so i think we can fix this oh no but i gotta talk about this is who i am i keep everything open with my fans and my people and all the new fans are just here to see listen to andrew bird what's up i'm andy hi how we doing nice to meet andrew bird is like a very serious serious songwriter he's a genius very genius this interview was really smart and it's going to be awesome we're going to get off this goddamn you
Starting point is 00:11:14 getting broken up with today topic all right speaking of alone i've been watching alone that tv show alone i haven't seen it holy it's the best show ever. You know what it is? No. Alone is a show where they put 10 survivalists in the middle of nowhere. And like this time it was in Canada and they're all about five miles apart and you just go out there with a certain amount of tools. You won't take any food with you. You have to build your own shelter, blah, blah, and whoever lasts the longest wins $500,000. So basically touring. No, this is way harder than touring. They have to like, they like
Starting point is 00:11:45 star. Some of them almost starve to death. So you get pulled out medically. That's right. Yeah. Turing in Europe. Dude's like they're getting hunted. There's bears around. They're getting hunted by bears. They're like, Oh yeah, it's so good. So I was thinking, Oh, well that's cool. But we should do some other spin offs right like other game shows. So I have some ideas. Okay, instead of alone, instead of alone song, it's called song force a jam band to write an actual song. It must have it must have it must have at least two verses a chorus, a double chorus and a bridge. No guitar solo allowed. The lyrics must make
Starting point is 00:12:24 sense and if you use the word funk in the lyrics or the lyrics are about being in a band, you're disqualified. What do you do all day? This is what you do all day. It took me 10 minutes. What do you do? Are you just thinking about just scenarios of just how how people can be tormented? Yeah, because I've been watching alone. This took me 10 minutes. I sat down and wrote this in 10 minutes. I'm a genius. I have a perfect mind anyway.
Starting point is 00:12:48 Nothing. Are you okay? I'm great. This is hilarious. We talking about you hate the jam scene. You just know I love the jam scene. That's why it's I'm good at making fun of it. You just bitch about your sister and your wife for 20 minutes and you're calling me
Starting point is 00:13:02 an asshole for thinking of fun games jesus christ we got a lot of uh sponsors we need to talk about we can't be talking about friends right now we'll be talking about dialed in gummies doubting gummies do you know let's see if let's see if um andy alvin knows the dialed in gummies pitch i know if you put them in a container in the sun they melt together and then you don't know what's reading. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Wouldn't we? Sometimes if we keep them in my backpack, well, it was like 150 degrees and we left them in the van and then we took them out and they were all melted together. And Andy's just like looking at it and just goes good night. I got really high. Yeah. How high should you think you ate? I tried it. I probably about 25 and I was like, okay, this is strong.
Starting point is 00:13:48 You know why I'm not too worried about you there? It's because they're very homogenous, which means they spread out the THC equally throughout each gummy. I know that. They get checked for that. Yeah, but if they get melted together, could you judge what side of the gummy has more THC? No, because they're even.
Starting point is 00:14:02 That's the thing. They get tested for that. You have to pass a homogeny. Well, if you- Because they because they're even. That's like the thing. They get tested for that. You have to pass it like a homogeny. Well, if you... Because they could be more dense. That's what I'm saying. But it was really cool. It felt like a really big gusher.
Starting point is 00:14:12 Oh, hell yeah. It was fire. So guys, buy... God, these promos are horrible today. Colorado. If you're in the Colorado area, buy some dialed-in gummies. They're the best.
Starting point is 00:14:23 What? My fucking fan. Oh, yeah. Dialed-in, buy some dialed in gummies. They're the best. What? I fucking fan. Oh, yeah. Maybe. Oh, there it is. They're solving this. Each one's with a specific grower. You ever hit that QR code on there? Yeah. With the grower.
Starting point is 00:14:34 Tell you where the grower is. All about how they got it. I didn't hear because we're recording records. I understand that. We're excited. I can't wait. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Delete that. Delete that. Delete that. Delete that we're excited. I can't wait. Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. Delete that. Delete that. Delete that. Delete that. What a fucking episode. We got to get out of here. It was your turn last week.
Starting point is 00:14:53 Yeah, but I was very generous. You're specifically attacking people that are closest to in your life. I'm generalizing about bands beats. How we feeling about the new songs? I really do like them. They like them They're pretty dope Did you change anything off those demos? We did We turned it into the band They're the same form But we changed a lot of shit
Starting point is 00:15:17 But I'm excited Do you feel good about these songs? They're actually really dope The guys that you wrote them with They sound dope We're at five songs done um rocky mound recorders yeah it's really cool it's cool yeah it's like 90s when you walk in and you super 90s yeah it feels like you're like a super like state-of-the-art studio it's just like 90s vibe in there yeah very it was built in the 88 or something like that it feels like they like did the voiceovers for home improvement or something.
Starting point is 00:15:49 Yeah. All right. We got Andrew Burr on the show. This is. You think this is going to even make the episode? I'm going to cut a lot of this shit. To be fair, it's all your fault. I know, but I just needed to get it. I haven't been able. I tried to lighten thing up with my fictional game show bit. You know, I know I just haven't
Starting point is 00:16:08 been able to talk about any of this stuff. I know, but sometimes you don't have to talk about it on camera on a mic. That's true. Probably can't shouldn't do it for thousands of thousands of people. But anyway, we're going to have a great week. It's only going to get better. My week's going great. I've been watching alone. I made a game show bed. Let's get Andy motivation. You motivate people, great motivation for the week. Listen, get up in the morning when you don't want to take a shower, take a fucking shower. You know what I'm saying? Wash ass America. Get in the fucking studio. Write some music.
Starting point is 00:16:47 Get off your ass. Go on tour. Fuck the ticket sales. Yeah. Get on Repsy.com. Get yourself some dialed in gummies. Go to bed when you got to go to bed. And do not talk to your girlfriend when you're hammered.
