Bird & Byron
Bird and Byron may have found it odd when we messaged them over the summer, saying something along the lines of: “Hey we’re driving across the country and will be in Nashville this weekend, can we talk with you?” Lucky for us, both Blake and Nick or Bird and Byron were free for coffee. We sat on their back patio with their cat Donut, and talked about growing up, music, and of course Nashville's history as a city where magic is made. Sitting in their backyard they told us about finding their sound, their process of creating, and how living in one of America’s most influential music cities has catalyzed their sound. As we cruised out from their home, we turned the speaker up a bit and allowed Bird's voice and Byron's licks to resonate from the winding roads out of Nashville to Los Angeles. They stayed by our side the whole time. Nashville is their backdrop, baritone is their pitch, and if you listen closely to their timbre, you might just hear a Nashville train passing by.
Concert Photography by: Lydia Sprecher
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Concert Photography by: Lydia Sprecher
Where did your guy’s name Bird and Byron come from?
Bird: I’m Bird because when I was born, my mom said I looked like a newborn baby bird. A baby robin, just red.
Byron: In 2019 we were sitting at this local restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. We were trying to figure out a title. We had the bird part. My favorite actor at the time and still is, is James Dean, who’s middle name is Byron. And then we had the dual B's. We liked that, and ran with it.
The project "Bird and Byron" officially started in 2019 In Ohio, when did you guys start playing music together?
Byron: So we kind of did it on our own without really knowing how much we were both into music. It was weird, we played sports throughout school together, but we never really hung out and talked music at all. We went off to college our separate ways, and then came back to our hometown, and kind of reconnected. We sat down and wrote music for the first time and it just clicked right off the bat. We started writing right after that and haven't stopped for four years now.
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When you guys linked together to play music what was that like in terms of intent. What were the initial talks you guys had?
Byron: It's always hard as a new band to find your own sound or recognize what sound you want to go for because we have so many influences. Every couple of weeks, we'd bring in a new artist that we were into, and think “We have to write something like that.” I feel like right now and throughout this past year and a half or so, we've really come into our own sound. All the while, we don't sit down with that in mind, we sit down and make what we're feeling and it comes through naturally.
Bird: I think initially we were trying to find our sound. Probably six months in we were writing stuff for our first EP in LA. If you listen to our first song it's called "The Boy is a Storm," and it's this new blues kind of thing. We thought, “This is our sound.” Then we made something else and we thought that was our sound. Nick was brought up on Vampire Weekend and The Strokes. We were just trying out everything. The conversations weren't pointed towards trying to strategize a sound, we just made stuff that felt good. And after finishing the song, the conversation would be like, “Let's do this again.”
Were there and are there moments of uncertainty – how does that steer you away from things or does it drive you?
Byron: (Laughing) Last week bro
Bird: I’m Bird because when I was born, my mom said I looked like a newborn baby bird. A baby robin, just red.
Byron: In 2019 we were sitting at this local restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. We were trying to figure out a title. We had the bird part. My favorite actor at the time and still is, is James Dean, who’s middle name is Byron. And then we had the dual B's. We liked that, and ran with it.
The project "Bird and Byron" officially started in 2019 In Ohio, when did you guys start playing music together?
Byron: So we kind of did it on our own without really knowing how much we were both into music. It was weird, we played sports throughout school together, but we never really hung out and talked music at all. We went off to college our separate ways, and then came back to our hometown, and kind of reconnected. We sat down and wrote music for the first time and it just clicked right off the bat. We started writing right after that and haven't stopped for four years now.
When you guys linked together to play music what was that like in terms of intent. What were the initial talks you guys had?
Byron: It's always hard as a new band to find your own sound or recognize what sound you want to go for because we have so many influences. Every couple of weeks, we'd bring in a new artist that we were into, and think “We have to write something like that.” I feel like right now and throughout this past year and a half or so, we've really come into our own sound. All the while, we don't sit down with that in mind, we sit down and make what we're feeling and it comes through naturally.
Bird: I think initially we were trying to find our sound. Probably six months in we were writing stuff for our first EP in LA. If you listen to our first song it's called "The Boy is a Storm," and it's this new blues kind of thing. We thought, “This is our sound.” Then we made something else and we thought that was our sound. Nick was brought up on Vampire Weekend and The Strokes. We were just trying out everything. The conversations weren't pointed towards trying to strategize a sound, we just made stuff that felt good. And after finishing the song, the conversation would be like, “Let's do this again.”
Were there and are there moments of uncertainty – how does that steer you away from things or does it drive you?
Byron: (Laughing) Last week bro
READ THE FULL INTERVIEW IN ISSUE FOUR
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