We were super excited when we sat down on our friend's toilet this weekend and picked up her copy of Time Out Chicago, only to find that musician Andrew Bird was featured in its cycling issue.
“I’ve definitely written songs while biking,” says Bird. “Just occupying your body so your mind can wander is pretty key.” “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left” from Bird’s 2005 breakthrough album The Mysterious Production of Eggs is one of many melodies that came to him on two wheels.
He brings his bike, a Heron (appropriately for a Bird), on the tour bus. “I bought it for myself as a reward for all the touring I do. It’s been great, but four years ago in Saint Paul [Minnesota], I spaced out and went over a curb and my handlebars, bashing the hell out of my knees.”
He likes to cruise the backstreets of Bucktown in summer, late at night. “On Hoyne or Leavitt between Division and Webster with the streetlights and canopy of trees,” he says, “it feels like a movie set.”
We certainly crush on boys on bikes and as much as we try to fight it, we crush on musicians, too. So for his lovely tunes and his green transportation, Andrew Bird is our Crush of the Week.
[Time Out Chicago: Song Cycles]