Starting point is 00:16:59 How about that? All right, we're going to have a great day. Everything is fine. I'm definitely fine. Everything's fine. Guys, everything's going to be fine. Everything's going to be great. Actually, it's not.
Starting point is 00:17:08 If you're feeling low right now, it's just going to go up. You can't just keep going down. That's not how life goes. Ups and downs, and don't forget that. Andrew Bird, you're next. Sorry about the opening. Sorry about Andy's family.
Starting point is 00:17:23 Sorry. I decided I don't get to see these guys a lot, and I just needed to... You need to vent. Sorry about the opening. Sorry about Andy's family. Sorry. Sorry. I decided I don't get to see these guys a lot, and I just needed to... You need to vent. I need to vent. And he has to do three ring lights facing him into a microphone.
Starting point is 00:17:34 All right, guys. Have a great day. Bye. All right. Our next interview is sponsored by Fandium. Yes, Fandium. It's a digital fundraising platform that inspires fans to support nonprofits and engages them with the chances to win virtual and live experiences
Starting point is 00:17:58 with their favorite artists and venues, festivals, and creators. They partner with a lot of artists and non-profits to create fundraising campaigns and we are giving away a campaign for your guys your favorite fish fish dicks campaign um sign up and you could get two tickets per night to all four fish shows at dick sporting goods in commerce city colorado on september 1st through 4th damn this looks actually looks like a good deal early Early entry to the venue for each night of the show. You could watch Trey comb his hair if you want.
Starting point is 00:18:31 Round trip travel to Denver, Colorado plus a five-night hotel stay for two. Damn, this sounds like a perfect night. Transportation to and from the show each night. One band signed fish poster. Dick's merch pack. That's funny.
Starting point is 00:18:47 And this contest ends on August 16th. So if you can go sign up, go to fandium.com slash frasco and tell my users, yes, my users, you guys, use the bonus code frasco100 at checkout to earn an extra 100 bonus entries for their donation.
Starting point is 00:19:07 It's a good cause. You might as well do it. And get to see your favorite band, Phish. All right. Let's start the interview. Andrew Bird, here we go. All right. Next up on the interview hour, one of my favorite artists of all time, Andrew Bird.
Starting point is 00:19:25 Yeah, Chicago's own baby. I love this interview. I've been wanting to interview him. He was like basically one of my first favorite musicians when I was, oh, got to be, I was like 13 or 14. And followed his career ever since. And now I finally get him on the show. And I'm very excited about it. Super smart.
Starting point is 00:19:48 He's a violin virtuoso. He's a songwriter. He's an amazing artist. And I know you're going to love this interview. I loved it. So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the interview hour, Mr. Andrew Bird.
Starting point is 00:20:03 Andrew Bird. Yes. What's up, buddy? Not much. How's it going over there? Where are you right now? In Los Angeles. Yeah?
Starting point is 00:20:17 When did you move to Los Angeles? About 10 years ago. From Chicago? Are you from Chicago? I'm from Chicago, but I was in New York for like three years before I moved here. What do you see in the difference of the music scenes in New York and LA? New York, I was not really too in the music scene, but I was having a kid and a bit preoccupied. But in LA, it's pretty vibrant. I think there's a lot of talented people here. I guess what I learned years ago when I switched from making records in New Orleans and Chicago to coming to LA, is that people who are really good at what they do come to LA to get paid. Yeah, it's true, man. It is.
Starting point is 00:21:15 When people work more like nine to five normal schedules and get stuff done. I scrapped a record twice that i made in nashville and and chicago respectively and then i came to la and just knocked it out in three weeks and yeah yeah what's the difference like what makes you scrap a record in your brain um sometimes you're you know there's this is like uh maybe my sixth or seventh album of mysterious production of eggs where i didn't know what i really how i wanted to i had to teach myself how to make it you know and i kept getting off track. I kept drifting off, uh, off course.
Starting point is 00:22:08 And yeah, making records is tricky because I've learned that I need to get in and out quick before I forget who I am. It's so true. No, this, the more time you spend in the studio, uh,
Starting point is 00:22:21 the more you're inclined to kind of drift off course. What? It's like yeah what record do you feel like you drift off course the furthest and but you still was able to finish it um uh which one that was probably that one mysterious production of eggs the first versions if you heard them they're so I mean they're cool but it's like it's like a suit that doesn't fit right you know it just doesn't look right yeah it's a little the sleeves are a little too long I don't know it was a little bit the musicians I had there were I was playing with with had very strong tastes. I'm an adaptive musician, my ear. If I'm playing with people that have a strong stylistic sense,
Starting point is 00:23:17 I'll go with them. Sometimes I have to clear the room to make sure I'm making what's in my own head. Right. And is that harder when you're playing? Because you never really seem to keep the same band. You're always playing with different people. Is it harder to stay on course when you're always playing with new people,
Starting point is 00:23:36 or do you like that better? I think it's good to play with new people. I prefer to keep it steady, but it's hard to keep band together. It's always been the most important thing is the drummer for me. Because I can cover almost everything else. But drums I don't play and I need to really work with a great drummer to figure it out.
