Q&A with Singer and Musician Andrew Bird

When Andrew Bird, the warm-voiced singer and musician (famous for his whistling and violin playing), picked up the phone after I dialed the 14-digit number to reach him in Ireland where he was to play at the U.S. Embassy, he told me he’d been up for two days straight. “I left my house yesterday at noon,” Bird says, “and got to Dublin a couple of hours ago. I’m here in a very strange place. I’m technically on U.S. soil in the middle of a massive park surrounded by green fields.” 

What followed was a 30-minute conversation about Bird’s orientation to music as a child, what he thinks about his latest record, Are You Serious, and what it was like coming out from under the shadow of the '90s swing band, the Squirrel Nut Zippers. If you love him as much as we do, check him out May 19 at The Showbox.