Following the release of ‘Inside Problems‘ last year, Andrew Bird has today announced Outside Problems, to be released digitally next Friday (21st July) via Loma Vista Recordings (with CD+LP to follow in November). While the title may suggest a direct follow-up to last year’s offering, the connection is maybe less obvious, as Outside Problems planted the seeds to many of the songs, thoughts and complex questions that filled last year’s Inside Problems.
Outside Problems’ arrangements and motifs on tracks like “Epilogue,” “Mormon House Party,” “Tik Tok” and more, evolved into themes that Bird would continue to refine across Inside Problems, as he explains:
“There are two notable things about this album. One, none of these songs were recorded with the intent of making an album, I just happened to capture moments of melodic exploration over a period of time. You can hear themes from Inside Problems throughout the album, including on the song ‘Epilogue,’ just without concern for bridges and choruses and the band. I’m able to capture the sound of music in everyday life, a surprisingly hard thing to do. I was playing for the joy of it and to get these ideas out of my head. To hear them in a room. There is no room. Second, these pieces were recorded primarily outside in Ojai, CA. I’m no stranger to recording outside as with the Echolocations series. My plan was to record Inside Problems outside but the leaf-blowers made that difficult…Deep in the pandemic, far from the city and album campaigns and Instagram strategies, getting back to the original point of it all.”
The album is described as a collection of nine fleeting, expansive moments of instrumental improvisation and melodic exploration that captures the sound of music in everyday life. It was primarily recorded outdoors, amidst the mountains and orange groves of Ojai, CA. So, much like his Echolocation series, which began with Echolocations: Canyon in 2015 and was recorded in the Coyote Gulch canyons of Utah – there is a strong connection with highlighting the beauty of nature and the need for environmental protection.
Bird scored the music for Patagonia’s ‘Save The Blue Heart of Europe’ campaign that publicised their fight to protect the last wild rivers of Europe being threatened by 3,000 proposed hydropower projects in the Balkans that will ’cause irreversible damage to rivers, wildlife and local communities’.
The video for his lead single “Mo Teef” was filmed by documentary filmmaker Tyler Mason in partnership with Patagonia (Tyler also worked on Echolocations) and features footage sourced from four different Patagonia films, including the above-mentioned Blue Heart that emphasises the crucial importance of preservation through the following message:
“The earth is under no obligation to support life. The earth is indifferent. We personify nature and call it mother, deflecting our own obligation to preserve and protect. Nature is not a mother. Nature is our good luck, our fortune. and we are squandering it. What if preservation was our livelihood? It is.”
In addition to being digitally released, Outside Problems will also be released physically (CD+LP) on 17th November.
Pre-Order it here: https://found.ee/AB_OutsideProblems