Starting point is 00:24:07 Yeah, especially with all the looping and stuff you do live and stuff. Yeah, that's tricky. That takes a special drummer to be cool with that. And sometimes I'll just turn the loop off if it's just not, if it feels like we're trying too hard you know um but it's the looping is is how i conceive of the the music um and it tells the band how it keeps the music strange and unusual you know If it was just a four-piece band, everything would get normalized,
Starting point is 00:24:48 but the loop shows the whole band what's going on in my head. Then the question is, even on this new album, the song will start with a drum filler or drum pattern, but really there was a loop there first. Right. It was showing everybody how I'm feeling the tune, and then I decide whether to keep it in there. Because recording with a loop,
Starting point is 00:25:16 it chews up a lot of sonic space that maybe you'd rather just hear the purity of the band playing together. But it's the key to the loop. It's like a quick and dirty demo of what's going on in my head for the band. Right. And then what if, so when you're thinking about, it's like you're basically a one-man show in a sense of hearing all these different sounds in your head. And then let's say now going into tour practice,
Starting point is 00:25:46 and how hard is it to get the band hip to what's going on in your head? Do you get frustrated or do you let the live song be different than the album song? I tend to let the live song be different. First of all, the albums these days that I make are pretty live. There's very few overdubs and the vocals are live. There's not like, oh man, how are we going to trigger that weird thing that happens here in the song? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:18 Or how many pairs of hands do we have to make this thing happen? That's boring to me um recreating an album so mostly i play with like heavy jazz players that can then understand a good uh concise pop song you know so they can roll with uh you and it going in different directions. I think that's interesting. My audience is used to that. The songs don't necessarily sound like the album, and they appreciate that, I think.
Starting point is 00:26:57 Yeah. I've been a fan of you, God, forever. You're one of my favorite songwriters to date and the uniqueness of how many records you have and stuff. Is there pressure to play older stuff when you're on an album circuit or do you not give a shit about that? Do you play whatever you want? I pretty much play whatever I want, but I know there's some teams that have proven themselves to like, to get me to that place that feels like a connection with the audience. So I know there's, it's not because the teams were, were hits per se.
Starting point is 00:27:43 It's because they, uh, they became staples of a live set because they because they can adapt to how I feel that day. You know what I mean? It's not like, oh, I got to play this song today. It's like a tune like Why or Capsized or Three White Horses always works. Yeah. Because it's just a blueprint. works yeah because it's just a blueprint and however whatever mood anyone's in when we step on stage that song will adapt to it yeah yeah totally and then and it's got to be the same when you're going into a different crowd too you
Starting point is 00:28:16 know maybe some towns are sleepier than others and don't really care as much or do you even think about that do you you't even, I feel like you're a dude don't even give a shit about that. You just do your own thing, bro. I just, I'm lucky. I think it comes from, you know, major success being kind of elusive for the first 15 years of my career, you know. Explain that to me.
Starting point is 00:28:44 So there was, well, we just, you know, it was very DIY. 15 years of my career. Explain that to me. It was very DIY. I went through several conversion vans. We just toured around the country playing dive bars for a good 12 years. I was pretty much cool with that. Then I went solo. I was just chewing by myself and that's when when suddenly people started showing up like I sort of critical critical mass things started happening but I wasn't really prepared
Starting point is 00:29:16 for and I was like oh crap people are finally coming and that I'm not long And that long runway of my 20s and early 30s of just hitting the pavement and trying to win over a crowd in Chattanooga. And then coming back to Chattanooga six months later and trying to build that crowd. You're kind of trying to win over one person at a time. So, yeah. Did you like that? Did you like how your journey was or did you wish it was different? I have to say it was tough,
Starting point is 00:30:00 but success would always come just in the nick of time before I couldn't take it anymore. What was the worst moment? Oh, like being in a motel. I had a large band before I went solo. And six of us in a Motel 6 in Nebraska. My drummer was sleeping on the on the console of tv like like we're just scattered around all of us like and like you know we would stop at rest areas to pick up the the discount motel
Starting point is 00:30:37 oh like we would like from the stage this is humiliating we would we would do a public address you know a PA announcement that we needed a place to stay that night and then we'd screen people who came up to us after the show to see if they're they're murderers or meth heads you know what was what was the screening process like what were the questions you're asking to get a little psychology in it? We just all kind of scatter around the room and then we'd interview people and then kind of come and confer about who we thought was the most solid and the least scary. And yeah, you'd wake up like cat litter stuck to your face you know um it is you know it was fun it was like an adventure for a while yeah um
Starting point is 00:31:33 and then like i said i went solo once things started people started showing up but then i was so used to the diy thing that i didn't like i didn't um scale up very quick. Yeah. Because I was like, this is a flash in the pan, this is going to go away any minute. I really should have had a tour manager. The biggest mistake I made was playing Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona solo,
Starting point is 00:32:03 with the Jesus Lizard playing right next to me. I was like, oh, that was a mistake. That was the year my buddy Valentine was playing in a concrete festival grounds, and it was the loudest thing I'd ever experienced. I almost fainted. But anyway, and I'm just like violin guy up there by myself, trying to get a bunch of Spanish teenagers to do the thing. They're trying to party to me,
Starting point is 00:32:37 but I was at a disadvantage that I couldn't really get past. But I was such a road warrior. Like I would, even if my band, you know, they'd say, oh, I can only do two and a half weeks. And then so they'd go home wherever we were in the world. And I'd just keep going. Like one night would be with a band and the next night would be solo no matter what,
Starting point is 00:33:03 whether I was playing a festival or it was just i was not i was so committed to the that that ethos of just do it yourself and be scrappy yeah i'm saying i took it a little too far yeah well or it made you who you are i mean now you could be play with everyone play by yourself and do your thing. Yeah. I guess that going back to what you're saying about whether I feel I need to play certain old songs or if I, yeah, I don't know. I feel when I get on stage, I do feel a responsibility to the audience not to be too indulgent. But at the same time, I have earned the right to do whatever I want.
Starting point is 00:33:55 Yeah. I feel like. I'm going to clap to that. Let's fucking go. That's my dude. Let's go, Andrew. It's true man. So I want to talk about, you know, when you're, I'm really into stand-up comedy and how they tour. And when you're with so many people for x amount of years and all
Starting point is 00:34:15 of a sudden, boom, straight into solo, what was the mental health like? Were you lonely? Was it hard to, were you, because you seem like an introvert, was it hard to get friends out there? Tell me those years, how it was. When I went solo, it wasn't a big grand plan. I just moved out to a barn in the country and fixed it up into a studio. I thought, I'm going to make albums here with my band, and my friends are going to come out and we'm going to make albums here with my band. And my friends are going to come out, and we're going to make music.
