Thirteen LPs In The Bag & Andrew Bird Is Still Learning New Tricks

Andrew Bird, it would seem, rarely sits still. At least musically. Earlier this year he released Are You Serious, his 13th solo record, extending a run which began in 1996 with Music Of Hair. Add to that a string of EPs and singles, six live albums and dozens of appearances on other artist's albums (including, perhaps most notably, with Squirrel Nut Zippers), and you've got a man whose creative spark is hardly dying out.

"Yeah, I like to stay active," muses the violinist/guitarist over the phone from Los Angeles, his home base these days. "I think I get better at what I'm doing when I keep doing it. So every four years or so, I put out an 'industry record' let's call it - like Are You Serious or Break It Yourself (2012), and in the interim, I kinda teach myself how to make the next record.

"Sometimes my best records are those in-between records, honestly, because the pressure is off and I'm experimenting."

"And sometimes my best records are those in-between records, honestly, because the pressure is off and I'm experimenting. But if I just did these 'industry records', I wouldn't be exercising all my [muscles], so it's just important to me."

The experimentation Bird utilises on his in-between records certainly serves to broaden his musical palette, setting him up nicely when it comes to the 'industry' albums. Not that he puts any less weight on an 'industry' album, but they're certainly all the better off for the work that's happened in the interim.

Are You Serious is a fine example - while a fairly eclectic affair, it's also extremely considered, Bird and producer Tony Berg literally going "through every part of every song, every note, scrutinising the voicing of the chords, finding melodically interesting ways to move from one chord to the next." They wouldn't have taken this path had it not been for the experimentation exhibited on the previous three albums.

"I was pretty thirsty for that," concurs Bird on this method of production. "Not that things weren't considered before, but the last couple of records have been a little on the scrappy side... by design, I got tired of production for a while. I just wanted to capture a real thing, and with this one I kinda wanted to close the gap between the live performance, and that's been the quest over all these records.

"Some of the earlier records that were popular or successful to me sound so subdued and mild compared to our live show, so with this one I wanted to close the gap and make a real visceral record."

Bird says he feels he and Berg managed to close this gap, although the proof will be in the pudding as Bird and band head back to Australia to play Bluesfest next Easter. And by then, who knows? Perhaps the musically enigmatic Bird will have another record on the go, another live album up his sleeve, another collaboration in the can. He's a man who doesn't stop, which for fans of his music, isn't a bad thing.