Starting point is 00:34:48 It's going to be, you know, I won't have to pay studio time. And I had this whole plan. And I was like, oh, shit. And none of my musicians I play with have cars, so they can't come out to this. It's three hours from Chicago and I was spending like two two or three weeks out there by myself not talking to anybody and just working on that's when I started doing the
Starting point is 00:35:15 looping thing and that that was super important time but I was like I was not prepared for the isolation like I mean I am an introvert and I do like solitude, but that was extreme. I was like, what am I doing? I'm just talking to myself all day and just playing music all day. Then I would get in my, at that point I scaled down to a Honda Element, and I would pack all my amps into the Element and my violins,
Starting point is 00:35:50 and I would hit the road driving seven, eight hours between gigs and just playing solo. I would load in a bunch of amps because I I have like Three fender amps that I play through. Mm-hmm. Oops. I lost you there for a second. Oh, yeah. Yeah just turn this off and Now it'll go away anyway And then I would play the show and i'd run over to the merch table and sell as many records as i could and talk to people and i'd put the cash from the from the uh
Starting point is 00:36:40 cd sales or whatever in one pocket then i'd go settle the show with the promoter and i'd put that money in my other pocket and then i go back to the hotel like draw the blinds and throw the merch money on one bed and throw the settled money on the other bed it was like i was robbing banks and then i'd you know crash out and drive eight hours to the next gig and uh you know i was doing pretty well actually i was very lean operation um but i was you know i it was too not it's just too much for one person to maintain did you did you grow up frugal um solidly middle class i mean my parents would argue about how much groceries were but it wasn't i was fair we were fairly comfortable yeah because you didn't you go to northwestern yeah and um did you get a scholarship? Or what was that like? I got a scholarship to the first I went to Illinois Wesleyan and I got
Starting point is 00:37:52 offered a full ride for the music school. And then I got there. And then the teacher that the violin professor that offered me that scholarship said said oh i wasn't really authorized to give you that scholarship so they rescinded it what and it was very corrupt and uh and so i left and i went from there to northwestern and uh yeah that was that was a better better scene damn they hustled you like that they probably did that to so many kids too. Yeah. The guy was Russian and so it was a bartering corruption culture. Look, he took my violin and he said, you drive in good track.
Starting point is 00:38:44 He says, but he picked up my bow, which it didn't have a label on it. He says, but your bow, no, we need to get you a better bow. He said, I'll sell you this bow for $6,000, and then I'll make sure you get the proper seat in the orchestra that you deserve. Holy shit, it was a standoff. Yeah. I got out of there as quick as I could.
Starting point is 00:39:07 Have you seen that guy since? No, no. He was funny though. He was, he was, one time I played at like a school convocation and I, you know, I played the, the theme to the Civil War, Ken Burns Civil War series, which paid my bills for the first couple of years. It's called The Shoken Farewell. It's just a beautiful melody, and people loved it. Afterwards, he was super jealous. He says, all you want is applause.
Starting point is 00:39:41 Oh, my God. Look at you now. Your career is probably way more popping than that Russian dude's. Fuck him. No, he was in dire straits, I think. Oh, really? Yeah, which is why he was hustling. I think he needed the money. Didn't get that royalty money. I want to talk about, do you think you learned the Suzuki method helped you become the musician you are now?
Starting point is 00:40:14 And give people the explanation of what the Suzuki method is, who don't know it. Yeah, it's still around, but it really swept the suburbs in the 70s in america it's a japanese method that uh where you're you're taught an instrument violin was the most popular where the idea is you're learning it as you're learning language you know how little kids can pick up foreign languages like that you know no problem because their minds are are malleable and still forming neural pathways so they can pick up language and the idea is like well music is the language so it should work for for violin this incredibly difficult instrument and and that was the idea so you learn by ear and it's purest form
Starting point is 00:41:06 and you have music in front of you but it's just a page of notes you don't really you're not really reading and and so it's kind of even it's it's mixes like Bach and Mozart and then there's some folk tunes. It's like a folk tradition, but with classical music, if that makes any sense. They mold you and you start when you're four or five, and by the time you're eight, you can play pretty decently well.
Starting point is 00:41:41 Yeah. You're not thinking of yourself as a musician per se it's just this thing you do when you're a kid you're more so you're more thinking like a language like it just comes naturally exactly and that that's definitely uh it has a lot to do with the kind of musician i became and i but when i got to high school i couldn't read a note and then i was suddenly in orchestras where it gets more competitive and you have to you know sight read and i i my ear was huge but my my brain the other part of the brain that like deciphers notes and what they mean was not developed so it was very stressful but i would just kind of my ear could always get things faster than my brain
Starting point is 00:42:32 could so i have a direct if i hear it i can play it you know whereas classical music is set up differently where it's there's you know everything's are preserved by notes and people interpret the notes and and it's not it's not like a hundred percent creative endeavor always it's like how you interpret bach or mozart or whatever it being kind of trying to find what the composer intended and it's when I was playing classical music, it's like you're kind of in this comforting world of like, oh, well, no one's better than Beethoven or Mozart, and we're just the sort of the flock, the sheep that kind of keep the tradition going.
Starting point is 00:43:22 And that's cool, but it just wasn't for me. Right. And then, I mean, it must have helped you with harmony too, because of all the looping and stuff. Yeah. Like, the violin is an inherently linear instrument. You can usually play two notes at the same time. So it's hard to play counterpoint i mean there's there's a cut there's
Starting point is 00:43:48 like a bach piece called the bach chaconne where where it's four-part harmony that you're kind of breaking the chords with the bow and that's that's as far as it goes otherwise it's just meant to play this single line melody but the looping opened that up for me where i could play this sort of polyrhythmic pizzicato stuff um i could play bass lines that were that i heard in my head that didn't really conform to typical bass lines i mean it's just i it just opened up a whole new possibility for the instrument. I still use it. I don't know. I can't see myself not using it.
Starting point is 00:44:32 It wasn't really meant to be like, I'm replacing the band, I'm replacing an orchestra with looping. It's an extension of the instrument. Yeah. I love when you start your loops with the bass line on the violin. I mean, you got the right tone for it, too. It's beautiful. What about linear? You could sing two notes, too, can't you?
Starting point is 00:44:59 No, that's a two-ven, unless you do throat singing. Yeah, can you do that?. Yeah. Can you do that? No, my drummer can do it. It's tough. But yeah, the violin and the whistle and the voice are all coming from the same place. Yeah. Sometimes I get them mixed up. I'm really tired. I'm supposed to sing and I'll whistle or I'm supposed to whistle and I play. It's so fascinating. I mean,
Starting point is 00:45:38 you were so young when you learned this method. Who were the people pushing you to learn this method? Who were your inspirations when you were younger? Or was your parents like pressuring you to become a musician? No, no, not at all. If anything, they kind of kept me from getting swept up in it being too serious. Like there was a couple that would take young kids and turn them into prodigies yeah you know there's this whole thing this whole myth of the prodigy it's like it's like a circus sideshow where they say oh look this six-year-old can play Tchaikovsky and isn't that amazing and they just came
Starting point is 00:46:20 out like this you know and there's a whole uh kind of super uh i think not super healthy like world that turns out these super young phenoms and they wanted to do that with me my parents stepped in and said no that's too that's too heavy so uh but uh as far as i yeah i i think until i was maybe 15 it was all just kind of just a thing i did that i didn't didn't it wasn't a drag i enjoyed it relatively but then around that age you know you're a teenager everything else kind of sucks in life and i'm like well at least i'm at least i'm good at this yeah and and i then i that's when i got i said i'm going to be the best at this and i i got swept up in the romance of being like you know what um you know i don't know that they got all mixed up in in the kind of drama of I don't know, they'd go mixed up in the drama of the teenage years.
Starting point is 00:47:34 First, I was into playing these concertos. They're super challenging to play and it's like the soundtrack to like you know all my friends were listening to uh uh like brit pop from the 80s the cure or yeah uh you know uh it's a lot of 480 bands and goths and whatever. That had its own teenage drama to it. Mine was like Dvorak Violin Concerto. Then I got tired of the Western classical world and started exploring different folk traditions and then jazz and early jazz and and that that that was a whole nother phase it is halftime at the endy fresco interviewer
Starting point is 00:48:44 ladies and gentlemen, before halftime, I'd like to talk about Repsy.com. We forgot to talk about it during the opening segment during my therapy session with Nick. But sign up for Repsy.com. They're a great company.
Starting point is 00:48:56 If you're in a band, if you are a DJ, if you're a comedian, I mean, if you have a talent that you want to do for the entertaining of the arts, put your band's profile or your artist's profile on Repsy.com. It's a win-win. If you have an agent, they don't take a cut. If you do not have an agent, they take a small cut, and you might as well get as many people as you can out there going to bat for you,
Starting point is 00:49:23 because it's hard times out here. I'm out here in the trenches. I see all the shows that are happening and all the new shows that are coming up. There's going to be a lot of competition. So you might as well get as much as you can out of all the people helping you out. So please sign up for Repsy.com and like Nick, right? Sign up for Repsy.com. Sign up for Repsy.com. I just like to add that if you do currently have an agent, you don't have to pay double booking fees. All right. All right. We're done. I love you.
Starting point is 00:49:54 Thank you Repsy for sponsoring the podcast. Did you ever feel like, cause you didn't learn the traditional way of music that you're like the odd man out when you're a kid? A little bit. You mean the traditional versus Suzuki? Yeah. Like you said in high school, you weren't understood because you said your ear was big,
Starting point is 00:50:23 but your brain was small when everyone else teaching was just basically being a computer and reading the notes instead of having this ear training. Did you feel like, because you knew you're a better musician than these guys, or maybe you didn't. Yeah. It's crazy. Like when I sixth grade music class, I got a C. Fucking nuts. But I came in and played a concerto at the end of the year
Starting point is 00:50:51 for the class. And everyone's jaws hit the floor, but I still got a C. The way they were learning music was not music to me. Can you say the same about modern education? Yes. I mean, I had a hard time with public school and the tracking system and the testing. They basically determined that I was slow. they basically determined that i was uh slow i was like uh because i was quiet and uh they needed more kids to fill the like special ed programs so they put me in
Starting point is 00:51:34 special ed so i was like reading at a super high level on my own but i had to go down to the basement to like spell cat you know it was humiliating they'd take you out of class in the middle of class just to heighten the humiliation and then you'd go off to this room and they'd teach you stuff that you know it was just because there has to be in public school there has to be a quota of kids that are right gifted a quota that are average, and a quota that are slow. And I always got put in the, either for politics or whatever reason, I always ended up with the shit end of that.
Starting point is 00:52:17 Did that lower your self-esteem? Absolutely, yeah. Was it hard to find friends? Was it hard to just be vulnerable with people? Yeah. Sixth grade was the worst. It was like I was getting beat up every day. I would end up in the nurse's office a lot.
Starting point is 00:52:42 The kids would... I'd get beat up by like 10 kids at once. Why? What were they beating you up for? What was? One thing was like I refused to say swears. Really? They're like, so they'd get around me and they'd all be like, Bert, say shit, say shit.
Starting point is 00:53:02 I'm like, no, I'm not going to be your monkey. I'm not going to say, you know, fuck you. I'm not going to swear. Yeah, exactly. Um,
Starting point is 00:53:13 but, uh, yeah, I just got, you know, I just got singled out for some reason, uh, to,
Starting point is 00:53:20 to be the, yeah, it was not, not good. So I, yeah, i got kind of a i started to have these fantasies then in junior high of like hmm maybe maybe adults really don't care about us maybe uh all these kids are actually robots and i had this fantasy that i was gonna like jump on one of the kids that was beating on me and like rip some, you know,
Starting point is 00:53:50 circuit boards out of their chest and expose, expose the fact that, that this has all been like a, a simulation simulation. Yeah, exactly. And then they really have to kill me. That's so wild to me because it does make sense why you're totally cool with just being by yourself on those solo years from the trauma of the middle school years and the high school years. Because you felt like maybe like,
Starting point is 00:54:22 oh, I could just do this by myself because you've been alone it feels like to me your whole life yeah i mean even when i was in my 20s in chicago and and speaking of music scenes like that was a very vibrant local scene and but i never really i would kind of attach myself to different scenes but i didn't i never quite fit in you know yeah um and i would be with like the alt country people because they were you know they i like hanging out with them or the indie post-rock, the Tortoise scene,
Starting point is 00:55:12 that was intimidating. My music was fancy compared to mid-90s Chicago. Did you always have your nose up? Yeah. Were you guided to have your nose up about other music because your music was so fancy or you didn't realize it was fancy? Did I have my nose up? In some cases, yes.
Starting point is 00:55:39 I was coming out of music school and it seems like the Chicago ethos was like, I don't care that my guitar is out of tune or I'm just playing brittle guitar through a Fender Twin and it's loud as bombs and it sounds, you know, so austere that that's what my, it fit, it fit the landscape of Chicago. If you like see a back alley in Chicago in the winter, you know, and someone plays some like typical, uh, kind of high strung post rock from Chicago. It like,
Starting point is 00:56:27 that makes sense. Yeah. But it was like very anti technique and, and that was, you know, I got it. I understood, you know,
Starting point is 00:56:42 cause I, I wanted to unlearn a lot of things I had learned and I was working on that and I wanted to play a rougher kind of raw type of music at that time yeah but you know it was still I was at the time I was mostly playing early jazz you know 20s and 30s uh swing music was this pre uh squirreled zippers uh it's right around when i met them in my early 20s in chicago yeah right out of music school so i was working at a at a renaissance fair playing irish teams that would pass for medieval music. They saw you playing them and they're like,
Starting point is 00:57:29 let's join the boys or what? No, I went with the flute player and the dulcimer player from the Ren Faire down to North Carolina to play a festival where the zippers were playing. That's when I met them. They needed someone to cover the trumpet part, so I learned it on fiddle and played with them and started. Then a couple weeks later, I was in New Orleans making hot there, second album. What did you like? Why did it only last a couple years? Did you just feel it wasn't the right fit or did you just want to move on?
Starting point is 00:58:09 I was in and out of the band for a few years. It was a big band, seven or eight people and it was very dysfunctional. I mean, it was fun. There should have been a behind the music on that band because it was it was more rock and roll than most you know there were so many rock and roll cliches playing out in that band it was non-stop a non-stop hijinks and you know I saw a lot of crazy crazy stuff and they had this and
Starting point is 00:58:48 they had kind of a punk rock energy like a very physical way of playing a show that I I dug but it was it was not heading in a great direction I think so I kind of kept an arm's length what musically or mentally just the politically within the band is it was it kind of imploded after a few years and and then I was trying to you know I was trying to carve out my own thing and I it took me a few years to get out from under the shadow of that that band and the associations and that that uh that fad that it was kind of associated with yeah of like swing dance lessons and martinis and dressing up and you know i was i was already moving on i'd already moved on musically yet i'd show up to a gig and it'd be
Starting point is 00:59:48 they'd have like a little plaque up front saying swing dance lessons with andrew byrd um and we weren't playing that music yeah yeah and everyone was just unhappy you know um so it took like couple of years to get those associations, get away from them. Yeah, and it's like, you don't want to be a niche or a cliche. No, and I saw it all happening. And sure, I like to pick up seats and thrift stores and and i like some of this sort of ambiance and cinematic quality of that what was happening then but um i was also appalled
Starting point is 01:00:38 by a lot of the music that was under that it was just a lot of ska bands that saw an opportunity and switched to swing. And it was pretty bad. Yeah. I'm a musician as well. We toured 11 months a year still for the last 15 years. And I see a lot of transitions of jam bands turning into bluegrass guys. And then vice versa.
Starting point is 01:01:05 Yeah. bands turning into bluegrass guys and then vice versa. Yeah, I want to go back to when you were getting beat up a little bit, if you don't mind. I know it's, what were your parents, what kind of advice were your parents giving you or were they around? Were you afraid to tell them? That's got to be pretty traumatizing for being a sixth grader getting his ass kicked by 10 dudes just because you wouldn't cuss because you were raised not to cuss.
Starting point is 01:01:31 Right. Now, my parents were pretty awesome, except in a very short period of time in sixth grade when I really needed to be used. Because my family was always like a uh refuge so if maybe my family had been a little more messed up i would have had to make it work at school yeah but uh or or maybe i would have just really gone down the tubes or whatever but um they were generally like very supportive and and and loving um but for some reason they decided to do a little tough love in sixth grade because i was getting such bad grades and i was testing really poorly and um and the they were like well you just gotta toughen up you know yeah but that's like but
Starting point is 01:02:26 it's like two different things like it's how you your brain reacts to the education that's given them versus these people are just bullying you because they don't understand you it's like that must be like in your brain because you're a very smart dude and you're probably been smart your whole life and in some aspects like that you're like like, what the fuck, mom and dad? This is not why grades and me being bullied are two different things. I don't know. Maybe they just didn't understand it.
Starting point is 01:02:58 But yeah, it was just nonstop that year. I think a lot of people have trouble in that period, sixth, seventh grade. And yeah, I remember in that English class where they divided the class, like exactly half of the class would get an orange book. It meant they were smart. And the other half would get a green book. It meant they were not smart. And I got a green book, and I had to be on one half of the
Starting point is 01:03:26 class away from the orange book people so embarrassing and then it's like designed to humiliate and so I really developed a healthy distrust of institutions during that time and but I remember during one of these well during that that orange book green book thing I this is sounds totally random but I remember during one of these well during that that orange book green book thing I this is sounds totally random but I I sneezed and in the class I brought my hand down and there was a giant centipede in my hand no this is real and i don't know it might have been a daydream but uh and i thought oh that explains it that's why they think i'm dumb is because i've got like an infestation of um of these these centipedes in my brain or something like that oh my god
Starting point is 01:04:24 that's insane, dude. It was one thing after another that year. Oh man. Well, I'm sorry. Fuck those kids, dude. I'm sorry for cussing, but fuck those kids. You are who you are because of them. I want to talk about, what's your fascination with science? It seems like a lot of your lyrics
Starting point is 01:04:41 have this knowledge of science to it. It's not like I studied it intensely, but I'm fascinated by the headlines of science, like the big questions, the phenomena, know like the big questions the um the phenomena uh the sort of crackpot theories and that that are the i only am drawn to science in terms of like oh you know what is this story about um how cells divide or how baby birds practice their songs in their sleep, or what does this tell us about what makes us human
Starting point is 01:05:30 or what we're made of? And I just find it to be, yeah, I'm kind of drawn to like just these sort of archaic, weird things that I think it has to have like a human element to it, or serve as a metaphor for what makes us human. What do you think makes us human? Oh, I mean, this goes back to all the stuff we're talking about like at some point I remember being I can be 18 or 19 and I had this revelation I thought wow like we're all we're all basically alone we're all like contained within our bodies. Yeah. And, you know,
Starting point is 01:06:25 other people outside our bodies that have their own unit, um, they can make us feel like we're not alone for a minute, but basically even in their company, it all comes down to you. I just had that, that, you know that that you know and not not saying that that uh the group the comfort of the group is a total illusion but it kind of is you know i agree man i'm like that too yeah it's like uh so i think about a lot about you know the the individual
Starting point is 01:07:09 and the group and how people when they get in groups they feel invincible and more comfortable and then they kind of lash out at anyone who's slightly different um it's all that that playground in the petri dish which is a line from song amytosis you know yeah it's just i've been i've been thinking about these issues in every almost every album yeah and i i could hear it in the songwriting the reason why i'm i'm no of you is my sister played i'm a ptosis all day every day she's a scientist she's uh does a stem cell and actually she wrote you a letter she wrote you a letter maybe 15 years ago saying how she was perfect for you because you understood science and you understood all these things that was extremely
Starting point is 01:07:59 i remember i i went with her to give your torment it was maybe maybe, it's got to have been 06, 07. I was a senior in high school or first year. And we gave your tour manager her letter. And she was like, he'll probably never get it. But now that I finally get to have a conversation with you, I just had to let you know. I probably did get it and I probably read it. It rings a bell. Do you have a lot of- I get a lot of and I probably read it. It rings a bell.
Starting point is 01:08:25 Do you have a lot of- I get a lot of letters from scientists for sure. What's the main theme of most of these scientists letters? Just tend to be like, when you talked about this in this song, I thought you're talking about this and appreciate what you do. It's cool. I really love getting that. I get a lot of artists that say I listen to your music when I'm doing my art.
Starting point is 01:08:58 Yeah. It's letting me know that it's been a companion for them. It's nice to hear. It's fucking amazing, man. What keeps you inspired to keep trying to write music outside the box? Well, I don't really think I'm going to write a song outside the box today. But every day I get up, there's a feeling that I could do something. I could do something really different.
Starting point is 01:09:43 I could do something exceptional today you know and that's such a great feeling like and i don't really have office hours for what i'm writing it's not like oh i'm sitting i'm gonna work now it's just all every waking moment sometimes half waking moments um i'm possibly working on something right and and they're like the songs are you know when I'm when I'm in that early phase like writing a bunch of songs it's like the best best time because it could be anything you know that it's all potential and then there's such the songs are such good companions like i'm never bored um i can just be with you know on a delayed on a flight for four hours and just
Starting point is 01:10:35 sitting there and just in my own head or i could be have insomnia for three hours a night and just three hours a night and just pull out a song out of the files and tinker with it. I feel lucky that I could do that. Does it torment you? Having this much brain power? Yeah, but without that, without a song cooking in my head, the torment is worse. song cooking in my head, the torment is worse. Explain that. Is that just because we're not doing stuff we love at that moment? What do you think that is? That negative spiral that you can get into late at night, having a song has pulled me out of that so many times
Starting point is 01:11:26 yeah there's just i don't know what it is like yeah the nocturnal time uh of of thoughts that can kind of feed on themselves and um with making this album it was even more apparent than ever that that i was taking all those voices and that chatter and like putting him to work right and like do you think the chatter came more and more because of the quarantine and being home and just being stuck with your head yeah yeah for sure like yeah I know a lot of people that need to have like radio or a TV on at all times, especially. My dad has to have the TV on all night, all day, just to know. I caught him once leaving a hotel room, leaving the TV on,
Starting point is 01:12:17 even though he hates to waste electricity, just to know that a TV was on somewhere. Yeah. Like, rather than face, you know, your internal voices, I think is the issue. Why are we afraid of our internal thoughts, you think? Most people, I mean, especially the velocity of life, most people just aren't used to it. You go out into the country and it's two people that can't handle the quiet.
Starting point is 01:12:52 It's the same thing. I think it's just we're used to such a velocity and a certain amount of noise, especially now than ever. And it's scary when it stops. Yeah. Yeah, it's like even going back to what you're talking about how we feel like even when we're in a tribe, we're alone. Do you still feel that way even with being married and having a kid? Like, you still feel alone?
Starting point is 01:13:28 Much less so with that, with the family life, yeah. How do you change your brain from thinking that when you have a relationship? I don't know. It really has to be the right relationship. But you have to go all in with it. First you think, oh, I've got to preserve my autonomy and my own mental real estate. And, you know, it's okay to give that up. You know, you're not really giving it up anyway. You know, you still are an individual unit, you know.
Starting point is 01:14:23 Right. individual unit you know right but yeah the family life I didn't realize how much it would suit me until it I had it you know yeah yeah it's fascinating I got a couple more questions for you and then I'll let you go know you're busy man you probably got a song in your head right now. Did you ever get into any substance abuse? I did some serious experimenting around 19, 20, but it never really got out of control. I had one summer, though, where my first music gig, paid music gig. I got a job playing at an opera festival in Arkansas near Eureka Springs.
Starting point is 01:15:14 Like Fayetteville? I don't know if it was near Eureka, it was in Ozarks. It was where they bus in like blue haired ladies to watch young opera singers who were in training. So we'd play the same, it was like five weeks, I got paid $500 for five weeks total, room and board. And I would play.
Starting point is 01:15:39 Yeah, it was not even subsistence wages. And you'd play the same three operas every night and uh my bunk mate was uh a serious pothead and he would get big shipments of pot even you know toss me the one hitter every every morning um and i was 19 and i was like god i'm in a cinder block you know barracks playing opera every day in arkansas in arkansas but yeah i my memories of that summer are i saw some things and i'm not sure that whether they happened or not. I was at a party for a guy named Washboard Leo. He was like Freddy Krueger with pickups on his gloves, and he played the washboard with effects. Then there was a lion at his party walking around a bar.
Starting point is 01:16:40 But I had my job, I was an assistant concert master, so I had to turn the page for the concert master every night. I had to really know what was happening. After a while, I was like, I could not function. I could not know where to turn the page. The concert master was like, what the hell is going on?
Starting point is 01:17:07 When you're just continually high for five weeks, you kind of lose perspective. But no, to answer your question, no. And now that I don't touch this stuff, it doesn't really suit my wiring. No psychedelics for experimental causes? Not for a long time. Yeah. No.
Starting point is 01:17:34 That's great. God, you're amazing. Andrew, thanks for being on the show, man. I really appreciate your time. I love when you're dissecting your tunes during quarantine you went back into the archive and did a lot of those tunes at your house it was really just real special to see that and I got one last question for you and I'll let you go
Starting point is 01:17:55 when it's all said and done and we turn back into star matter and shit what do you want to be remembered by? I mean What do you want to be remembered by? I'd like to just be remembered as a really good songwriter who happened to be unusually good at the violin, but the violin is kind of whatever. It's the songwriting that I'm most interested in being known as. Well, I can't speak for everyone, but for me, you're one of the goats, and I really appreciate you, buddy. No, thanks, man.
Starting point is 01:18:38 Well, have a great day, and enjoy LA. I just played the Largo. I scored Judd Apatow's Great Depression and Judd was talking about it. Oh yeah? Yeah, I scored Gary Goldman's film for Judd and he was, he told me you, you played The Largo with him once or he's a big fan of you. You Yeah, I did a bunch of his benefits at The Largo and then I just scored the bubble you scored the bubble yeah that was a great film it was me and
Starting point is 01:19:14 Mike Andrews who he brought me on to to work on the score and it was it was fun yeah and Fargo too did you score Fargo or you just in Fargo no I was on the score and it was fun, yeah. And Fargo too, did you score Fargo or were you just in Fargo? No, I was on the soundtrack, a little bit, but I was just acting in that, yeah. Did you like that experience? I did, I did. It was kind of terrifying, but yeah, I enjoyed it. Yeah, I mean, you're with all these heavy hitters.
Starting point is 01:19:43 Then it's the Birdman all these heavy hitters. The Birdman. Seriously heavy. Yeah. Jesse Buckley and there's so many good people. And they just treated me like I was just another actor. They didn't really let me give any excuses that I was just a musician. It's cool.
Starting point is 01:20:07 That's awesome, man. Well, keep exploring yourself and keep thinking outside the box, and we'll be here rooting you on, buddy. All right. Have a good one. Thanks, man. Good talking to you. Thank you, buddy. Take care.
Starting point is 01:20:17 All right, there he is, Andrew Bird, the man. That was awesome. He's way too smart for me. He's totally too smart for me, but here we go. All right. You tuned in to the World's Health Podcast with Andy Fresco. Thank you for listening to this episode. Produced by Andy Fresco, Joe Angelo, and Chris Lawrence.
Starting point is 01:20:38 We need you to help us save the world and spread the word. Please subscribe, rate the show, give us those crazy stars, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you're picking this shit up. Follow us on Instagram at world-savingpodcast for more info and updates. Presco's blogs and tour dates you'll find at andyfresco.com. And check our socials to see what's up
Starting point is 01:20:57 next. Might be a video dance party, a showcase concert, that crazy shit show, or whatever springs to Andy's wicked brain. And after a year of keeping clean and playing safe, the band is back on tour. We thank our brand new talent booker, Mara Davis. We thank this week's guest, our co-host, and all the fringy frenzies that helped make this show great. Thank you all. And thank you for listening.
Starting point is 01:21:22 Be your best, be safe, and we will be back next week. No animals were harmed in the making of this podcast as far as we know. Any similarity, facts, or facts are purely coincidental.

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